Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Get Speed-Booting with an Open BIOS

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the speed-booting-next-up-for-olympic-sports dept.

An anonymous reader writes to mention that IBM Developer Works has a quick look at some of the different projects that are working on replacing proprietary BIOS systems with streamlined code that can load a Linux kernel much faster. Most of the existing BIOS systems tend to have a lot of legacy support built in for various things, and projects like LinuxBIOS and OpenBIOS are working to trim the fat.

4 of 235 comments (clear)

  1. Benefits from experience by vil3nr0b · · Score: 5, Informative

    I have repaired clusters for the last two years and most have OpenBios. These are the likes: 1)Fast as hell!! 2)Easy to change options 3)Can mount the file to a disk, edit, and then replace. 4)Errors can be determined by watching console, No video needed. One serial cable, One laptop=priceless. 5)Free

  2. Re:Flash drives by Cyberax · · Score: 4, Informative

    I work with embedded systems, and my MIPS-based 166MHz board boots Linux in about 5 seconds, kernel loading starts almost immediately after power on.

    I always wanted to have the same capability for my notebook. Sigh...

  3. Re:Deck chairs on the Titanic by Karellen · · Score: 4, Informative

    It seems to me that it would be worth the trouble to mechanize startup so that each step is isolated from all the others and knows which previous step it's dependent on and waits for only that step, while everything else cruises ahead in parallel.

    We're working on it...
    --
    Why doesn't the gene pool have a life guard?
  4. Re:What about Abstraction? by billcopc · · Score: 4, Informative

    You, like many others before you, are confusing BIOS with what was once called "CMOS Setup".

    The BIOS is essentially a set of low-level device drivers for the motherboard and basic peripherals (keyboard, display). Overclockers don't care about it, as long as it works.

    The "CMOS Setup", or more appropriately System Setup, is an interface to configure the motherboard's features. The fancier ones offer many tweaking options, some even have a minimal Linux OS like the Asus P5K3 Deluxe (extremely handy for pre-boot stuff - or web/media browsing). Overclockers love big feature-rich control panel on their board as they allow them to tweak their system to further heights, and offer added functionality like built-in flashing (from a USB key or hard drive) and "smart" overclocking which is like the opposite of Intel Speedstep :)

    --
    -Billco, Fnarg.com