xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man9/man9.i386/bioscall.9 (revision 5e4c038a45edbc7d63b7c2daa76e29f88b64a4e3)
1.\"	$NetBSD: bioscall.9,v 1.6 2002/02/13 08:18:59 ross Exp $
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6.\" This code is derived from software contributed to The NetBSD Foundation
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37.Dd October 1, 1998
38.Dt BIOSCALL 9 i386
39.Os
40.Sh NAME
41.Nm bioscall
42.Nd call system BIOS function from real mode
43.Sh SYNOPSIS
44.Fd #include \*[Lt]i386/bioscall.h\*[Gt]
45.Ft void
46.Fn bioscall "int function" "struct bioscallregs *regs"
47.Sh DESCRIPTION
48The
49.Nm
50function switches the processor into real mode, calls the BIOS interrupt
51numbered
52.Fa function ,
53and returns to protected mode.
54.Pp
55This function is intended to be called during the initial system
56bootstrap when necessary to probe devices or pseudo-devices.
57.Pp
58The register values specified by
59.Fa *regs
60(with one exception) are installed before the BIOS interrupt is called.
61The processor flags are handled specially.  Only the following flags are
62passed to the
63BIOS from the registers in
64.Fa regs
65(the remainder come from the processor's flags register at the time
66of the call):
67.Ar PSL_C ,
68.Ar PSL_PF ,
69.Ar PSL_AF ,
70.Ar PSL_Z ,
71.Ar PSL_N ,
72.Ar PSL_D ,
73.Ar PSL_V .
74.Pp
75The
76.Va bioscallregs
77structure is defined to contain structures for each register, to allow
78access to 32-, 16- or 8-bit wide sections of the registers.
79Definitions are provided which simplify access to the union members.
80.Sh RETURN VALUES
81.Nm
82fills in
83.Fa *regs
84with the processor registers as returned from the BIOS call.
85.Sh EXAMPLES
86The Advanced Power Management driver calls
87.Nm
88by setting up a register structure with the APM installation check and
89device types in registers
90.Fa ax
91and
92.Fa bx ,
93then calls the BIOS to fetch the details for calling the APM support
94through a protected-mode interface.  The BIOS returns these details in
95the registers:
96.Pp
97.Bd -literal
98#include \*[Lt]i386/bioscall.h\*[Gt]
99#include \*[Lt]i386/apmvar.h\*[Gt]
100struct bioscallregs regs;
101
102regs.AX = APM_BIOS_FN(APM_INSTALLATION_CHECK);
103regs.BX = APM_DEV_APM_BIOS;
104regs.CX = regs.DX = 0;
105regs.ESI = regs.EDI = regs.EFLAGS = 0;
106bioscall(APM_SYSTEM_BIOS, \*[Am]regs);
107.Ed
108.Sh CODE REFERENCES
109.Pa sys/arch/i386/i386/bioscall.s ,
110.Pa sys/arch/i386/bioscall/biostramp.S
111.Sh REFERENCES
112.Xr apm 4
113.Sh HISTORY
114.Nm
115first appeared in
116.Nx 1.3 .
117.Sh BUGS
118Not all BIOS functions are safe to call through the trampoline, as they
119may depend on system state which has been disturbed or used for other
120purposes once the
121.Nx
122kernel is running.
123