9fans archive / 1997 / 08 / 1 /     next

From: rsc@res... rsc@res...
Subject: [9fans] plug and play woes
Date: Sun, 3 Aug 1997 18:47:23 -0400

I've been reading the last month worth of 9fans
after being away.  Why not do most of the plug and
play stuff in b.com to initialize IRQs, etc., and 
then load the kernel with appropriate plan9.ini lines
generated for it?  Thus, the code that has to 
worry about plug and play drops out of memory as soon
as the OS starts, and the kernel doesn't have to be
bothered.  Note that I distinguish between plug and
play (PnP, the much-hyped garbage that your BIOS does
to you every time you boot) and cards that ``autoconfigure''
like 3Com cards and SoundBlasters.  I'm not sure if this
distinction is a valid one.  Perhaps autoconfig stuff 
should be done in b.com as well...  Just my 2¢.

Russ