direct BIOS access from Linux?

Ben Scott dragonhawk at gmail.com
Tue Oct 18 11:29:01 EDT 2005


On 10/18/05, Paul Lussier <p.lussier at comcast.net> wrote:
> But does anyone know if x86-based
> hardware and BIOSes have made *any* advance in this area in the last
> 5-20 years ?

  Yes, things have improved.  Unfortunately, in typical IBM-PC
fashion, a lot of it isn't standardized or documented.  And on
low-end, "whitebox" parts, it tends to be buggy, incomplete, or
outright missing.  *sigh*

  If you want Sun hardware, you know where to buy it.  :)

> Currently I'm looking for a way to clear the DMI logs without having
> to reboot the system to access the BIOS settings.

  I know there is a way to do this.  I just don't know what it is, or
if anyone has done it for Linux.  You might start by looking for
"dmidecode", which is a utility I have used to obtain DMI information
from the firmware.  I suspect sending stuff *to* DMI would be related.

  If your hardware is from a big name brand (e.g., Dell, Compaq,
etc.), you might look for mailing lists/websites specific to said
brand.  Often there will be useful information to be had that way.  I
know I found the Dell linux-poweredge list to be tremendously useful,
and not just for Dell stuff, for that matter.  There were lots of
"large systems" admin types on that list.

  HTH,



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