Re: arch/i386/boot rewrite, and all the hard-coded video cards

Dave Jones
2007-05-01T01:51:52Z

On Mon, Apr 30, 2007 at 06:33:09PM -0700, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm rewriting the i386 setup code in C, instead of assembly, and before
> I spend a very large amount of time translating all the various
> card-specific probes, I want to ask the following question...
>
> Does *anyone* care about these anymore?
>
> All of these are specific to cards from a very long time ago. I am
> currently planning to retain the VESA-related code, and the standard
> video modes, but I'd like to avoid the card-specific stuff, especially
> since I have absolutely zero ability to test any of testing them (with
> the possible sole exception of the cirrus5 code, which is emulated by qemu.)
>
> Please holler if you care...

I don't really care, but I wonder what the point is of rewriting something
that hardly ever gets notably changed, and is rarely (if ever?) a source
of bugs. It might be crufty old assembly, but it's worked well for years.

Dave

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