David Laight <david@l8s.co.uk> writes:
> 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).

As the author of part of our current bootloader, let me note that I
believe we probably do have enough space for this, but that doing the
check reliably might be a bit tough.

> It would actually be better for the kernel to determine what
> the BIOS can do, and tell the bootloader.

Er, the kernel isn't running when the bootloader runs. Also, the
kernel isn't capable of making 16 bit BIOS calls (at least not at all
easily).

--
Perry E. Metzger		perry@wasabisystems.com
--
NetBSD: The right OS for your embedded design. http://www.wasabisystems.com/