Hi, guys I want to implement system recovery features in bios. The basic idea is: When booting, the user hit some key to enter our program, or else go for the normal boot process. The user can use the bios to back up his os. If the os fails and can't boot, he can fix his os using the backup. And he will be able to use bios to browse his hard disk. Basically like some features found on some HP,IBM's pcs.
I have done windows and linux system programming but have never touch BIOS, I think maybe linuxbios can help me. Here is my questions:
1 Can linuxbios do this stuff? I think most likely it is yes:-)
2 This will be installed on some pcs which run linux, windows or other os. So maybe we need the award/ami bios coexist with linuxbios on the same pc. ( We will assemble these pcs, we can choose which type of mainboard to use, so there will be only one type of "old" bios) Is this possible?I mean we want to let award bios to serve normal os, and linuxbios to do the system recovery stuff. Maybe change some part of award bios to let it boot linuxbios once user hit the key.
We don't mind if we can simply throw award bios away, but we want to make sure our pcs can run any "normal" os.
3 How much space will all these take? Can we fit them is one bios chip? I don't know how IBM do these, maybe they use another chip to store their system recovery program, this feature can be found on old ibm pcs, but in those days, bios chip was small.
4 Most import, am I on the right track? I am not familiar with low level programming ( not this low), sorry if my idea sounds too crazy.
Thanks!
How big is your BIOS part? Were it me, I would just go for the lazy approach, put Linux in FLASH, and use the Linux suspend/resume/kexec support to implement all this stuff.
ron
li pan wrote:
Hi, guys I want to implement system recovery features in bios. The basic idea is: When booting, the user hit some key to enter our program, or else go for the normal boot process. The user can use the bios to back up his os. If the os fails and can't boot, he can fix his os using the backup. And he will be able to use bios to browse his hard disk. Basically like some features found on some HP,IBM's pcs.
I have done windows and linux system programming but have never touch BIOS, I think maybe linuxbios can help me. Here is my questions:
1 Can linuxbios do this stuff? I think most likely it is yes:-)
Yes.
2 This will be installed on some pcs which run linux, windows or other os. So maybe we need the award/ami bios coexist with linuxbios on the same pc. ( We will assemble these pcs, we can choose which type of mainboard to use, so there will be only one type of "old" bios) Is this possible?
Yes.
I mean we want to let award bios to serve normal os, and linuxbios to do the system recovery stuff. Maybe change some part of award bios to let it boot linuxbios once user hit the key.
You basically need a DualBIOS system, that allows you to switch between a main and backup bios.
We don't mind if we can simply throw award bios away, but we want to make sure our pcs can run any "normal" os.
True.
3 How much space will all these take? Can we fit them is one bios chip? I don't know how IBM do these, maybe they use another chip to store their system recovery program, this feature can be found on old ibm pcs, but in those days, bios chip was small.
It depends. I you want to go for the DualBIOS approach, then you need a double size ROM. If you only need a recovery module (i.e. extension ROM) without an additional BIOS, then all you need is FILO (~50kb) plus your UserInterface.
4 Most import, am I on the right track? I am not familiar with low level programming ( not this low), sorry if my idea sounds too crazy.
It's a great idea.
Thanks!
-- Al
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Al Boldi -
li pan -
ron minnich