Today most all new internal boards (cards) are Plug-and-Play (PnP). There are 5 different methods listed below to cope with PnP (but some may not be feasible in your situation). If the device driver configures it, then you don't need to do anything. If the BIOS configures it, you hope that the driver can find out what the BIOS did (you may need to tell it this in a configuration file or the like).
Any of the above will set the bus-resources in the hardware but only the first one tells the driver what has been done. How the driver gets informed depends on the driver. You may need to do something to inform it. See Tell the Driver the Configuration
Many device drivers (with the help of code provided by the kernel) will use PnP methods to set the bus-resources in the hardware but only for the device that they control. Since the driver has done the configuring, it obviously knows the configuration and there is no need for you to tell it this info. This is obviously the easiest way to do it since you don't have to do anything if the driver does it all.
For PCI devices, most drivers will configure PnP but for ISA devices it's problematical. This is because PCI has always been inherently PnP even though PnP for PCI was called "PCI Configuration" (and still is). For ISA, the kernel provided no functions for PnP configuring until version 2.4. So if you have a late version of both the kernel and the driver then the driver is more likely to configure PnP (bus-resources). But if you have older versions (or if the driver maintainer didn't add PnP to it) then the driver will likely not configure PnP.
Unfortunately, a driver may grab bus-resources that are needed by other devices (but not yet allocated to them by the kernel). Thus a true PnP Linux kernel would be better where the kernel did the allocation after all requests were in. See How Linux Does PnP.
If you have a PnP BIOS, it can configure the hardware. This means that your BIOS reads the resource requirements of all devices and configures them (allocates bus-resources to them). It is a substitute for a PnP OS except that the BIOS doesn't match up the drivers with their devices nor tell the drivers how it has done the configuring. It should normally use the configuration it has stored in its non-volatile memory (ESCD). If it finds a new device or if there's a conflict, the BIOS should make the necessary changes to the configuration and may not use the same configuration as was in the ESCD. In this case it should update the ESCD to reflect the new situation.
Your BIOS must support such configuring and there have been cases where it doesn't do it correctly or completely. An advantage of using the BIOS is that it's simple since in most cases there is nothing to set up (except to tell the BIOS's CMOS menu it's not a PnP OS). While many device drivers will be able to automatically detect what the BIOS has done, in some cases you may need to determine it (not always easy). See What Is My Current Configuration? Another possible advantage is that the BIOS does its work before Linux starts so that all the bus-resources are ready to be used (and found) by the device drivers that start up later.
According to MS it's only optional (not required) that a PnP BIOS be able to PnP-configure the devices (without help from MS Windows). But it seems that most of the ones made after 1996 ?? or so can do it. We should send them thank-you notes if they do it right. They configure both the PCI and ISA buses, but it has been claimed that some older BIOSs can only do the PCI. To try to find out more about your BIOS, look on the Web. Please don't ask me as I don't have data on this. The details of the BIOS that you would like to know about may be hard to find (or not available). Some BIOSs may have minimal PnP capabilities and seemingly expect the operating system to do it right. If this happens you'll either have to find another method or try to set up the ESCD database if the BIOS has one. See the next section.
The BIOS maintains a non-volatile database containing a PnP-configuration that it will try to use. It's called the ESCD (Extended System Configuration Data). Again, the provision of ESCD is optional but most PnP-BIOSs have it. The ESCD not only stores the resource-configuration of PnP devices but also stores configuration information of non-PnP devices (and marks them as such) so as to avoid conflicts. The ESCD data is usually saved on a chip and remains intact when the power is off, but sometimes it's kept on a hard-drive??
The ESCD is intended to hold the last used configuration, but if you use a program such as Linux's isapnp or pci utilities (which doesn't update the ESCD) then the ESCD will not know about this and will not save this configuration in the ESCD. A good PnP OS might update the ESCD so you can use it later on for a non-PnP OS (like standard Linux). MS Windows does this only in special cases. See Using Windows to set ESCD.
To use what's set in ESCD be sure you've set "Not a PnP OS" or the like in the BIOS's CMOS. Then each time the BIOS starts up (before the Linux OS is loaded) it should configure things this way. If the BIOS detects a new PnP card which is not in the ESCD, then it must allocate bus-resources to the card and update the ESCD. It may even have to change the bus-resources assigned to existing PnP cards and modify the ESCD accordingly.
If each device saved its last configuration in its hardware, hardware configuring wouldn't be needed each time you start your PC. But it doesn't work this way. So all the ESCD data needs to be kept correct if you use the BIOS for PnP. There are some BIOSs that don't have an ESCD but do have some non-volatile memory to store info regarding which bus-resources have been reserved for use by non-PnP cards. Many BIOSs have both.
If the BIOS doesn't set up the ESCD the way you want it (or the way it should be) then it would be nice to have a Linux utility to set the ESCD. As of early 1999 there wasn't any and now in 2001 no one has told me about any. Thus one may resort to attempting to use Windows (if you have it on the same PC) to do this.
There are three ways to use Windows to try to set/modify the ESCD. One way is to use the ICU utility designed for DOS or Windows 3.x. It should also work OK for Windows 9x/2k ?? Another way is to set up devices manually ("forced") under Windows 9x/2k so that Windows will put this info into the ESCD when Windows is shut down normally. The third way is only for legacy devices that are not plug-and-play. If Windows knows about them and what bus-resources they use, then Windows should put this info into the ESCD.
If PnP devices are configured automatically by Windows without the user "forcing" it to change settings, then such settings probably will not make it into the ESCD. Of course Windows may well decide on its own to configure the same as what is set in the ESCD so they could wind up being the same by coincidence.
Windows 9x are PnP operating systems and automatically PnP-configure devices. They maintain their own PnP-database deep down in the Registry (stored in binary Windows files). There is also a lot of other configuration stuff in the Registry besides PnP-bus-resources. There is both a current PnP resource configuration in memory and another (perhaps about the same) stored on the hard disk. To look at this in Windows98 or to force changes to it you use the Device Manager.
In Windows98 there are 2 ways to get to the Device Manager: 1. My Computer --> Control Panel --> System Properties --> Device Manager. 2. (right-click) My Computer --> Properties --> Device Manager. Then in Device Manager you select a device (sometimes a multi-step process if there are a few devices of the same class). Then click on "Properties" and then on "Resources". To attempt to change the resource configuration manually, uncheck "Use automatic settings" and then click on "Change Settings". Now try to change the setting, but it may not let you change it. If it does let you, you have "forced" a change. A message should inform you that it's being forced. If you want to keep the existing setting shown by Windows but make it "forced" then you will have to force a change to something else and then force it back to its original setting.
To see what has been "forced" under Windows98 look at the "forced hardware" list: Start --> Programs --> Accessories --> System Tools --> System Information --> Hardware Resources --> Forced Hardware. When you "force" a change of bus-resources in Windows, it should put your change into the ESCD (provided you exit Windows normally). From the "System Information" window you may also inspect how IRQs and IO ports have been allocated under Windows.
Even if Windows shows no conflict of bus-resources, there may be a conflict under Linux. That's because Windows may assign bus-resources differently than the ESCD does. In the the rare case where all devices under Windows are either legacy devices or have been "forced", then Windows and the ESCD configurations should be identical.
If you add a new PnP device and have the BIOS set to "not a PnP OS", then the BIOS should automatically configure it and store the configuration in ESCD. If it's a non-PnP legacy device (or one made that way by jumpers, etc.) then here are a few options to handle it:
You may be able to tell the BIOS directly (via the CMOS setup menus) that certain bus-resources it uses (such as IRQs) are reserved and are not to be allocated by PnP. This does not put this info into the ESCD. But there may be a BIOS menu selection as to whether or not to have these CMOS choices override what may be in the ESCD in case of conflict. Another method is to run ICU under DOS/Windows. Still another is to install it manually under Windows 9x/2k and then make sure its configuration is "forced" (see the previous section). If it's "forced" Windows should update the ESCD when you shut down the PC.
Many devices are PnP only with no option for disabling PnP. But for some, you may be able to disable PnP by jumpers or by running a Windows program that comes with the device (jumperless configuration). If the device driver can't configure it this will avoid the possibly complicated task of doing PnP configuring. Don't forget to tell the BIOS that these bus-resources are reserved. There are also some reasons why you might not want to disable PnP:
Unfortunately, much of the documentation for isapnp is still difficult to understand unless you know the basics of PnP. This HOWTO should help you understand it as well the FAQ that comes with it. isapnp is only for PnP devices on the ISA bus (non-PCI). Running the Linux program "isapnp" at boot-time will configure such devices to the resource values specified in /etc/isapnp.conf. Its possible to create this configuration file automatically but you then must edit it manually to choose between various options.
With isapnp there's a danger that a device driver which is built into the kernel may run too early before isapnp has set the address, etc. in the hardware. This results in the device driver not being able to find the device. The driver tries the right address but the address hasn't been set yet in the hardware.
If your Linux distribution automatically installed isapnptools, isapnp may already be running at startup. In this case, all you need to do is to edit /etc/isapnp.conf per "man isapnp.conf". Note that this is like manually configuring PnP since you make the decisions as to how to configure as you edit the configuration file. You can use the program "pnpdump" to help create the configuration file. It almost creates a configuration file for you but you must skillfully edit it a little before using it. It contains some comments to help you edit it. If you use "isapnp" for configuring and have a PnP BIOS, you you may want to tell the BIOS (when you set it up) that you don't have a PnP OS since you may want the BIOS to configure the PCI devices. While the BIOS may also configure the ISA devices, isapnp will redo it.
The terminology used in the /etc/isapnp.conf file may seem odd at first. For example for an I0 address of 0x3e8 you might see "(IO 0 (BASE 0x3e8))" instead. The "IO 0" means this is the first (0th) IO address-range that this device uses. Another way to express all this would be: "IO[0] = 0x3e8" but isapnp doesn't do it this way. "IO 1" would mean that this is the second IO address range used by this device, etc. "INT 0" has a similar meaning but for IRQs (interrupts). A single card may contain several physical devices but the above explanation was for just one of these devices.
The package PCI Utilities (= pciutils, incorrectly called "pcitools"), should let you manually PnP-configure the PCI bus. "lspci" or "scanpci" (Xwindows) lists bus-resources while "setpci" sets resource allocations in the hardware devices. It appears that setpci is mainly intended for use in scripts and presently one needs to know the details of the PCI configuration registers in order to use it. That's a topic not explained here nor in the manual page for setpci.
If you have Windows9x (or 2k) on the same PC, then just start Windows and let it configure PnP. Then start Linux from Windows (or DOS). But there may be a problem with IRQs for PCI devices. As Windows shuts down to make way for Linux, it may erase (zero) the IRQ which is stored in one of the PCI device's configuration registers. Linux will complain that it has found an IRQ of zero.
The above is reported to happen if you start Linux using a shortcut (PIF file). But a workaround is reported where you still use the shortcut PIF. A shortcut is something like a symbolic link in Linux but it's more than that since it may be "configured". To start Linux (from DOS you create a batch file (script) which starts Linux. (The program that starts Linux is in the package called "loadlin"). Then create a PIF shortcut to that batch file and get to the "Properties" dialog box for the shortcut. Select "Advanced" and then check "MS-DOS mode" to get it to start in genuine MS-DOS.
Now here's the trick to prevent zeroing the PCI IRQs. Check "Specify a new MS-DOS configuration". Then either accept the default configuration presented to you or click on "Configuration" to change it. Now when you start Linux by clicking on the shortcut, new configuration files (Config.sys and Autoexec.bat) will be created per your new configuration.
The old files are stored as "Config.wos and Autoexec.wos". After you are done using Linux and shut down your PC then you'll need these files again so that you can run DOS the next time you start your PC. You need to ensure that the names get restored to *.sys and *.bat. When you leave Windows/DOS to enter Linux, Windows is expecting that when you are done using Linux you will return to Windows so that Windows can automatically restore these files to their original names. But this doesn't happen since when you exit Linux you shut down your PC and don't get back to Windows. So how do you get these files renamed? It's easy, just put commands into your "start-Linux" batch file to rename these files to their *.bat and *.sys names. Put these renaming commands into your batch file just before the line that loads Linux.
Also it's reported that you should click on the "General" tab (of the "Properties" dialog of your shortcut) and check "Read-only". Otherwise Windows may reset the "Advanced Settings" to "Use current MS-DOS configuration" and PCI IRQs get zeroed. Thus Windows erases the IRQs when you use the current MS-DOS configuration but doesn't erase when you use a new configuration (which may actually configure things identical to the old configuration). Windows does not seem to be very consistent.