what is a vesa standard? If you go to XOSL(extended operating system loader) site the boot manager requires you to meet the VESA standard, ok exactly what is the vesa standard? I don't have VESA slots on my board(VESA IS basically a ISA plus a backwards pci slot*32bit)

VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) Local Bus is an expansion slot interface that LOOKS like a backwards PCI slot joined with an ISA slot but is NOT a backwards PCI slot. VESA was an improvement of the old 16bit ISA slots. VESA allowed 32bit data transfer at 50mhz speed versus the old ISA speed of 8mhz/16bits. There was not established standard for VESA meaning that your VESA card may work in one computer and not another. PCI (Peripheral Connect Interface) was designed by Intel for use in Pentium class computers and can transfer 64bits of data at a time (I know, I know, Windows is only 32 bits but PCI could handle a 64bit operating system). Again, VESA is not a backwards PCI slot.

AGAIN, VESA & PCI are different. It's not a backwards PCI slot. Remember that. A lot of video cards came with firmware for VESA directly on the card's ROM. This is what VESA Onboard refers to, which is probably what XOSL needs. You can load drivers at DOS-level which provide VESA BIOS Extensions (VBE), like UNIVESA and UNIVBE. These must be loaded as a TSR though, which doesn't help with XOSL. I don't think you need a VESA Local Bus in order to have VESA onboard. Firmware is enough, usually.

Unless you have a problem with it, I would not worry about it. People are always writing standards. Some ISA slots may not meet the VESA standard, but unless you have a VESA extension attached what difference is it going to make? Another thing you do not need that loader unless you have extensions on your ISA slots. (It was an EXTENDED Operating System Loader) I don't know a single VESA requirement, but somewhere there is a document listing the things the rest of the computer must have in order to add VESA slots to a motherboard. Such a board would meet the VESA standard. You would have to locate a VESA Standards document to discover just what the requirements are. To us it just means you have to have a VESA board to know the loader is going to work for sure. Obviously, I am jumping to conclusions here. Did you have any actual problem with the loader?