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LinuxBIOS Project Usenix Paper

Posted by timothy on from the bochsen dept.

caseih writes "The LinuxBIOS project has published a paper on using the open source bios code from bochs to help boot unmodified OSes such as Windows 2000, which was presented at the recent Usenix Conference. This was mentioned previously on Slashdot, but this paper gives more technical details on how they did it, some details about future possibilities, and their guiding philosophies behind this project."

33 comments

  1. They must have wide monitors by JCMay · · Score: 0

    Hrm. The paper that was linked to is not well formatted for web publication. It does not wrap at all. Somebody got stuck between some [pre] tags, huh?

    1. Re:They must have wide monitors by hummassa · · Score: 1

      your browser is botched, maybe? here (firebird 0.7) all is ok.

      --
      It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
  2. A Eulogy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
    Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
    Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
    Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

    Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
    Scribbling on the sky the message Linux Is Dead,
    Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
    Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

    Linux was my North, my South, my East and West,
    My working week and my Sunday rest,
    My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
    I thought that it would last for ever; I was wrong.

  3. 10 issues about Linux that Linux users hide by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    1. You can not play games on it.
    2. It cannot be used by my grandma.
    3. It lacks a GUI of any note.
    4. There is no support available for it.
    5. It is an assortment of fragmented OSes.
    6. It cannot be run on the x86 platform.
    7. You have to compile everything and know C.
    8. Support for the latest hardware is always poor.
    9. It is incompatiable with BSD.
    10.It is dying.

  4. Now the market has to pressure harware makers... by smittyoneeach · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...to provide this BIOS on new systems.
    Or is there some Mysterious Subterfuge preventing this?

    --
    Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
  5. Re:Now the market has to pressure harware makers.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Doesn't sound like it boots DOS. If you want a "PC", it's gotta boot DOS.

    (And I'm not joking -- every new P4 that shows up at work boots first into DOS to pull down the Ghost image.)

  6. OpenBIOS by turgid · · Score: 4, Informative
    OpenBIOS is another interesting free BIOS project for PeeCees which aims to implement the Open Firmware (IEEE 1275-1994) standard, as used on Sun SPARC machines and Apple Power PC machines.

    It's interesting because Open Firmware is based around a FORTH interpreter, using which high-level BIOS code is implemented. This code is portable across different binary architectures. This has interesting implications for the initialisation of peripherals. It also means you can program your own BIOS at a command line at system start up.

    There are loads of other uses, and it's already an establishged Open standard, and has been in use for well over a decade.

    --
    Stick Men
    1. Re:OpenBIOS by pacc · · Score: 1

      From OpenBIOS homepage:
      It is our expressed wish to work with the LinuxBIOS team on the lowlevel bootstrapping. They have a growing range of systems working without any other firmware directly booting an ELF binary from Flash. The OpenBIOS kernel was tested with various systems running as a payload of LinuxBIOS

      LinuxBIOS goal is to do as little BIOS work as possible since legacy BIOS bugs and shortcomings forces the Linux kernel to redo all those initializations anyway. With Bochs running on Linux the normal BIOS functionality can be provided to any other OS.

      OpenBIOS is an alternative to the Linux kernel and provides GUI functions that the cluster developers mainly involved in LinuxBIOS don't need or use anyway (not having to push DEL and enter multiple settings on xxx clustered nodes is their original motivation). Though the common user might be more interested in a microkernel giving access to cd and dvd playing without having to boot any OS, running on a reduces processor speed and not spinning up harddrives.

      What interests me most though is the coming TCPA support directly in the BIOS. Could a BIOS without those features fool for example Windows not to use them? Could the features be emulated crippled? Will we see PC-modding in the future with offerings like Lazarus-BIOS, Messias-XI etc.

    2. Re:OpenBIOS by Gothmolly · · Score: 1

      Except that OpenBIOS is total vaporware. And from the looks of their site, is likely to remain so forever.

      --
      I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
  7. DUMASS!!! by Celerian · · Score: 1

    Kthx BYE!