Frob Linux Control Port Register

See if you can find a copy of Eric S. Raymond's "Jargon File". In there, you will find:

======================================================================== :bit twiddling: n. 3. Approx. syn. for {bit bashing}; esp. used for the act of frobbing the device control register of a peripheral in an attempt to get it back to a known state.

:frob: /frob/

1. n. [MIT; very common] The {TMRC} definition was "FROB = a protruding arm or trunnion"; by metaphoric extension, a frob is any random small thing; an object that you can comfortably hold in one hand; something you can frob (sense 2). See {frobnitz}.
2. vt. Abbreviated form of {frobnicate}.
3. [from the {MUD} world] A command on some MUDs that changes a player's experience level (this can be used to make wizards); also, to request {wizard} privileges on the `professional courtesy' grounds that one is a wizard elsewhere. The command is actually `frobnicate' but is universally abbreviated to the shorter form.

:frobnicate: /frob´ni·kayt/, vt.

[Poss. derived from {frobnitz}, and usually abbreviated to {frob}, but frobnicate is recognized as the official full form.:] To manipulate or adjust, to tweak. One frequently frobs bits or other 2-state devices. Thus: "Please frob the light switch" (that is, flip it), but also "Stop frobbing that clasp; you'll break it". One also sees the construction to frob a frob. See {tweak} and {twiddle}.

Usage: frob, twiddle, and tweak sometimes connote points along a continuum. `Frob' connotes aimless manipulation; twiddle connotes gross manipulation, often a coarse search for a proper setting; tweak connotes fine-tuning. If someone is turning a knob on an oscilloscope, then if he's carefully adjusting it, he is probably tweaking it; if he is just turning it but looking at the screen, he is probably twiddling it; but if he's just doing it because turning a knob is fun, he's frobbing it. The variant frobnosticate has been recently reported.

:frobnitz: /frob´nits/, pl., frobnitzem, /frob´nit·zm/, frobni, /frob'ni:/, n.

[TMRC] An unspecified physical object, a widget. Also refers to electronic black boxes. This rare form is usually abbreviated to frotz, or more commonly to {frob}. Also used are frobnule (/frob´n[y]ool/) and frobule (/frob´yool/). Starting perhaps in 1979, frobozz /fr@-boz´/ (plural: frobbotzim /fr@-bot´zm/) has also become very popular, largely through its exposure as a name via {Zork}. These variants can also be applied to nonphysical objects, such as data structures. For related amusement, see the Encyclopedia Frobozzica.

Pete Samson, compiler of the original {TMRC} lexicon, adds, "Under the TMRC [railroad] layout were many storage boxes, managed (in 1958) by David R. Sawyer. Several had fanciful designations written on them, such as `Frobnitz Coil Oil'. Perhaps DRS intended Frobnitz to be a proper name, but the name was quickly taken for the thing". This was almost certainly the origin of the term. ========================================================================

That would fit the third definition of "bit twiddling", though I'm not sure of the exact bits to send to the register.

Old guy