NetBSD-5.0.2/share/man/man4/man4.i386/pnpbios.4

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.Dd September 27, 2002
.Dt PNPBIOS 4 i386
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm pnpbios
.Nd introduction to PnP BIOS support
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Cd "pnpbios0 at mainbus?"
.Cd "XX*      at pnpbios0 index ?"
.Pp
.Cd options PNPBIOSVERBOSE
.Cd options PNPBIOSDEBUG
.Sh INTRODUCTION
.Nm
provides support for finding and attaching devices by
extracting information from the PnP BIOS of a machine.
.Sh SUPPORTED DEVICES
.Nx
includes the following
.Nm
drivers, sorted by driver name:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width speaker -offset indent -compact
.It com
serial communications interface
.It ess
ESS Technology AudioDrive family audio device driver
.It fdc
floppy controller
.It joy
game controller
.It lpt
parallel port driver
.It npx
math coprocessor
.It pciide
PCI IDE controllers driver
.It pckbc
PC keyboard/mouse controller
.It sb
SoundBlaster family audio device driver
.It wss
Windows Sound System hardware driver
.It ym
Yamaha OPL3-SA3 sound driver
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr com 4 ,
.Xr ess 4 ,
.Xr fdc 4 ,
.Xr intro 4 ,
.Xr isa 4 ,
.Xr joy 4 ,
.Xr lpt 4 ,
.Xr npx 4 ,
.Xr pci 4 ,
.Xr pciide 4 ,
.Xr pckbc 4 ,
.Xr sb 4 ,
.Xr wss 4 ,
.Xr ym 4
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
driver
appeared in
.Nx 1.5 .
.Sh BUGS
The
.Nm
bus provides a different way to attach devices than the real buses
(e.g.,
.Xr isa 4 ) .
The reason to use
.Nm
instead of the real bus is that some machines have weird routings
of, e.g., interrupts.  The exact information about these things can
be found in the BIOS, which is why the
.Nm
bus has a better chance of succeeding with getting it right.
.Pp
Many older BIOS implementations do not support PnP,
and some newer ones do not follow the standards.