[NTLUG:Discuss] Interesting/weird BIOS change by OS

[terry]

On Mon, Sep 8, 2008 at 7:44 PM, Lance Simmons <simmons at udallas.edu> wrote:
> Maybe this is common knowledge, but whenever I trash the wireless on
> my Asus Eee by playing around with the Debian installation (say by
> completely uninstalling one network manager and rebooting before
> trying to install another, incompatible network manager), the BIOS on
> the Eee changes and turns off the wireless.  In order to get it to
> work again, I have to go into the BIOS and re-enable it.
>
> I hadn't realized that an OS could change the BIOS.
>
> As I said, maybe this sort of interplay between the OS and the BIOS is
> common knowledge, but it was news to me.  I'd always thought the BIOS
> was set in stone, and the OS had to operate within the limits set by
> the BIOS.  I guess that shows how crude my understanding is.
>
> --
> Lance Simmons
>
> _______________________________________________
> http://www.ntlug.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>


Another example that comes to mind would be the hardware clock, it is
controlled by the bios but it can also be crontrolled by the OS.

>From man hwclock
       --systohc
              Set the Hardware Clock to the current System Time.