> i have an alpha which will will not recognise the ls-120 as a boot device and
> an adaptec 2940u2w which it also does not recognise as a boot device. seems
> like the prom monitor on a machine should support all the devices that can be
> connected to the "on-board" device controllers - floppy, ide (ls-120, zip,
> cd, disk) and possibly scsi. it should also support the "standard" file system
> for the expected OS (Linux) - so it should support ext2. don't tell me that a
> motherboard which is designed specifically for linux would only support the
> ms-dos file system. that would make the whole project the subject of ridicule
> (and rightly so)
A BIOS supporting floppy, ide, atapi, scsi ... hey, this looks like you're
going to write another Linux kernel for the BIOS. There is no need for that,
just include the Linux kernel itself instead of the BIOS.
Now, an idea about how to settle the 'last resort' issue:
* Have two Flash ROM sockets for 2M ROMs on the board (#1 and #2)
* Only #1 will be used for booting
* Both will be flasheable
This way you can easily create a backup flash rom for your motherboard,
create a flash rom for a friend is he kills both, and more. Simply you
won't have a backup boot floppy, but rather a backup boot flash.
Of course, socket #2 would usually be empty, the #2 flash being stored
somewhere on a safe place in your drawer.
This would mean there wouldn't need to be any drivers in the flash rom,
making the unwritable area in it probably unnecessary at all.
Vojtech
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