X-Authentication-Warning:	acp3bf.physik.rwth-aachen.de: broeker owned process doing -bs
Date:	Mon, 26 Oct 1998 19:00:49 +0100 (MET)
From:	Hans-Bernhard Broeker <broeker AT physik DOT rwth-aachen DOT de>
X-Sender:	broeker AT acp3bf
To:	djgpp-workers AT delorie DOT com
Subject:	Re: proposed change to autoconf macro
In-Reply-To:	<3634A878.E04198B5@montana.com>
Message-ID:	<Pine.LNX.3.93.981026185634.20659c-100000@acp3bf>
MIME-Version:	1.0
Reply-To:	djgpp-workers AT delorie DOT com

On Mon, 26 Oct 1998, bowman wrote:

> This is really getting off topic, but I am curious. I put up Linux with
> the UMSDOS system on one of my machines, but have never had occasion to
> paw around the lower levels. Granted that a reference to a drive letter
> should never be seen at the makefile level, is there a layer where DOS
> style terminology is used, or do the Linux drivers completely supercede
> the bios? 

No need to supercede the BIOS for not to use drive-letters. Driveletters
are entirely a DOS invention. The BIOS only knows about physical drive
numbers (like 0x80, 0x81 for harddisks).

But you guessed right: Linux doesn't even use the BIOS, it has its own
hardware-level drivers for just about everything. That's one of the points
that make it so fast. The only time Linux uses the BIOS is at boot time,
i.e. it's not the Linux kernel itself, but the boot loader LILO that has
to use the bios.

Hans-Bernhard Broeker (broeker AT physik DOT rwth-aachen DOT de)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.

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