Re: PCI memory allocation bug with CONFIG_HIGHMEM

[Helge Hafting]

Adam Belay wrote:

> 2.) Windows works with buggy BIOSes because of the way it calls them.
>
> I looked into how Windows handles the PnPBIOS and may have discovered why it
> works on buggy BIOS.  It turns out that exclusively realmode calls are used.
> See www.missl.cs.umd.edu/Projects/sebos/winint/index2.html#pnpbios.  My
> knowledge is limited in this area of the x86 architecture but it is my
> impression that it would not be possible, or perhaps worth it, to implement
> realmode calls for the Linux PnPBIOS driver because of the time it is
> initialized.

Are these PnPBIOS calls needed at boot only?  If so, consider
querying the bios early in the boot code - before
switching to protected mode.  Just store the results,
and let the driver read them later instead of doing
calls that crash.

Helge Hafting

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