[ros-dev] HAL reorganisation

[Alex Ionescu]

Steven Edwards wrote:

>Hi Alex,
>
>  
>
Hi Steven!

>The xbox is a x86 pc lacking in a BIOS. 
>
Much more then just a BIOS however. Graphics are highly proprietary, as 
is a lot of the PnP. And forget about Legacy I/O. There are other subtle 
details too.

>ntoskrnl should not talk to the
>bios directly in any case.
>
It doesn't but it does do other things which are unsupported/done 
differently on the xbox architecture. However, it does depend on how far 
you're willing to go to support it. I was a very early adopter of the 
xbox and the first mod chips/software that came out for it...and many 
people found out that it's more then just "x86 with some stuff missing". 
Some things about it are really tricky. I agree that they should all be 
in a HAL, but unforuntately, IIRC, there still is some arch-specific 
code in ntoskrnl. In NT4, all the different supported architectures had 
a different kernel...not only a different HAL.

> Other than that its the same. There is one
>PCI device you cant probe or it will lock the system. I think we can
>take care of that issue via a 4 line patch because you can detect if
>you are running on the xbox. (if memory serves) There is a extra PCI
>device ID that is only present on the xbox so the HAL can search for
>that device and then have logic built in to it to avoid the other
>device. According to my converstation with the xbox Linux people that
>really should be all we need aside from rippping out the direct
>hardware access stuff in freeldr which GvG has already done. The hard
>part will be keyboard and mouse, the xbox uses USB for that and we need
>it anyway.
>  
>
There's also the problem with text-mode and the video in general, imo.

>Sure it has the magic built in to the firmware and the OS to keep
>people from running unsigned apps on it but there are three known ways
>to boot off of it and I think we can do all of them now that freeldr
>can chain load from grub.
>  
>
Easy stuff to fix, and GvG is doing a great job.

>Thanks
>Steven
>
>  
>
Best regards,
Alex Ionescu

P.S Much like the Appollo missions brought us so much stuff here at 
home, I can't wait to see the effects that the xbox port will have. USB 
probably is the coolest.

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