Providing a pre-boot driver for use during operating system runtime of a computer system
First Claim
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1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
- requesting to access a hardware device of a computer system during operating system (OS) runtime of an operating system executing on the computer system;
accessing the hardware device using an OS native driver for the hardware device if the OS native driver is available to the operating system;
finding a pre-boot driver for the hardware device by the computer system if the OS native driver is not available to the operating system; and
accessing the hardware device during the OS runtime using the pre-boot driver if the OS native driver is not available to the operating system.
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Abstract
A method and system to provide a pre-boot driver for use during operating system runtime of a computer system. A request to access a hardware device of the computer system is received during OS runtime. The computer system finds the pre-boot driver for the hardware device. The hardware device is accessed during OS runtime using the pre-boot driver.
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Citations
27 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
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requesting to access a hardware device of a computer system during operating system (OS) runtime of an operating system executing on the computer system; accessing the hardware device using an OS native driver for the hardware device if the OS native driver is available to the operating system; finding a pre-boot driver for the hardware device by the computer system if the OS native driver is not available to the operating system; and accessing the hardware device during the OS runtime using the pre-boot driver if the OS native driver is not available to the operating system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. An article of manufacture comprising:
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a machine-readable medium including a plurality of instructions which when executed by a processor perform operations comprising; discovering a pre-boot driver of a hardware device during a pre-boot phase of a computer system; loading a pre-boot driver image corresponding to the pre-boot driver into a memory device of a computer system; advertising the pre-boot driver in a data structure of the computer system, the data structure available to an operating system of the computer system during OS runtime; accessing the hardware device using an OS native driver for the hardware device if the OS native driver is available to the operating system; and accessing the hardware device during the OS runtime using the pre-boot driver if the OS native driver for the hardware device is not available to the operating system. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. An article of manufacture comprising:
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a machine-readable medium including a plurality of instructions which when executed by a processor perform operations comprising; receiving a request from an application executing on a computer system to access a hardware device of the computer system; accessing the hardware device using an OS native driver for the hardware device if the OS native driver is available to the operating system; finding a pre-boot driver for the hardware device advertised in a data structure of the computer system if the OS native driver is not available to the operating system; and executing a pre-boot driver image corresponding to the pre-boot driver via a pre-boot driver interpreter during operating system runtime if the OS native driver is not available to the operating system. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A computer system, comprising:
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a processor; an expansion board operatively coupled to the processor; and at least one flash device operatively coupled to the processor, the at least one flash device including firmware instructions which when executed by the processor perform operations comprising; initializing the expansion board during a pre-boot phase of the computer system, the expansion board storing a pre-boot driver comprising a pre-boot driver image for the expansion board; loading the pre-boot driver image into a memory device of the computer system during the pre-boot phase; advertising the pre-boot driver in a data structure of the computer system to indicate the location of the pre-boot driver image in the memory device; accessing the hardware device using an OS native driver for the hardware device if the OS native driver is available to the operating system; and accessing the hardware device during the OS runtime using the pre-boot driver if the OS native driver for the hardware device is not available to the operating system. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27)
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Specification