Re: Continue Development

[Simon Richter]

Stefan Reinauer schrieb:
> Do we need the 16bit bios stuff in an OpenBIOS?
> I'd say a clear "NO" here. This does mean, on the other hand, that we
> won't support any proprietary systems like windows or DOS anymore,
> but as for using DOS/Windows, Award and AMI BIOS do a good job, this is
> not really needed.
> People who need more features like netboot and a good console in their
> BIOS very likely use Linux or any BSD flair.

IMHO this is not the way to go, since many people still have Windows95
installed (because of the games), but would like OpenBIOS. I would leave an
option that links a set of wrapper functions.
> I'd suggest C, [...]

Agree. I also have some further thoughts on this, but I'll post them tomorrow.
> Testing platforms

Well, I've got a bunch of testing machines as well as old NE1000 cards here.
If I find some time (and the manual and a NE/2 for my PS/2), I can do some
testing here.

Also, I think if someone just wants to run Linux and nothing else, a Linux
kernel with the BIOS querying code commented out would do as well. So the main
reason to use OpenBIOS should not be "It loads my Linux
bigger/better/faster/more" but rather "I like to have a boot console" or "My
company saves $200 on harddisks for each computer". Just my two cents.

Also, the BIOS should be optimized towards minimal data storage space rather
than speed. It won't harm speed that much, but the final OS has to live with
all that stuff in RAM.

CU
   Simon

Continue Development

> Stefan Reinauer schrieb:
> > Do we need the 16bit bios stuff in an OpenBIOS?
> > I'd say a clear "NO" here. This does mean, on the other hand, that we
> > won't support any proprietary systems like windows or DOS anymore,
> > but as for using DOS/Windows, Award and AMI BIOS do a good job, this is
> > not really needed.
> > People who need more features like netboot and a good console in their
> > BIOS very likely use Linux or any BSD flair.
>
> IMHO this is not the way to go, since many people still have Windows95
> installed (because of the games), but would like OpenBIOS. I would leave an
> option that links a set of wrapper functions.

Would it be possible somehow to have the original bios image on the
harddisk, and then have an option on the boot console where you could
load it into memory and start it? It may very well not be possible,
but if it was, then we could concentrate on our stuff, and let the
original bioses support the win95/98/dos/other os's... Also having
the possibility to select bios at boot would be a cool feature! :)
Just a thought...

Karl Erik Asbjørnsen
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