Excerpts from netbsd: 24-Jun-97 Re: Return of Son of Beneat.. Jonathan
Stone@DSG.Stanf (2410)

> Option #1: rewrite the functino to the BIOS to probe for mode1 vs
>       mode2 instead.  If the BIOS fails, fall back to the existing code.

I'd really like to forget that there is a BIOS once the OS is loaded.
It's code which I can't control, and where I have no way out if it fails.
And it fails often...
I know, sometimes there is no choice (eg APM).

> Option #2: Make the existing probe code more robust, so that it
> 	works on all the hardware it currently works, on *and* the
> 	Connectix emulatior.

That must be possible. Perhaps take the other mode if no device
is found? I didn't find a PC which uses mode 2, otherwise I'd
play with it a bit.

> I dunno, mode 1 is so dominant these that maybe we could just make it
> the default for NetBSD/i386, and have a `quirks' table for broken x86
> PCI controllers that need mode 2.  Or are all the mode-2 controllers
> so old there's no good way to autodetect them?

Unfortunately, the PCI configuration must be running before
the ID of the bridge chip can be read...
Stronger preferrence for mode 1 seems a good idea however.

best regards
Matthias