xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man9/man9.i386/bioscall.9 (revision 3816d47b2c42fcd6e549e3407f842a5b1a1d23ad)
1.\"	$NetBSD: bioscall.9,v 1.8 2008/04/30 13:10:59 martin Exp $
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30.Dd October 1, 1998
31.Dt BIOSCALL 9 i386
32.Os
33.Sh NAME
34.Nm bioscall
35.Nd call system BIOS function from real mode
36.Sh SYNOPSIS
37.In i386/bioscall.h
38.Ft void
39.Fn bioscall "int function" "struct bioscallregs *regs"
40.Sh DESCRIPTION
41The
42.Nm
43function switches the processor into real mode, calls the BIOS interrupt
44numbered
45.Fa function ,
46and returns to protected mode.
47.Pp
48This function is intended to be called during the initial system
49bootstrap when necessary to probe devices or pseudo-devices.
50.Pp
51The register values specified by
52.Fa *regs
53(with one exception) are installed before the BIOS interrupt is called.
54The processor flags are handled specially.  Only the following flags are
55passed to the
56BIOS from the registers in
57.Fa regs
58(the remainder come from the processor's flags register at the time
59of the call):
60.Ar PSL_C ,
61.Ar PSL_PF ,
62.Ar PSL_AF ,
63.Ar PSL_Z ,
64.Ar PSL_N ,
65.Ar PSL_D ,
66.Ar PSL_V .
67.Pp
68The
69.Va bioscallregs
70structure is defined to contain structures for each register, to allow
71access to 32-, 16- or 8-bit wide sections of the registers.
72Definitions are provided which simplify access to the union members.
73.Sh RETURN VALUES
74.Nm
75fills in
76.Fa *regs
77with the processor registers as returned from the BIOS call.
78.Sh EXAMPLES
79The Advanced Power Management driver calls
80.Nm
81by setting up a register structure with the APM installation check and
82device types in registers
83.Fa ax
84and
85.Fa bx ,
86then calls the BIOS to fetch the details for calling the APM support
87through a protected-mode interface.  The BIOS returns these details in
88the registers:
89.Pp
90.Bd -literal
91#include \*[Lt]i386/bioscall.h\*[Gt]
92#include \*[Lt]i386/apmvar.h\*[Gt]
93struct bioscallregs regs;
94
95regs.AX = APM_BIOS_FN(APM_INSTALLATION_CHECK);
96regs.BX = APM_DEV_APM_BIOS;
97regs.CX = regs.DX = 0;
98regs.ESI = regs.EDI = regs.EFLAGS = 0;
99bioscall(APM_SYSTEM_BIOS, \*[Am]regs);
100.Ed
101.Sh CODE REFERENCES
102.Pa sys/arch/i386/i386/bioscall.s ,
103.Pa sys/arch/i386/bioscall/biostramp.S
104.Sh REFERENCES
105.Xr apm 4
106.Sh HISTORY
107.Nm
108first appeared in
109.Nx 1.3 .
110.Sh BUGS
111Not all BIOS functions are safe to call through the trampoline, as they
112may depend on system state which has been disturbed or used for other
113purposes once the
114.Nx
115kernel is running.
116