All our PCs have a "registry", usually in CMOS memory. Our experience suggests that all sorts of horrid things may lurk there. To Windows users it is kept a dark secret. Does this range of memory appear anywhere in our LINUX file structure, where would it be mounted, and what happens in a dual-boot system where we have to share it with Bill Gates ? Regards. -- Geoff Bagley
Um... no... that's not quite right!
The registry is part of the Windoze operating system. it's used to keep
setting for programs and for the Windoze operating system. This gives
ordinary users the ability, using regedit, to mess up Windoze so badly that
it won't even boot :) [Don't try it - I'm not joking!]
It isn't kept in CMOS, it's in normal memory. You could theoretically
damage it from a dual boot linux system because (at least under SuSE 7.1)
you can access the Windoze file system on the Windoze partition. But you
are no worse off in this regard than just running Windoze.
I don't think you need worry, unless you have a rampant desire to tamper
and to discover that it is much easier to install Linux than it is to
re-install Windoze...
alan
----- Original Message -----
From: "Geoff Bagley"
No such animal in Linux - the registry. The CMOS is OS independent. It is basic a very small system that, well, tells a computer that it's a computer. The CMOS does stuff like look for the IDE ports, RAM, floppy, the PCI, ISA, and AGP buses. To give an analogy: If the OS is the higher function of the brain, then the CMOS would be the brain stem and middle brain the handles the basic autonomic functions like breathing, hearbeats, blood pressure, etc... In otherwords, you can start up you computer without an OS (granted it won't do alot), but you can't start up you computer without a CMOS - 'cause the computer doesn't know it's a computer - can't find the hard drives, the cdrom, the video system, the monitor, the ram,etc..... The Registry is specifically for the OS (namely the Windows OS, I don't believe the Mac uses one). this is the place where all the "software" settings are kept for hardware, programs, .dll's (ah the dreaded dll), the user settings and preferences. This is where alot of the corruption in MS products originates. It is one of the main reasons that M$ products need to "reboot" when change things (like new program install, updates, etc..). Linux has no such isssues. You can (in 99%) of the time update and change the OS on the fly, without reboots or associated hassles. On Thursday 31 May 2001 03:50 am, Geoff Bagley wrote:
All our PCs have a "registry", usually in CMOS memory.
Our experience suggests that all sorts of horrid things may lurk there. To Windows users it is kept a dark secret.
Does this range of memory appear anywhere in our LINUX file structure, where would it be mounted, and what happens in a dual-boot system where we have to share it with Bill Gates ?
Regards.
participants (3)
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Alan Lenton
-
Curtis Rey
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Geoff Bagley