> What if we talk about a (s)vga [either isa, vesa or pci] and a mono [isa..]
> hercules/mda card? Do you think the mono card is init'es at bootup? mine is
> usable in mess-dos so I guess it is ... (?)
The IBM planar BIOS will initialize both an MDA and a CGA (if either or
both are present) as part of the POST. If both are present, which one is
used for the boot messages is selected by that Color/Mono switch on the
System Board. Remember that switch? This was what it was for. ;-)
These initializations occur very early in POST so that errors may be
reported on the console. EGA and later IBM display schemes (and all 3rd
party schemes such as SVGA, VESA, &c.) are initialized by adapter ROM
using the standard IBM mechanism for that which occurs at the very end of
POST. As a result, these display adapters must do a simple default
initialization triggered by power in order to be able to display any POST
error messages from the processor.
Harvey
-- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Harvey Fishman | Committee to Make George E. Patooie a One-Term Governor fishman@panix.com | George E. Patooie 718-258-7276 | Acting Chairman