We have a wiki for Frequently Asked Questions !
It stands at http://www.osdev.org/osfaq2/. The big banner on the top points to it just click it ... It contains many goodies and gets updated/extended frequently.
Have a question about hardware ?
Please, before you post a question about hardware, make sure you bookmarked OS Resource Center and Bona Fide development page. These sites are full of very valuable informations, and will prevent you to receive a rough "try a google search" response
Of course, you can't dare to start without a copy of the System Programming Manual from Intel on your desktop
Note that googling for hardware information will return much more accurate information if you specify "filetype:pdf" in your search...
Have a question about OS design techniques ?
Check out the tutorial section of Bona Fide, and the FAQ about writing your operating system, and more specifically,
[0] the How To ... category,
[0] the Trouble Shooting category and
[0] the hardwhare infos category.
Don't know where to start ?
First, you don't have to start with a bootsector. You can nowadays easily let GRUB do that for you.
If, on the other side, you're looking for general advice like "where to start", "using what tools", "what language", etc. you could check the introduction section of the FAQ, of course, featuring exclusive interviews of Nick Stacky, James T. Klick and Lino Comando ;D
You can also head yourself to So, You Want to Write an Operating System or Climbing the Kernel Mountain articles submitted on OsNews.com (thanks fly to Brian a.k.a. Rock who Searched the F** Web for us
)Another good-to-read-first document is the OS Design document from alt.os by Alistair J. R. Young.
Need some debugging help ?
Remember that we're not bound to any S.A.V. contract, nor do we have the response to every bug. Make sure you provide enough informations about your situation and that you give us the needed listings to help you (though giving a link to 300K zip of your project is unlikely to help
If possible, make an OSID card as soon as possible, providing enough technical informations so that it is possible to focus on solving your problem, and not trying to guess out what is your environment.
How to Search this forum ?
The 'search button' doesn't work that well. You can use the Google-power, though: e.g. searching site:mega-tokyo.com USB will give you everything related to USB we have here. If you are annoyed by multiple reference to the same thread, add "Print Page" to your search and use the cached results.
How to Ask Questions ?
For all the newbies and first-timers here, we kindly suggest you spend a few minutes on "How to Ask Questions" to improve your chances to get useful info from kind people ...
in a nutshell,
* Identify Yourself
* Use a meaningful thread title.
* Don't be lazy
* Check the FAQ: it's the memory of collected knowledge and experience on this board for over 5 years!
* Give all the information needed
* Give only the information needed
* Make your post easy to read
It all comes from reading the "How to ask questions the smart way article Even though it may sound like a rude advice, it will save you from "fighting" with people that get the feeling you ask stuff because your a looser or whatever.
See the FAQ-extension for more links suggestions
). Updates to occure monthly from now on.
