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Date:      Thu, 06 Dec 2001 08:51:41 -0800
From:      Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com>
To:        Ronald G Minnich <rminnich@lanl.gov>
Cc:        freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: switching to real mode
Message-ID:  <3C0FA21D.86860C48@mindspring.com>
References:  <Pine.LNX.4.33.0112060930220.17486-100000@snaresland.acl.lanl.gov>

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Ronald G Minnich wrote:
> > I saw an example of switching in real mode in linux' sources (it looks
> > pretty clear) and thouhgt it is possible to do the same under FreeBSD.
> > The problem is I'm absolutely lost in FreeBSD's physical memory management
> > implementation (page tables and directory and so on).
> 
> That code is quite broken. You need to check out the ones I mentioned
> earlier. All that the code does in the linux kernel is fail badly.
> 
> Actually there used to be in freebsd some really nice code for popping
> into real mode and back again. It was to support calling BIOS for certain
> things.

It's still there.  See the code in /sys/boot, in particular,
the bios code in boot2 and boot 3.

It isn't enough to do what he wants, though.  He wants to effectively
return to real mode and jump to a real mode boot strap loader, as if
in the second stage of a boot manager, after the partition to boot has
been selected (e.g. "Reboot to Linux", "Reboot to Windows", "Reboot to
XXX").  I understand the desire now.  It all depends on how much work
he's willing to do.

-- Terry

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