__apm_bios_call_simple(9)

📦 version 7.3.1, in nixpkgs unstable

🌸 __apm_bios_call_simple — the kernel API manual, bestie edition 🌸

okay so real talk, we are deep in __apm_bios_call_simple(9) territory today and honestly? it's giving "niche but essential." this is the 9 section of the manual, so yeah, kernel API hours. buckle up 💅

✨ NAME ✨

__apm_bios_call_simple — make an APM BIOS 32bit call (on CPU 0) 🎀

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

long __apm_bios_call_simple (void *_call );

✨ ARGUMENTS ✨

  • _call — pointer to struct apm_bios_call. that's it. that's the whole argument. she's low maintenance 💖

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

okay so what this does is make a BIOS call that returns one value only, or literally just status. super minimal, super demure of it honestly.

here's the tea though 🫖 — if there's an error, the error code comes back in AH (that's bits 8-15 of eax for anyone keeping score) and this function returns non-zero. it can also return -ENOMEM, which, like, valid.

this one is used for the simpler BIOS operations. the easy stuff. the "no thoughts head empty" of BIOS calls 🦋

⚠️ big warning bestie: this call may hold interrupts off for a long time on some laptops. like, a long time. no cap. do not sleep on that. 😭

✨ NOTE ✨

heads up — this makes the call on the current CPU. current, not CPU 0, even though the NAME line up there says CPU 0. that's the vibe. iykyk 😌

✨ SEE ALSO ✨

this makes the call from the kernel file ./arch/x86/kernel/apm_32.c — and look at this whole friend group 🫶:

and that's the whole page, periodt 💀✨ this came to you from the ./arch/x86/kernel source, dated October 2026, and yes she ate, no crumbs left behind 👑🌈 bye bestie, go make some BIOS calls responsibly 🧚💜

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