System and method for extension of the BIOS boot specification
AssigneeDell Products L.P.
InventorsVaden A. Mohrmann, Lowell B. Dennis
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method is disclosed for extending the BIOS Boot Specification. The specification is extended to accommodate the identification of a greater number of bootable devices. The specification is also extended so that the identifier for each bootable device identifies the default boot order of the device. The specification is also extended to provide additional information about the type of each bootable device and whether each bootable device is an onboard or add-in device. The extension of the BIOS Boot Specification also allows for the designation of certain entries as placeholders for devices that that are supported by the computer system, but not present in the computer system.
Claims19
A method for extending the boot order specification of a computer system, comprising:
- for each bootable device that is present in the computer system, including in a current boot order stored in the computer system an entry that has an identifier for the bootable device, wherein the identifier in the entry has a bit length of greater than four bits, and wherein the entry for the bootable device identifies a default boot order of the bootable device;
- and
- for at least one bootable device that is not present in the computer system, using a flag in an entry in the boot order specification to identify that the entry is a place holder for a bootable device that is supported by the computer system but not present in the computer system;
- initiating at a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) of the computer system a first boot sequence using the default boot order if a system event has occurred;
- and
- initiating at the BIOS a second boot sequence using the current boot order if the system event has not occurred.
A method for resetting the boot order of a computing system from the current boot order of the computer system to a default boot order, comprising:
- booting the computer system according to the current boot order of the computer system;
- for each bootable device that is present in the computer system, providing a data structure that includes an entry that has an identifier for the bootable device, wherein the entry identifies the default boot order of the bootable device;
- recognizing in the computer system a system event to cause the computer system to boot according to the default boot order of the computing device;
- and
- booting according to the default boot order on the next subsequent boot of the computer system.
A method for extending the boot order specification of a computer system, comprising:
- for each bootable device that is present in the computer system, providing in a current boot order stored in the computer system a data structure that includes an entry that has an identifier for the bootable device, wherein the identifier in the entry has a bit length of greater than four bits, wherein the entry identifies a default boot order of the bootable device
- initiating at a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) of the computer system a first boot sequence using the default boot order if a system event has occurred;
- and
- initiating at the BIOS a second boot sequence using the current boot order if the system event has not occurred.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.