xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man4/man4.i386/pnpbios.4 (revision 73bd0f0df65da07b46630385581e5dd192b8b02c)
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30.Dd February 17, 2017
31.Dt PNPBIOS 4 i386
32.Os
33.Sh NAME
34.Nm pnpbios
35.Nd introduction to PnP BIOS support
36.Sh SYNOPSIS
37.Cd "pnpbios0 at mainbus?"
38.Cd "XX*      at pnpbios0 index ?"
39.Pp
40.Cd options PNPBIOSVERBOSE
41.Cd options PNPBIOSDEBUG
42.Sh INTRODUCTION
43.Nm
44provides support for finding and attaching devices by
45extracting information from the PnP BIOS of a machine.
46.Sh SUPPORTED DEVICES
47.Nx
48includes the following
49.Nm
50drivers, sorted by driver name:
51.Pp
52.Bl -tag -width x86/fdc(4) -offset indent -compact
53.It Xr com 4
54serial communications interface
55.It Xr ess 4
56ESS Technology AudioDrive family audio device driver
57.It Xr x86/fdc 4
58floppy controller
59.It Xr joy 4
60game controller
61.It Xr x86/lpt 4
62parallel port driver
63.It Xr pciide 4
64PCI IDE controllers driver
65.It Xr pckbc 4
66PC keyboard/mouse controller
67.It Xr sb 4
68SoundBlaster family audio device driver
69.It Xr wss 4
70Windows Sound System hardware driver
71.It Xr ym 4
72Yamaha OPL3-SA3 sound driver
73.El
74.Sh SEE ALSO
75.Xr i386/intro 4 ,
76.Xr isa 4 ,
77.Xr pci 4
78.Sh HISTORY
79The
80.Nm
81driver
82appeared in
83.Nx 1.5 .
84.Sh BUGS
85The
86.Nm
87bus provides a different way to attach devices than the real buses
88(e.g.,
89.Xr isa 4 ) .
90The reason to use
91.Nm
92instead of the real bus is that some machines have weird routings
93of, e.g., interrupts.
94The exact information about these things can
95be found in the BIOS, which is why the
96.Nm
97bus has a better chance of succeeding with getting it right.
98.Pp
99Many older BIOS implementations do not support PnP,
100and some newer ones do not follow the standards.
101