Re: BIOS question

Drew Eckhardt (drew@poohsticks.org)
Sat, 29 Jun 1996 02:06:53 -0600

In message <ML-2.2.835982498.9124.david@aerospace.emcee.com>, dfries@mail.win.o
rg writes:
>> I am running a P5-133 with AMI BIOS v. 1.00.05 BR0T as reported at boot
>> time, and an AHA 2940 with BIOS reported as v 1.2 at boot time
>>
>> I noticed that dmesg | grep BIOS gives
>>
>> pcibios_init : BIOS32 Service Directory structure at 0x000fcf70
>> pcibios_init : BIOS32 Service Directory entry at 0xfcf80
>> pcibios_init : PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfcfa1
>> Where does the 2.10 come from?
>
>
>This bios does not refer to the computer's rom "BIOS".

I wrote the code, and can assure you that the BIOS in the message
is referring to the ROM BIOS.

>This "BIOS" is part of the linux kernel and is compiled in when you make
>the kernel.

Nope.

>The revision 2.10 refers to a revision of the pci bus architecture.

Nope. It refers to the PCI BIOS specification implemented.

>The reason your AMI BIOS version and AHA version isn't reported is simply once
>the linux kernel is booted it doesn't use BIOS,

Nope. Certain 32-bit interfaces, such as that provided by the PCI BIOS,
are used after bootup. The PCI BIOS code is used for probing and a few
post-mortem checks.

>(note there is a section of
>the kernel that is called BIOS, but it doesn't use any of the computer's bios).
Nope. 

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