'@' In blank space on Bochs.

'@' In blank space on Bochs.

[Nicholas Knight]

ELKS apparently writes out blank areas of the screen with 0's
(arch/i86/drivers/char/dircon.c, #define A_BLANK 0x00). This creates an
issue with Bochs because, for some reason, Bochs has '@' there instead of
null (as it happens, MINIX runs into the same problem). This may be specific
to the Windows version of Bochs, as I've yet to use either MINIX or ELKS in
Bochs in any other host OS.

Once I get my laptop back (grumble, stupid hdd) I can recompile ELKS to use
0x32 (ASCII's "space" character) instead of 0x00 on my personal systems, but
I thought others might be interested in this.

Maybe a config option? CONFIG_BLANK_BOCHS?

-NK

Re: '@' In blank space on Bochs.

[Michael McConnell]

On Wed, 29 May 2002, Nicholas Knight wrote:

> ELKS apparently writes out blank areas of the screen with 0's
> (arch/i86/drivers/char/dircon.c, #define A_BLANK 0x00). This creates an
> issue with Bochs because, for some reason, Bochs has '@' there instead of
> null (as it happens, MINIX runs into the same problem). This may be specific
> to the Windows version of Bochs, as I've yet to use either MINIX or ELKS in
> Bochs in any other host OS.
> 
> Once I get my laptop back (grumble, stupid hdd) I can recompile ELKS to use
> 0x32 (ASCII's "space" character) instead of 0x00 on my personal systems, but
> I thought others might be interested in this.

Space is 0x20 (decimal 32). 0x32 is '2'.

> Maybe a config option? CONFIG_BLANK_BOCHS?

Are you using the LGPL VGABIOS or the Elpin one?  You could try using the 
other VGABIOS file.

Personally, I think making a Bochs config option is not a good move, since as
far as anything in it is concerned, it's a PC complete with its hardware. 
Just different hardware to what is currently being used with it.

-- Michael "Soruk" McConnell		           [Eridani Linux 6.3 Now!]
Eridani Linux  --  The Most Up-to-Date Red Hat-based Linux CDROMs Available
Email: linux@eridani.co.uk  http://www.eridani.co.uk   Fax: +44-8701-600807
    "No. 'Eureka' is Greek for 'This bath is too hot.'" - Dr Who.

Re: '@' In blank space on Bochs.

[Alan Cox]

On Wed, 2002-05-29 at 14:13, Nicholas Knight wrote:
> ELKS apparently writes out blank areas of the screen with 0's
> (arch/i86/drivers/char/dircon.c, #define A_BLANK 0x00). This creates an
> issue with Bochs because, for some reason, Bochs has '@' there instead of
> null (as it happens, MINIX runs into the same problem). This may be specific
> to the Windows version of Bochs, as I've yet to use either MINIX or ELKS in
> Bochs in any other host OS.
> 
> Once I get my laptop back (grumble, stupid hdd) I can recompile ELKS to use
> 0x32 (ASCII's "space" character) instead of 0x00 on my personal systems, but
> I thought others might be interested in this.
> 
> Maybe a config option? CONFIG_BLANK_BOCHS?

Space ought to work on real hardware too, so you can avoid the config
option (which is good config options are just more and more overhead to
maintain)

Re: '@' In blank space on Bochs.

[Nicholas Knight]

On Wednesday, May 29, 2002, Michael McConnell wrote:
> On Wed, 29 May 2002, Nicholas Knight wrote:
>
> > ELKS apparently writes out blank areas of the screen with 0's
> > (arch/i86/drivers/char/dircon.c, #define A_BLANK 0x00). This creates an
> > issue with Bochs because, for some reason, Bochs has '@' there instead
of
> > null (as it happens, MINIX runs into the same problem). This may be
specific
> > to the Windows version of Bochs, as I've yet to use either MINIX or ELKS
in
> > Bochs in any other host OS.
> >
> > Once I get my laptop back (grumble, stupid hdd) I can recompile ELKS to
use
> > 0x32 (ASCII's "space" character) instead of 0x00 on my personal systems,
but
> > I thought others might be interested in this.
>
> Space is 0x20 (decimal 32). 0x32 is '2'.

Oops, read the colums in reverse :)

> > Maybe a config option? CONFIG_BLANK_BOCHS?
>
> Are you using the LGPL VGABIOS or the Elpin one?  You could try using the
> other VGABIOS file.

Was using Elpin. Set it to the LGPL, same thing. They're probably shooting
for functionaly identicle to the Elpin BIOS, right down to the questionable
"features". Or else they don't realize it's non-standard and causing
problems, which seems a little odd in itself since it's been pointed out to
Bochs maintainers several times by MINIX users.

>
> Personally, I think making a Bochs config option is not a good move, since
as
> far as anything in it is concerned, it's a PC complete with its hardware.
> Just different hardware to what is currently being used with it.

Well, Alan seems to think that it'd be OK to just set it to use 0x20 by
default on everything. Speaking as a user (not being a kernel developer), I
think it may make more logical sense.