On Sun, May 26, 2002 at 01:25:52PM +0200, Johan Danielsson wrote:
> Manuel Bouyer <bouyer@antioche.eu.org> writes:
> 
> > Yes, because sysinst doesn't know if the BIOS supports it or not.
> 
> Couldn't this information be forwarded to the kernel by the boot
> loader? I suppose it does know.

The bootloader - especially the first stage - has to be very
small, and doesn't really have the space to do the required
checks (eg read a sector using CHS and LBA and see if you get
the same data).

It would actually be better for the kernel to determine what
the BIOS can do, and tell the bootloader.  Or more probably
install the appropriate bootloader.

(Off hand I can't remember whether there are hooks to let
kernel code call into the 16bit BIOS,  ISTR some code to
switch between modes etc, but don't know the latest point
at which it can be used.)

	David

-- 
David Laight: david@l8s.co.uk