[Novalug] n00b questions for today

[John Franklin]

You'd do this if you want to write some very low-level, pre-boot functionality.

Ed, I suspect what you're looking for is COMBOOT and SYSLINUX (and friends).  

	http://www.syslinux.org/doc/comboot.txt

(Some assembly required.)

jf

On Feb 23, 2012, at 12:07 PM, Paul W. Frields wrote:

> That jibes with my answer -- generally you would write to a
> higher-level drawing API that takes care of sending all the other
> stuff down to X, X down to... etc.
> 
> Ed, if you described your actual goal maybe I could find you a more
> detailed answer.
> 
> Paul 
> 
> On Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 11:51:58AM -0500, Keith Howell wrote:
>> In most modern operating systems, the BIOS is only used to get the system
>> working and then the OS takes over.
>> 
>> Unless you are writing the OS, why would you want to make direct calls to
>> the hardware?
>> 
>> Keith
>> On Feb 23, 2012 8:11 AM, "Ed James" <edward.james at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> Anyone or all,
>>> 
>>> 1 - Do graphics cards all have any sort of standard, dumbed down,
>>> interface or set of instructions whereby a program could be written
>>> that works on all graphics cards?  If so, URL to info would be
>>> appreciated.
>>> 
>>> 1 - On modern machines, can keyboards still be accessed via BIOS
>>> commands and/or would that in turn depend on COM vs PS2 vs
>>> USB type keyboards?
>>> 
>>> Ed James
>>> *wishing he used a fake name for questions like this
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-- 
John Franklin
franklin at elfie.org
ICBM: 39º 01' 58.4"N 77º 24' 49.6"W Z+84m

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