TH>BIOS is not bypassed in *any* operating system. BIOS is how
TH>universal software is able to work with a particular hardware
TH>design of which there are many when it comes to the IBM
TH>compatable. For instance - all vidio cards nowadays come with
TH>their own BIOS. Bypassing it would cripple any new design features
TH>post operating release.
SM>The BIOS must be used, obviously. to boot up, but it's my
SM>understanding that once an operating system goes into protected
SM>mode, it uses it's own drivers and ignores the BIOS, in general.
Actually, BIOS is separate from the boot up and POST code, which does
use BIOS calls to perform disk access, test access the floppy drives,
set and drive video, etc. And, you are right, there is no choice,
here, since no operating system is yet loaded.
And you are right that an operating system (particularly a 32-bit OS)
does use their own drivers (libraries written for a some hardware ike
the CD-RO)
However, there are BIOS areas that an operating doesn't mess with,
and that's because it is very specific to the hardware, ie.
a particular motherboard chip set, or video chep set, or a non-IDE
interface like SCSI.
Perhaps what you might be thinking of is a common practice of
shadow-ramming BIOS, which is done to imporve performance.
SM>The VGA BIOS pretty much only supplies functions useful for text-mode
SM>operation; graphics-mode operations provided by the BIOS
SM>are notorious for being masochistically slow.
Certainly true for older cards, and the only alternative was direct
screen writes. But todays accelerated and 3D cards are far more
sophisticated. And the BIOS calls, or more often the supplied driver
is the only way to go. I am agreeing with you on this point, BTW.
SM>Much the same applies to other BIOS code; it's used for boot-up
SM>initialization, but the OS will generally not recognize any device
SM>that it does not have it's own driver for.
I'll have to give you that, too.
TH>The best standard feature I've seen that has slowed the spread of
TH>a computer virus is the boot sector inhibit switch. Not much help
TH>for those who copy a lot of EXEs around, though. [grin]
SM>I prefer the option for selecting the boot device, where you can
SM>have the system boot automatically from C, and ignore A.
Certainly.
SM>The boot virus protection interferes with certain programs, such
SM>as Win95. The boot drive option is what I use when I build a
SM>computer. After my first time trying to figure out why Win95 kept
SM>locking up while installing, I have avoided the virus protection
SM>option.
I don't enable it during installations.
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