OSDev.org

If some has already made or know where I could find one - a bootloader that is able to load .EXE format kernel (not .COM) ?

Thanx

You'll find virtually all bootloaders will be designed to load basic binary images or some simple variation thereof. EXEs and such-like require the loader to fix up the addresses in the code according to where it is loaded, and as the kernel will (usually) always be loaded at a known location this functionality isn't really needed. Saying that, if you're doing a two-stage loader you should have enough space to carry out this fixing, so you might be able to find one.

Grub will load ELF kernels, and (AFAIK) with some extra support from the kernel almost any kind of other kernel, assuming ofcourse that you do not rely on dynamic linking of libraries.

there are bootloader that load .EXE files (cannot google for them atm.)

Now, you need to know that there are several realities behind the ".exe" thing (e.g. ms-dos 'MZ' executables, 'PE' executables, etc.)

<dex4u bot> Try bootprog, it can load both .COM and .EXE kernels. You can get it from: http://alexfru.chat.ru/epm.html#bootprog </bot>

And thus I stand corrected

I don't know how good this is, but the attached is what I used to use in my kernel's second-stage loader (in 32-bit pmode). Now I have a page-granular rebase utility to set the base address prior to boot time.

Thanks guys, I downloaded bootprog and plan to use it for my small tutorial on Pascal operating system development.

Thanx again

May be you should try "OS Loader" by the same person, as with this you can load test programs not only from the floppy, but also Hdd too, you can also cd, cls ,dir, time, date.
http://alexfru.chat.ru/epm.html#los4d

Oops! Just realized my attachment didn't come through ::)

Anyways, this should be it, if it is still needed.

thanx d00d