30 Mar
2000
30 Mar
'00
6:15 a.m.
Colin Jensen wrote:
You can't seriously suggest that the operating
system should be able to detect
the motherboard type automatically! While in *your* application, you could
hard code the motherboard setups into Linux, this is generally Not A Solution.
Not motherboard type. Motherboard chipset type.
Marcus put it best: "IRQ assignment can't be
done in the operating system". And
this is for a simple reason: operating systems generally can't be hard-coded to
a particular motherboard. And THERE IS NO WAY to automatically detect a
motherboard type. NONE. NADA. CAN'T GO THERE. The BIOS, since it is going to
be *glued* to the motherboard, is a much more reasonable choice for hard
coding...
You CAN detect a motherboard type, by grepping strings out of the BIOS
ROM. But that is not the point here. The motherboard CHIPSET type is
easily detected, generally by a simple PCI vendor/device id match.
WRT IRQ assignment, Marcus is wrong. In a hotplug system, the OS _must_
do the assignment. Even Microsoft knows this[1]. That is why most
modern BIOS ROMs come with interrupt routing tables, which give the OS a
[somewhat] standard method for
This is also why newer motherboards include a Windows' "IRQ driver" or
similar -- so the --OS-- can talk to your motherboard.
Jeff
[1] http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/busbios/pciirq.htm
--
Jeff Garzik | Tact is the ability to tell a man
Building 1024 | he has an open mind when he has a
MandrakeSoft, Inc. | hole in his head. (-random fortune)
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