[bug #17436] Allow writes to system RAM at boot time

[Xuân Baldauf]

URL:
  <http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?func=detailitem&item_id=17436>

                 Summary: Allow writes to system RAM at boot time
                 Project: GNU GRUB
            Submitted by: xuan
            Submitted on: Dienstag 15.08.2006 um 19:41
                Category: Booting
                Severity: Major
                Priority: 5 - Normal
              Item Group: None
                  Status: None
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: None
         Originator Name: 
        Originator Email: 
             Open/Closed: Open
                 Release: 0.97, CVS
         Reproducibility: Every Time
         Planned Release: 

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Details:

For correcting some BIOS bugs, it is necessary to write to system RAM as
early as possible.

A tangible example is a notebook computer which has an exchanged TFT display
(because the old one got broken). A broken BIOS might not recognize such a
TFT display correctly and this writes wrong data into system memory.

Operating systems and graphics drivers depend on such data. If the data is
correct, they can correctly initialize the TFT display. If the data is not
correct, they cannot.


The attached patch makes it possible to write arbitrary values into system
memory at boot time. It is highly experimental (and should be discussed and
enhanced), but it is absolutely safe if the new grub shell commands "write"
and "write16" are not used.






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File Attachments:


-------------------------------------------------------
Date: Dienstag 15.08.2006 um 19:41  Name:
grub.CVS.2006.08.15.writeMemAtBoot.v2.patch  Size: 6,58KB   By: xuan
The patch
<http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/download.php?file_id=10548>

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