[OpenBIOS] ASM/C and 16/32 bit questions.

[Chris Arguin]

On Wed, 18 Feb 1998 nuke at bayside.net wrote:

> On Wed, 18 Feb 1998, Adam Wiggins wrote:
> 
> > 	This might be a really bad idea but let me know what you think
> > anyway :) How about doing a really low level boot loader of some sort so
> > if your booting linux it goes into 32bit protected mode early where as if
> > you boot dos or win it loads into 16-bit mode with all the int's that are
> > needed?
> 
> what is so wrong with it just booting 16bit mode? we KNOW we can't force
> standards like 32bit BIOS upon the already overwhelming MS crowd

Well, some of us want to use our BIOS for better things :)

Some people (mostly Linux users, but eventually HURD, BEos, and whatever
Sun is whipping up) can go without all the old stuff still supported. If
it is a compile-time option to support them, then we can use the spare
room in the BIOS for something like the Alpha's SRM console.

I guess I would envision 'DOS Support' as a device to be included :)
Most people, myself included, would include it. But if we are gonna let
them compile the BIOS, we might as well give them the choice.

Yes, I realize that the Linux kernel would have to be slightly rewritten
to use the new BIOS, but why not?

--
Chris Arguin          | "Multiple exclamation marks are a sure sign of a 
Chris.Arguin at unh.edu  |  diseased mind." - Eric, Terry Pratchett





---
OpenBIOS -- http://www.linkscape.net/openbios/
openbios-request at linkscape.net   Body: un/subscribe
Problems?  dcinege at psychosis.com