getting a OS to run

jaeg · Post by **jaeg** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 11:30 am

My biggest problem that I really don't understand is how do I get a os to boot without a floppy? I read about GRUB but I don't understand it.

Alboin · Post by **Alboin** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 11:38 am

You use an emulator that loads your finished disk image. (They can load files in place of a drive.)

As for GRUB, it's installed as the bootloader to your disk image. It loads a file in the disk's directory and jumps to it. (Ignoring everything else it does to simplify the matter.) This way you can ignore writing a boot loader and start with the kernel itself. (ie. the important part.)

Combuster · Post by **Combuster** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 3:35 pm

If you mean that you don't have (or want to use) a floppy drive, you can use bootable cd's (rewritables obviously) or boot from harddisk using GRUB (linux recommended)

http://www.osdev.org/wiki/Bootable_CD
http://www.osdev.org/wiki/GRUB

jaeg · Post by **jaeg** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 8:25 pm

Do you have to have Linux for Grubs?

Maybe this will help. The OS I am making doesn't really do much of anything it is just for fun and it is being put on a really old Compaq laptop that currently has Windows 3.1 on it. I want to take Windows 3.1 off it and put my simple OS that I am working on on it. The OS will do only simple tasks and is just for fun.

Alboin · Post by **Alboin** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 8:32 pm

jaeg wrote:Do you have to have Linux for Grubs?

Nope.

jaeg · Post by **jaeg** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 8:44 pm

Do you guys use GRUBS Legacy or GRUBS 2?

EDIT
How do I get the laptop to run GRUBS and not the Windows 3.1 loader?

Alboin · Post by **Alboin** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 8:46 pm

jaeg wrote:Do you guys use GRUBS Legacy or GRUBS 2?

Legacy.

jaeg · Post by **jaeg** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 8:53 pm

I am looking through the manual and I am having trouble understanding it. So all I have to do is to put GRUBS and my simple OS which is a .bin file on the computer then tell GRUBS where the file is?

jaeg · Post by **jaeg** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 6:05 pm

My situation has changed I am no longer using the Compaq laptop I now am using a old Compaq computer that has a floppy and a CD drive.

Can anybody help?

neon · Post by **neon** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 8:14 pm

I personally use VFD (Virtual Floppy Drive) in combination with
Bochs emulator to create a FAT12 bootable virtual floppy image.

VFD can also output the floppy image to disk, so you can easily
burn to a bootable CD.

What exactally are you having problems with?

jaeg · Post by **jaeg** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 9:17 pm

I was just having trouble understanding how to get the OS to boot.
I think I got it figured out. I am going to look at the VFD.