xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man4/man4.i386/pnpbios.4 (revision bdc22b2e01993381dcefeff2bc9b56ca75a4235c)
1.\" $NetBSD: pnpbios.4,v 1.15 2017/02/17 22:24:46 christos Exp $
2.\"
3.\" Copyright (c) 1999-2002 The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.
4.\" All rights reserved.
5.\"
6.\" This code is derived from software contributed to The NetBSD Foundation
7.\" by Lennart Augustsson.
8.\"
9.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
10.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
11.\" are met:
12.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
13.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
14.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
15.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
16.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
17.\"
18.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE NETBSD FOUNDATION, INC. AND CONTRIBUTORS
19.\" ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED
20.\" TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
21.\" PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE FOUNDATION OR CONTRIBUTORS
22.\" BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR
23.\" CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF
24.\" SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS
25.\" INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN
26.\" CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE)
27.\" ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
28.\" POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
29.\"
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 speaker -offset indent -compact
53.It com
54serial communications interface
55.It ess
56ESS Technology AudioDrive family audio device driver
57.It fdc
58floppy controller
59.It joy
60game controller
61.It lpt
62parallel port driver
63.It pciide
64PCI IDE controllers driver
65.It pckbc
66PC keyboard/mouse controller
67.It sb
68SoundBlaster family audio device driver
69.It wss
70Windows Sound System hardware driver
71.It ym
72Yamaha OPL3-SA3 sound driver
73.El
74.Sh SEE ALSO
75.Xr com 4 ,
76.Xr ess 4 ,
77.Xr fdc 4 ,
78.Xr i386/intro 4 ,
79.Xr isa 4 ,
80.Xr joy 4 ,
81.Xr lpt 4 ,
82.Xr pci 4 ,
83.Xr pciide 4 ,
84.Xr pckbc 4 ,
85.Xr sb 4 ,
86.Xr wss 4 ,
87.Xr ym 4
88.Sh HISTORY
89The
90.Nm
91driver
92appeared in
93.Nx 1.5 .
94.Sh BUGS
95The
96.Nm
97bus provides a different way to attach devices than the real buses
98(e.g.,
99.Xr isa 4 ) .
100The reason to use
101.Nm
102instead of the real bus is that some machines have weird routings
103of, e.g., interrupts.
104The exact information about these things can
105be found in the BIOS, which is why the
106.Nm
107bus has a better chance of succeeding with getting it right.
108.Pp
109Many older BIOS implementations do not support PnP,
110and some newer ones do not follow the standards.
111