Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2000 19:14:25 -0700 From: Parag Patel <parag@cgt.com> To: Sergey Babkin <babkin@bellatlantic.net> Cc: Ronald G Minnich <rminnich@lanl.gov>, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Anybody working on FreeBSD BIOS? Message-ID: <77540.961121665@pinhead.parag.codegen.com> In-Reply-To: Message from Sergey Babkin <babkin@bellatlantic.net> of "Thu, 15 Jun 2000 21:42:48 EDT." <39498618.103CC6AB@bellatlantic.net>
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Well, the main reason we're replacing the BIOS is that we've had several requests from people who want relatively sane firmware in their computers. :) One of our (potential) customers needs to completely manage their rack-mount systems remotely using the serial port without video and without a keyboard - something that few motherboards support. Another option is to create a custom ISA or PCI card with pretty much just a ROM on in, let the BIOS set things up, then completely take over control of the machine. This is a lot more work and more expensive, not to mention taking up one of the relatively few slots, but it would work in more computers. (Some BIOSes still refuse to run without video and keyboard though.) One problem with flash disks and such is that by the time the machine is ready to boot from one, it's already well past where you'd like to have control over the BIOS settings. Frankly, I'd just as soon support PowerPC or Alpha ATX motherboards with SmartFirmware. Anyone know of inexpensive ATX non-x86 boards? :) -- Parag Patel To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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