[OpenBIOS] [OT] Freebios

[Stefan Reinauer]

* Tobias Diedrich <ranma at gmx.at> [010829 20:59]:
> Ronald G Minnich wrote:

> Yes it does.
> That's the files in the SERVICE subdirectory...
> SYSTEM.ASM (int 0x11, int 0x12, int 0x15)
> FLOPPY.ASM (int 0x13)
> KBD.ASM (int 0x16)
> BOOT.ASM (int 0x19)
> TIMER.ASM (int 0x1a)
> 
> However that's all 16bit code, I don't know how easy it would be to make
> a F-Code BIOS be 16bit compatible... You probably would have to generate
> 16bit instructions from the F-Code...

To make it support initialization of graphics cards, for example, it would
only be necessary to support int10. SciTech's x86emu-0.7 does that for example.
older/other versions of this are used in the Alpha AXP Bootloader MILO
(http://www.suse.de/~stepan/) or in XFree86 (http://www.xfree86.org/)
There are different versions working with x86 emulation (for other platforms) 
or without for virtual x86 mode (ia32 compliant machines).
For other things like booting proprietary operating systems you might have to 
implement more, but it should be the goal, if at all, to keep the 16bit
compatibility code as small as possible. The API is ugly, circumstantial
and not up to date.

Best regards,
   Stefan Reinauer
   
-- 
axiom: electronic devices only work if the smoke stays inside.
proof: when smoke comes out they don't work anymore.
-
To unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo at freiburg.linux.de
with 'unsubscribe openbios' in the body of the message