Arch Linux

Shagbag

Member

Registered: 2006-10-25

Posts: 259

If I turn off my on-board VGA in the BIOS can the kernel see it?

I'm curious to know if the kernel is subject to the BIOS or if the kernel does its own 'hardware investigating' of the motherboard.
Specifically, plugging a PCIe graphics card into the motherboard usually results in the BIOS shutting down the on-board VGA (doesn't it?).
If the BIOS does this, will that mean the kernel won't see the on-board VGA and that I'll need to re-enable it in the BIOS?
Or is the kernel 'all seeing' in that no matter what the BIOS does, the kernel will still see all hardware and make it available to the user for configuration?

samoturk

Member

From: Ljubljana, Slovenia

Registered: 2007-02-12

Posts: 86

Re: If I turn off my on-board VGA in the BIOS can the kernel see it?

Don't know about VGA, but if I turn off my onboard audio and lan, than kernel doesn't see either of them. But generally any modern OS should be able to override BIOS settings.