On Tue, 9 Mar 2004 14:03:34 -0800 Jason Dictos <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> probably wrote:
> The situation is
> this, currently we licenses Caldera DOS for a program we wrote which
> uses the int13 extensions to manipulate the systems hard drive (i.e.
> to recover partition tables and what not). This forces our application
> to be written in 16 bit mode, but it does allows us to not have to
> worry about loading any driver which would be hardware specific to
> access the hard drive.
Through the /dev/ad[0-9] (ide) or /dev/da[0-9] (scsi/usb) you can get
access to any byte in you harddrive. They `look like' ordinary files to
most programs. Just seek the appropriate number of bytes and read what
you want (0-512 is the mbr, for example). You don't even need to write a
line in assembly for that, just plain C (or even shell-script, if you
prefer that).
> Is there
> any way to write a driver for BSD which would put the processor into
> real mode, therefore allowing us to use the int 13 api of the bios to
> read and write hard drives?
Putting the cpu back into real mode is kind of perversion. And I don't
think FreeBSD provides any real mode interface. Whatever you would see
in real mode, you can bet it isn't a FreeBSD driver for your harddrive.
--
DoubleF
Romeo wasn't bilked in a day.
-- Walt Kelly, "Ten Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Years With
Pogo"
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