From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Feb 16 06:10:40 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2AFD416A4CE for ; Mon, 16 Feb 2004 06:10:40 -0800 (PST) Received: from sccrmhc11.comcast.net (sccrmhc11.comcast.net [204.127.202.55]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E92DF43D2F for ; Mon, 16 Feb 2004 06:10:39 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from freebsd-questions-local@be-well.ilk.org) Received: from be-well.no-ip.com ([66.30.196.44]) by comcast.net (sccrmhc11) with ESMTP id <2004021614103901100kljife>; Mon, 16 Feb 2004 14:10:39 +0000 Received: by be-well.no-ip.com (Postfix, from userid 1147) id 24386E; Mon, 16 Feb 2004 09:10:39 -0500 (EST) Sender: lowell@be-well.ilk.org To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <402D9175.5080300@users.sourceforge.net> From: Lowell Gilbert Date: 16 Feb 2004 09:10:38 -0500 In-Reply-To: <402D9175.5080300@users.sourceforge.net> Message-ID: <44fzdbf735.fsf@be-well.ilk.org> Lines: 30 User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.3 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Subject: Re: How to view BIOS settings on a running system? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 14:10:40 -0000 Rob writes: > A few times I have seen answers to problems like: > > "Verify this-and-this in your BIOS setting" > > The only way to do this, that I know of, is to shutdown the system > and hit the DEL-key at boot up etc. But this is a bit silly, for > just checking a particular setting of the BIOS. Not if the setting could indicate an important issue with booting the system, which is usually the case for such questions. > Isn't there a tool in FreeBSD that shows the BIOS settings in a > similar layout, without shutting down the system? No. > I assume the kernel can access the BIOS and read all its settings, > or is this impossible? Theoretically, it's possible, but it would be different for every BIOS implementation (and version, to a greater or lesser extent), and it isn't generally useful. FreeBSD doesn't depend on the BIOS after booting is complete. -- Lowell Gilbert, embedded/networking software engineer, Boston area: resume/CV at http://be-well.ilk.org:8088/~lowell/resume/ username/password "public"