Does Linux have a CMOS Setup Application, possibly from a LiveCD?

[Jonathan Hutchins]

On Mon, March 31, 2008 09:09, Leo Mauler wrote:

> In Ye Olden Days of PC/MS/DRDOS, there were CMOS Setup
> Utilities which could be run from special boot disks.
> If such an application still exists, and works for
> modern CMOSes/BIOSes, I suspect that it is the only
> way I'm going to be able to change the system time on
> this computer, or more to the point tell the
> motherboard BIOS that the Legacy Keyboard option is
> disabled.

What there were were Motherboards who's CMOS lacked a built-in interface
and required a regular disk-based program to change settings.  Those
programs are highly BIOS-specific and not at all general utilities.

Since Linux is able to read and write to the BIOS address range, sure, you
can do it.  The problem is knowing which portion of the address range
means what - and without the interface program that lives in the BIOS,
you're pretty much clueless about that.

The USB interface pre-dates USB "Human Interface Devices" (HID), which is
why you'll see something like "support for legacy devices" in the BIOS
config - which may or may not give you USB keyboard access to the BIOS.

Given that your motherboard is worth probably somewhere between $0 - $10,
why not try to repair that PS/2 connector?  Or just find a similar-spec
board that will use your CPU and RAM.