Entering BIOS on DELL mobiles - does the kernel prohibit?

Entering BIOS on DELL mobiles - does the kernel prohibit?

[Marc Koschewski]

Hi all,

first of all, if someone could point me to some information on that
topic, I would be glad. I didn't find anything on Google.

The 'problem' is: I remember being able to enter the DELL Inspiron BIOS
from a running X session (or console) some (long) time ago. I just noticed,
it no longer works. Does the kernel somehow prohibit to enter the BIOS
or does the laptop itself stop from doing so (maybe due to a BIOS update).

Thank you for any feedback,
       Marc

Re: Entering BIOS on DELL mobiles - does the kernel prohibit?

[Dmitry Torokhov]

On Wednesday 23 November 2005 10:53, Marc Koschewski wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> first of all, if someone could point me to some information on that
> topic, I would be glad. I didn't find anything on Google.
> 
> The 'problem' is: I remember being able to enter the DELL Inspiron BIOS
> from a running X session (or console) some (long) time ago. I just noticed,
> it no longer works. Does the kernel somehow prohibit to enter the BIOS
> or does the laptop itself stop from doing so (maybe due to a BIOS update).
>

It is only pssible with APM. ACPI "kills" it.

-- 
Dmitry

Re: Entering BIOS on DELL mobiles - does the kernel prohibit?

[Marc Koschewski]

* Dmitry Torokhov <dtor_core@ameritech.net> [2005-11-23 20:57:43 -0500]:

> On Wednesday 23 November 2005 10:53, Marc Koschewski wrote:
> > Hi all,
> > 
> > first of all, if someone could point me to some information on that
> > topic, I would be glad. I didn't find anything on Google.
> > 
> > The 'problem' is: I remember being able to enter the DELL Inspiron BIOS
> > from a running X session (or console) some (long) time ago. I just noticed,
> > it no longer works. Does the kernel somehow prohibit to enter the BIOS
> > or does the laptop itself stop from doing so (maybe due to a BIOS update).
> >
> 
> It is only pssible with APM. ACPI "kills" it.

Oh! I didn't know. Is there any good reason to do so? I mean, any device
change (ie. serial port re-configuration) is just valid from next reboot, thus
not affecting the running kernel. Am I missing something?

Marc

Re: Entering BIOS on DELL mobiles - does the kernel prohibit?

[Dmitry Torokhov]

On Thursday 24 November 2005 03:50, Marc Koschewski wrote:
> * Dmitry Torokhov <dtor_core@ameritech.net> [2005-11-23 20:57:43 -0500]:
> 
> > On Wednesday 23 November 2005 10:53, Marc Koschewski wrote:
> > > Hi all,
> > > 
> > > first of all, if someone could point me to some information on that
> > > topic, I would be glad. I didn't find anything on Google.
> > > 
> > > The 'problem' is: I remember being able to enter the DELL Inspiron BIOS
> > > from a running X session (or console) some (long) time ago. I just noticed,
> > > it no longer works. Does the kernel somehow prohibit to enter the BIOS
> > > or does the laptop itself stop from doing so (maybe due to a BIOS update).
> > >
> > 
> > It is only pssible with APM. ACPI "kills" it.
> 
> Oh! I didn't know. Is there any good reason to do so? I mean, any device
> change (ie. serial port re-configuration) is just valid from next reboot, thus
> not affecting the running kernel. Am I missing something?
>

ACPI takes control over entire box, from that point on you can't enter
pretty much any BIOS code. FWIW one ACPI is active it does not work in
Windows either.

-- 
Dmitry