Date: Tue, 14 Feb 1995 03:29:07 -0800 From: "Mike O'Brien" <obrien@antares.aero.org> To: hackers@FreeBSD.org Subject: A comment on the timer at the Boot: prompt Message-ID: <95Feb14.032915pst.111131-3@aero.org>
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I have a Pentium-90 computer, and the guy who put it all together for me moved my Adaptec 1542CF port address to make room for the SoundBlaster, which also wanted to sit at 0x330. That meant that whenever the system booted, I had to dive in and type the name of the kernel in order to include the "-c" argument (a very nifty thing, BTW! Sure would have come in handy back when I was slinging 4.X around on PDP-11s and VAXes.). My guess is that you use some sort of CPU spin loop there, polling the keyboard for input, though I haven't read the source to check this yet. My point is that on a really fast machine, you have about a second and a half to start typing, or it jumps in there and boots the wrong kernel (or at least, a kernel with the wrong arguments). That pause should somehow be adjusted for CPU speed, or the less-than-sprightly are never going to be able to boot their systems. First thing I did (after a minor conflagration over installing the XFree86 package, mainly because I forgot the mail messages about how that all comes up on an alternate VT - and what a strange bug that is!) was build a new kernel with a fixed Adaptec port address. It's amazing how that stuff comes back to you. Very nice job. Good thing I can type fast, though. Mike O'Brien
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