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Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.development Path: sserve!manuel.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!uunet!gatekeeper.us.oracle.com!decwrl!csus.edu!netcom.com!pascal From: pascal@netcom.com (Richard Childers) Subject: 386/486 motherboard ROM BIOS & 386BSD ( was Re: [REPOST] FDC DRIVER ) Message-ID: <1993Mar9.080706.14422@netcom.com> Summary: does 386bsd use bios ? Is this good ? Keywords: FDC floppy device driver dependencies Organization: The Free State of Dis References: <C30zxt.CJD@sugar.neosoft.com> <1993Mar4.103308.24945@marie.uucp> <C3E4nx.60o@sugar.neosoft.com> Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1993 08:07:06 GMT Lines: 28 peter@NeoSoft.com (Peter da Silva) writes: >perryh@marie.uucp (Perry Hutchison) writes: >> Not to my knowledge, one factor being that most machines' ROM BIOS will >> only support two hard drives (that being the maximum number ever blessed >> by Big Blue); and even if a particular BIOS would take more than two I >> don't know that stock DOS would cooperate. >That wouldn't stop UNIX or PICK or Netware from taking advantage of them. Am I correct in understanding that 386BSD does _not_ use on-board BIOS ? And if so, does this imply that there is a market for BIOS-less 386/486 mother- -boards ? Or is it a less-than-complete operating system that relies upon additional firmware, the which of utilization allows for ( apparently ) smal- -ler kernels, et caetera ? It would be nice to not have a dependency upon BIOS, for numerous reasons. -- richard -- "It is obligatory, within the limits of capability, to commend the good and forbid evil." _Kitab_Adab_al-Muridin_, by Suhrawardi richard childers pascal@netcom.com