Method for selectively booting from a desired peripheral device

• US 6,105,130 A
• Filed: 01/30/1998
• Issued: 08/15/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: PMC-Sierra Incorporated (Microchip Technology Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Adaptec Incorporated (Steel Partners Holdings LP)
• Inventors: Lin, Yen-Chung, Wu, Gilbert Chang-Tying
• Primary Examiner(s): Heckler, Thomas M.
• Application Number:
  US09/016,764
• Time in Patent Office: 928 Days
• Field of Search: 713/1, 713/2
• US Class Current: 713/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4408 Boot device selection

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for booting a computer system. The computer system includes a first device and a second device which, during initialization of the computer system, are each respectively automatically associated with a unique identification used in a computer generated request to indicate whether the first device or the second device is to respond to the computer generated request. The method includes the act modifying each unique identification that is associated with the first device and the second device of the computer system. In this manner, the second device responds to the computer generated request for the first device, and the first device responds to the computer generated request for the second device.

Claims

1. A method for booting a computer system having a plurality of devices including an IDE device and a SCSI device, comprising:

initializing the computer system, the initializing causing an automatic identification of the IDE device as a boot device;

the initializing including,

searching for the IDE device before the automatic identification of the IDE device as the boot device; and

searching for the SCSI device before the SCSI device is specified to be the boot device;

specifying the SCSI device to be the boot device so that the computer system boots from the SCSI device and not from the IDE device and the specifying is in part a function of an input from a user.

2. A method for booting a computer system as recited in claim 1, further comprising the act of:

building a device chain of the found IDE and SCSI devices in sequential order such that a first device is located in the device chain before a second device that was found before the first device.

3. A method for booting a computer system as recited in claim 2, wherein the device chain is an INT13 chain.

4. A method for booting a computer system as recited in claim 2, further comprising the acts of:

requesting a response from a device located in the device chain subsequent to the specified SCSI device, the requesting incorporating a reference to the device located in the device chain subsequent to the specified SCSI device;

determining whether the request is directed to the specified SCSI device;

modifying the reference to the device located in the device chain subsequent to the specified SCSI device when it is determined that the request is not directed at the specified SCSI device;

determining whether the request is directed at the device located in the device chain subsequent to the specified SCSI device by evaluating the modified reference; and

responding to the request with the device located in the device chain subsequent to the specified SCSI device.

5. A method for booting a computer system as recited in claim 4, wherein the requesting a response is a read request and the responding to the request includes a reading of the device located in the device chain subsequent to the specified SCSI device.

6. A method for booting a computer system as recited in claim 4, wherein the requesting a response is a write request and the responding to the request includes a writing to the device located in the device chain subsequent to the specified SCSI device.

7. A method for booting a computer system as recited in claim 4, wherein the reference is a numerical reference and the modification is a decrement by one.

8. A method for booting a computer system as recited in claim 4, wherein the reference is a numerical reference and the modification is a decrement by three.

10. A method for booting a computer system as recited in claim 1 further comprising the act of:

booting the computer system from the SCSI device wherein the booting comprises the acts of;

requesting to read a sector of the boot device; and

responding to the requesting to read with the SCSI device such that a sector of the SCSI device is read.

11. A method for booting a computer system as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

building a device chain of the found IDE and SCSI devices in sequential order such that a first device is located in the device chain before a second device that was found before the first device; and

wherein the request to read is sequentially directed to the devices of the device chain in the order of their location in the device chain, until a device responds to the request.

12. A method for booting a computer system as recited in claim 11, wherein the request to read is first directed to a device listed first in the device chain.

13. A method for booting a computer system as recited in claim 12, wherein the found SCSI device is located in the device chain before the found IDE device and the request to read is first directed to the SCSI device.

9. A method for booting a computer system having a plurality of devices including an IDE device and a SCSI device, the method comprising the acts of:

initializing the computer system, the initializing causing an automatic identification of the IDE device as a boot device; and

specifying the SCSI device to be the boot device so that the computer system boots from the SCSI device and not from the IDE device, the specifying is in part a function of an input from a user and the SCSI comprises a SCSI BIOS, such that the specifying is performed by the SCSI BIOS when the input from the user is a specific input.

14. A method for booting a computer system, having a first device and a second device which, during initialization of the computer system, are each respectively automatically associated with a unique identification used in a computer generated request to indicate whether the first device or the second device is to respond to the computer generated request, the method comprising the act of:

modifying each unique identification that is associated with the first device and the second device of the computer system, such that the second device responds to the computer generated request for the first device, and the first device responds to the computer generated request for the second device, wherein the modifying is performed in response to an input by a user desiring to boot from the second device and the modifying being performed by a BIOS of the second device.

15. A method for booting a computer system as recited in claim 14, wherein the first device is an IDE device and the second device is a SCSI device.

16. A method for booting a computer system as recited in claim 15, wherein the computer generated request is a boot read request for the IDE device, such that the computer system boots from the SCSI device.

17. A method for booting a computer system as recited in claim 16, wherein the boot read request uses the unique identification associated with the first device and wherein the boot read request comprises the act of requesting to read a medium of a boot device.

18. A method for booting a computer system as recited in claim 17, wherein the unique identification associated with the first device is 80h.

19. A method for booting a computer system that is connected to an IDE device and a SCSI device, the method comprising the acts of:

searching for the IDE device;

searching for the SCSI device after the searching for the IDE device has been performed;

identifying the SCSI device as a boot device, the identifying of the SCSI device is commenced in part due to a user input; and

booting from the identified SCSI device.

20. A method for booting a computer system as recited in claim 19, further comprising the act of:

building a device chain of the found IDE and SCSI devices in sequential order, such that the SCSI device is located in the device chain immediately before the IDE device that was found immediately before the SCSI device.

21. A method for booting a computer system as recited in claim 19, further comprising the act of:

associating an identifier with the IDE device when the IDE device is found by the searching, such that the IDE device is identified as the boot device before searching for the SCSI device.

22. A method for booting a computer system as recited in claim 21, further comprising the act of:

requesting a read of a first sector of the boot device, the request identifying the boot device by using the identifier associated with the IDE device.

23. A method for booting a computer system as recited in claim 22, wherein the identifier associated with the IDE device is 80h.

24. A method for booting a computer system as recited in claim 22, wherein when the request to read is performed, the SCSI device responds such that the first sector of the SCSI device is read.

25. A method for booting and subsequently operating a computer system that is connected to a peripheral device, the method comprising the acts of:

searching for IDE devices;

associating identifications with each found IDE device, including associating the boot drive identification with the first encountered IDE device;

building a device chain with found IDE devices, such that the first encountered device is the last device of the device chain;

searching for SCSI devices;

associating identifications with each found SCSI device;

adding to the device chain the found SCSI devices, such that the last encountered device is the first device of the device chain;

identifying one of the SCSI devices as the boot device if a user input is received;

requesting to read the first sector of the drive associated with the boot drive identification;

responding to the read request with the SCSI device that was identified as the boot device by the user input; and

requesting an operation for a device other than the boot device, such that the requesting of an operation includes identifying the device by an identification other than the boot device identification.

26. A method for booting and subsequently operating a computer system that is connected to a peripheral device as recited in claim 25, wherein the devices are located in the device chain in reverse order of when the devices were found, such that all found SCSI devices are located on the device chain before all found IDE devices.