Return to BSD News archive
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!news.unimelb.EDU.AU!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!paladin.american.edu!gatech!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in2.uu.net!news.artisoft.com!usenet
From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Re: Historic Opportunity facing Free Unix (was Re: The Lai/Baker paper, benchmarks, and the world of free UNIX)
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 21:46:02 -0700
Organization: Me
Lines: 52
Message-ID: <3173260A.5D6400B8@lambert.org>
References: <4ki055$60l@Radon.Stanford.EDU> <jdd.829261293@cdf.toronto.edu> <yfglok14n5r.fsf@time.cdrom.com> <31702487.420C2193@lambert.org> <4ktqsh$iu4@helena.MT.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: hecate.artisoft.com
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.01 (X11; I; Linux 1.1.76 i486)
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.development.system:21399 comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc:596 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:3206 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:3016 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:17365 comp.os.linux.advocacy:45524
Nate! You evil "post and mail at the same time" kind of guy!!!
] >1) Move the DDX code for per-card drivers into the
] > kernel.
]
] Augh.... This is evil, and causes the kernel to bloat excessively.
] Even in WNT, the pig that it is doesn't do this.
LKM's and kernel paging.
] >2) Implement "fallback drivers". Such a driver is a
] > standard driver implemented on BIOS calls. For
] > video, this is INT 10. This will be sufficient
] > to put the screen in 640x480 graphic mode for the
] > 95% majority of PC hardware capable of running a
] > protected mode OS.
]
] Needs VM86, and can un-necessarily de-stabilize the system with buggy
] BIOS implementations. See below.
Only a factor for systems that wouldn't run otherwise. BIOS is
an issue for only if you have to use the fallback driver
exclusively (ie: you don't have a protected mode driver to
replace it).
] >4) Either discard the concept of memory overcommit
] > altogether, or allow it to be selected off.
]
] Never. ;)
Yeah; wouldn't want system powerdown-restart features. Note
that it need not be in the installed version, nor need it use
the traditional swap reserve area for backing store for main
memory (it could be backed to a file instead).
] Finally, I'm surprised you don't want APM BIOS capability but
] like other BIOS capabilities. One of the biggest problems
] I've been having with the APM support is buggy APM BIOS
] implementations.
I want it as an implementation detail in a full power management
subsystem -- per our email sparked when you mailed this as well
as posting it. 8-(.
Terry Lambert
terry@lambert.org
---
Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
or previous employers.