GD.SAR@forsythe.stanford.edu (Sandy Rockowitz) (10/25/90)
A couple OS/2 hardware related questions have recently been posted to the newsgroups. Since they have been addressed in the past, I hesitated to respond to the entire group, but I'm posting my response to the group on the assumption that if there's one person with a question, there are probably others. (If anyone feels this is a waste of the net's bandwidth, let me know.) First, there was a question regarding a keyboard problem with OS/2 and an AMI motherboard with (naturally) an AMI BIOS. I'm not sure of the details, but AMI had to upgrade its keyboard controller for OS/2 (1.2?). Your keyboard controller needs to be at least at level KD if I recall correctly. I'm using an AMI MKIII with keyboard controller level KF, and previously used a MKII with keyboard controller level KD. The only problem I've seen is that the central keys (cursor, PgUp, PgDn, etc) don't work with when using Codeview on the second monitor, and that's such an obscure case that I suspect Codeview more than I suspect the BIOS. The second question concerned IDE drives. There was recently an excellent overview of these drives on one of the OS/2 discussion lists; I'll not try to redo it. Basically, the controller is integrated with the drive, which is interfaced to the system through a simple adaptor card or in some case plugs directly into the motherboard. The IDE drive appears to the system as a vanilla ST506 device. I've been using a Conner CP3204F (200 mb) IDE drive and AMI MKII and MKIII motherboards with IBM OS/2 1.2 for several months now, and have had no problems. Finally, a question for the newsgroup. Does OS/2 use the ROM BIOS on VGA cards, or does it always write to the hardware? Sanford Rockowitz GD.SAR@FORSYTHE.STANFORD.EDU
rommel@lan.informatik.tu-muenchen.dbp.de (Kai-Uwe Rommel) (10/27/90)
In article <1990Oct25.042016.24320@morrow.stanford.edu> GD.SAR@forsythe.stanford.edu (Sandy Rockowitz) writes: >First, there was a question regarding a keyboard problem with OS/2 >and an AMI motherboard with (naturally) an AMI BIOS. I'm not sure >of the details, but AMI had to upgrade its keyboard controller for >OS/2 (1.2?). Your keyboard controller needs to be at least at level >KD if I recall correctly. I'm using an AMI MKIII with keyboard >controller level KF, and previously used a MKII with keyboard >controller level KD. The only problem I've seen is that the central >keys (cursor, PgUp, PgDn, etc) don't work with when using Codeview >on the second monitor, and that's such an obscure case that I >suspect Codeview more than I suspect the BIOS. No, my experience was that it is ONLY OS/2's fault if some keyboards don't work. XR4053 of OS/2 1.2 from IBM now works even with old K8 keyboard controllers on AMI boards (like mine). My keyboard now ALWAYS and under all circumstances (and with all keys) works - the same keyboard and keyboard controller that did not even boot the install disk of a previos revision level of IBM OS/2 1.2. >Finally, a question for the newsgroup. Does OS/2 use the ROM BIOS >on VGA cards, or does it always write to the hardware? OS/2 always writes to the hardware (well, it uses screen0?.sys to access it or basedd0?.sys with 1.2). And the PM driver probably also does so as the VGA BIOS is real mode code and accesses the BIOS memory area at 40:00 which, of course, is N/A under OS/2 protected mode. Kai Uwe Rommel -- /* Kai Uwe Rommel * Munich * rommel@lan.informatik.tu-muenchen.dbp.de */
goldman@mbcl.rutgers.edu (10/29/90)
In article <1990Oct25.042016.24320@morrow.stanford.edu>, GD.SAR@forsythe.stanford.edu (Sandy Rockowitz) writes: > A couple OS/2 hardware related questions have recently been posted > to the newsgroups. ... > > First, there was a question regarding a keyboard problem with OS/2 > and an AMI motherboard with (naturally) an AMI BIOS. I'm not sure > of the details, but AMI had to upgrade its keyboard controller for > OS/2 (1.2?). Your keyboard controller needs to be at least at level > KD if I recall correctly. I'm using an AMI MKIII with keyboard > controller level KF, and previously used a MKII with keyboard > controller level KD. The only problem I've seen is that the central > keys (cursor, PgUp, PgDn, etc) don't work with when using Codeview > on the second monitor, and that's such an obscure case that I > suspect Codeview more than I suspect the BIOS. > My understanding is that this is not quite correct. I originally had these kind of problems with the ?K8 keyboard controller. It affected non OS/2 PM apps (eg WordPerfect, CodeView) in early versions (eg 11/89) of IBM's OS/2 1.2 SE. I believe that one of the maintainance releases of OS/2 1.2 fixed this problem; I think I saw this somewhere on a BBS. But before that, I had upgraded my keyboard controller to KD, so I don't know this from first-hand experience. Adrian Goldman Adrian Goldman | Internet: Goldman@MBCL.Rutgers.Edu Molecular Biology Computing Laboratory | Bitnet: Goldman@BioVAX Waksman Insitute, | Phone: (908) 932-4864 Rutgers University, | Fax: (908) 932-5735 Piscataway, NJ 08855 USA |