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To: "Daniel C. Sobral" <dcs@newsguy.com>
Cc: Ronald G Minnich <rminnich@lanl.gov>, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: freebsd bios. 
In-Reply-To: Message from "Daniel C. Sobral" <dcs@newsguy.com> 
   of "Mon, 19 Jun 2000 13:49:36 +0900." <394DA660.F3D623E1@newsguy.com> 
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Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2000 22:04:36 -0700
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From: Parag Patel <parag@cgt.com>
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On Mon, 19 Jun 2000 13:49:36 +0900, "Daniel C. Sobral" wrote:
>
>Err... how is a loader that doesn't use BIOS going to access the hard
>disk? I truly hope the answer is not to the effect of requiring
>shitloads of drivers.

It can't, without shitloads of drivers. :)

("I asked you not to tell me that, Ninety-Nine!")

A new loader would need to be written that would have a way to talk to
whatever firmware is in the box, Open Firmware, LinuxBIOS, etc.
(Assuming that the firmware has a proper call-back API, like IEEE-1275.)

Otherwise the loader will be about as complicated as the kernel itself.
So it may as well *be* the kernel and use the same drivers. But then it
stills needs a way to bootstrap it from ROM.

Which is why the LinuxBIOS folks are trying to use Linux as the BIOS.  :)

("And we're back to doh doh doh...")


	-- Parag


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