Re: OT - Linux Ubuntu update

On Thu, 05 Jul 2007 22:01:08 GMT, Palindrome <me9@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

AFAIK there is no way to change the way the BIOS ennumerates the HDDs,
but nothing to stop an OS from doing it again in a different way.

IIRC (It was a long time ago..):

The BIOS extension code in the cards runs after the BIOS code on the
mobo - so it would be possible for the PCI card code to re-enumerate
drives (or do anything else, if it comes to that..).

The entire mobo BIOS (excepting the BASIC interpreter) annotated
assembler is in the technical manual for the original IBM XT computer.
Interesting reading, if you like such things.

I still use DOS interrupt calls frequently in assembler programs. The
interrupts often are simply a route to call BIOS routines.
Unfortunately that is no longer an option after W98, because the OS
won't allow "raw" calls.

Yup - a ROM on a PCI card can do some pretty nasty things. Change all
the interrupt vectors and cut the BIOS out completely.

But I haven't studied Windoze OS in depth since W98, and I suspect
that later OS's redo the entire thing from scratch, obliterating
anything a PCI ROM may have done. Up to W98, Windows ran on top of
DOS and was simply a GUI extension with DOS being the actual OS.
After that, DOS doesn't exist, and is emulated by Windows which became
a *true* operating system.

Do modern BIOS's still have a Basic interpreter?

--
Cynic

.

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