OSDev.org

Posted: **Wed Jun 08, 2005 11:33 am**

Does anyone have any information on producing a freestanding binary (such as an OS kernel), using MS Visual C++ (7)?

Thanks

Posted: **Wed Jun 08, 2005 12:17 pm**

I don't think it's possible, microsoft's compiler isn't designed to do that. You could use it as a code editor though.

srg

Posted: **Wed Jun 08, 2005 12:39 pm**

definitely is possible, i remember reading a paper a while back about making super small binaries by ripping out all the libc stub code and all that. after that you could relativly easily convert PE to whatever as neccessary (or just boot the PE which i think can be done too).

I know as a fact there are some poeple out there using msvc++ for OS dev, it's just a little more annoying than gcc.

proxy

Posted: **Thu Jun 09, 2005 6:29 am**

Hi,

srg wrote:I don't think it's possible, microsoft's compiler isn't designed to do that. You could use it as a code editor though.

I use it as an editor, because I like the cod highlighting and auto-indenting. It's much easier to just use GCC to compile the kernel though.

-Stephen

Posted: **Thu Jun 09, 2005 8:24 am**

To my best knowledge, this will require you to tweak the produced file into a binary form yourself (e.g. there will not be something like "-output=binary"). It is also possible (iirc) to tweak MSVC's compiler and linker options so that it uses a cygwin toolchain (you may lose smart error reports, though). Afaik, this is what most people who like the MSVC front-end do when they turn to osdev'ing.

(oh, and please, keep it clear of "you don't need the MSVC for coloring: XXXedit does it way better" stuff, tnx.)

Posted: **Sat Jun 11, 2005 9:11 am**

Hello, i have written my kernel using the microsoft compiler and linker. I used the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2.
Here are the configurations i made:

Code: Select all

<Configurations>
      <Configuration
         Name="Debug|Win32"
         OutputDirectory="Release"
         IntermediateDirectory="Release"
         ConfigurationType="1"
         CharacterSet="0"
         >
         <Tool
            Name="VCPreBuildEventTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCCustomBuildTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="MASM"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCXMLDataGeneratorTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCWebServiceProxyGeneratorTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCMIDLTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCCLCompilerTool"
            AdditionalOptions="/Yd"
            Optimization="0"
            PreprocessorDefinitions="WIN32;_DEBUG;_CONSOLE"
            IgnoreStandardIncludePath="true"
            StringPooling="true"
            MinimalRebuild="false"
            BasicRuntimeChecks="0"
            SmallerTypeCheck="false"
            RuntimeLibrary="2"
            StructMemberAlignment="1"
            BufferSecurityCheck="false"
            EnableFunctionLevelLinking="true"
            UsePrecompiledHeader="0"
            WarningLevel="3"
            Detect64BitPortabilityProblems="false"
            DebugInformationFormat="0"
            UndefineAllPreprocessorDefinitions="true"
            OmitDefaultLibName="true"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCManagedResourceCompilerTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCResourceCompilerTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCPreLinkEventTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCLinkerTool"
            IgnoreImportLibrary="true"
            AdditionalOptions="/MACHINE:I386 /FIXED /ALIGN:1024"
            LinkIncremental="2"
            IgnoreAllDefaultLibraries="true"
            GenerateDebugInformation="false"
            SubSystem="1"
            EntryPointSymbol="NdosEntryPoint"
            BaseAddress="0x70000"
            TargetMachine="0"
            FixedBaseAddress="2"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCALinkTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCManifestTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCXDCMakeTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCBscMakeTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCFxCopTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCAppVerifierTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCWebDeploymentTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCPostBuildEventTool"
         />
      </Configuration>
      <Configuration
         Name="Release|Win32"
         OutputDirectory="Release"
         IntermediateDirectory="Release"
         ConfigurationType="1"
         CharacterSet="0"
         >
         <Tool
            Name="VCPreBuildEventTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCCustomBuildTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="MASM"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCXMLDataGeneratorTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCWebServiceProxyGeneratorTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCMIDLTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCCLCompilerTool"
            AdditionalOptions="/Yd"
            Optimization="0"
            PreprocessorDefinitions="WIN32;NDEBUG;_CONSOLE"
            IgnoreStandardIncludePath="true"
            StringPooling="true"
            MinimalRebuild="false"
            BasicRuntimeChecks="0"
            RuntimeLibrary="2"
            StructMemberAlignment="1"
            BufferSecurityCheck="false"
            EnableFunctionLevelLinking="true"
            UsePrecompiledHeader="0"
            WarningLevel="3"
            Detect64BitPortabilityProblems="false"
            DebugInformationFormat="0"
            UndefineAllPreprocessorDefinitions="true"
            OmitDefaultLibName="true"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCManagedResourceCompilerTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCResourceCompilerTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCPreLinkEventTool"
            CommandLine="ml /c /coff AKERNEL.ASM
uild
"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCLinkerTool"
            IgnoreImportLibrary="true"
            LinkLibraryDependencies="false"
            AdditionalOptions="/MACHINE:I386 /FIXED /ALIGN:1024"
            AdditionalDependencies="AKERNEL.OBJ"
            LinkIncremental="1"
            IgnoreAllDefaultLibraries="true"
            GenerateDebugInformation="false"
            SubSystem="1"
            OptimizeReferences="0"
            EnableCOMDATFolding="0"
            EntryPointSymbol="NdosEntryPoint"
            BaseAddress="0x70000"
            TargetMachine="0"
            FixedBaseAddress="2"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCALinkTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCManifestTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCXDCMakeTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCBscMakeTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCFxCopTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCAppVerifierTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCWebDeploymentTool"
         />
         <Tool
            Name="VCPostBuildEventTool"
         />
      </Configuration>
   </Configurations>

But i dont like to use this compiler anymore.

Posted: **Sat Jun 11, 2005 4:54 pm**

Once again: YES it is possible. You can use MSVC++ compiler, but I had some problem using MS linker (and I think it cannot produce binary file, only PE) but MinGW works fine with MSVS (error reporting is not so good but....).

Currently I'm working on asm (NASM) syntax coloring support for MSVS.NET 2003, so if someone is interested I will publish it on Internet when I finish it.

Posted: **Fri Jun 24, 2005 3:09 pm**

Hello, maybe some of you started write a kernel with MSVC++.

Maybe you want call global class constructors then you can

use this code.

Code: Select all


#define NULL 0

typedef void (__cdecl *_PVFV)(void);

#pragma data_seg(".CRT$XCA")
_PVFV __xc_a[] = { NULL };

#pragma data_seg(".CRT$XCZ")
_PVFV __xc_z[] = { NULL };

#pragma data_seg()

#pragma comment(linker, "/merge:.CRT=.data")


void __cdecl _initterm (
        _PVFV * pfbegin,
        _PVFV * pfend
        )
{
    while ( pfbegin < pfend )
    {
      if ( *pfbegin != NULL )
            (**pfbegin)();
        ++pfbegin;
    }
}

static _PVFV * pf_atexitlist = 0;
static unsigned max_atexitlist_entries = 0;
static unsigned cur_atexitlist_entries = 0;

void __cdecl _atexit_init(void)
{
    max_atexitlist_entries = 32;
    pf_atexitlist = (_PVFV *)0x500000; /** use your kernel malloc to allocate space **/
}


void InitializeConstructors()
{
   _atexit_init();
   _initterm(__xc_a, __xc_z);
}

Bye.

Posted: **Fri Jun 24, 2005 3:22 pm**

You probably need this two functions too:

Code: Select all

.386P
.MODEL FLAT

.CODE



LOWORD  equ     [0]
HIWORD  equ     [4]

__aullrem       proc    near
                assume  cs:_TEXT

        push    ebx


DVND    equ     [esp + 8]
DVSR    equ     [esp + 16]

        mov     eax,HIWORD(DVSR)
        or      eax,eax
        jnz     short L1
        mov     ecx,LOWORD(DVSR)
        mov     eax,HIWORD(DVND)
        xor     edx,edx
        div     ecx
        mov     eax,LOWORD(DVND)
        div     ecx
        mov     eax,edx
        xor     edx,edx
        jmp     short L2

L1:
        mov     ecx,eax
        mov     ebx,LOWORD(DVSR)
        mov     edx,HIWORD(DVND)
        mov     eax,LOWORD(DVND)
L3:
        shr     ecx,1
        rcr     ebx,1
        shr     edx,1
        rcr     eax,1
        or      ecx,ecx
        jnz     short L3
        div     ebx


        mov     ecx,eax
        mul     dword ptr HIWORD(DVSR)
        xchg    ecx,eax
        mul     dword ptr LOWORD(DVSR)
        add     edx,ecx
        jc      short L4

        cmp     edx,HIWORD(DVND)
        ja      short L4
        jb      short L5
        cmp     eax,LOWORD(DVND)
        jbe     short L5
L4:
        sub     eax,LOWORD(DVSR)
        sbb     edx,HIWORD(DVSR)
L5:

        sub     eax,LOWORD(DVND)
        sbb     edx,HIWORD(DVND)
        neg     edx
        neg     eax
        sbb     edx,0
L2:

        pop     ebx

        ret     16

__aullrem       endp




public  __aulldiv


__aulldiv       proc    near
                assume  cs:_TEXT

        push    ebx
        push    esi


DVND    equ     [esp + 12]
DVSR    equ     [esp + 20]


        mov     eax,HIWORD(DVSR)
        or      eax,eax
        jnz     short L1
        mov     ecx,LOWORD(DVSR) 
        mov     eax,HIWORD(DVND)
        xor     edx,edx
        div     ecx
        mov     ebx,eax
        mov     eax,LOWORD(DVND)
        div     ecx
        mov     edx,ebx
        jmp     short L2

L1:
        mov     ecx,eax
        mov     ebx,LOWORD(DVSR)
        mov     edx,HIWORD(DVND)
        mov     eax,LOWORD(DVND)
L3:
        shr     ecx,1
        rcr     ebx,1
        shr     edx,1
        rcr     eax,1
        or      ecx,ecx
        jnz     short L3      
        div     ebx        
        mov     esi,eax       


        mul     dword ptr HIWORD(DVSR) 
        mov     ecx,eax
        mov     eax,LOWORD(DVSR)
        mul     esi             
        add     edx,ecx       
        jc      short L4       


        cmp     edx,HIWORD(DVND) 
        ja      short L4        
        jb      short L5       
        cmp     eax,LOWORD(DVND) 
        jbe     short L5     
L4:
        dec     esi          
L5:
        xor     edx,edx      
        mov     eax,esi


;

L2:

        pop     esi
        pop     ebx

        ret     16

__aulldiv       endp

_TEXT           ends
                end

+

END

You will need this at least if the msvc linker needs these two functions.

Posted: **Wed Jun 29, 2005 10:07 am**

kataklinger wrote: Once again: YES it is possible. You can use MSVC++ compiler, but I had some problem using MS linker (and I think it cannot produce binary file, only PE) but MinGW works fine with MSVS (error reporting is not so good but....).

Currently I'm working on asm (NASM) syntax coloring support for MSVS.NET 2003, so if someone is interested I will publish it on Internet when I finish it.

That would be great! I didn't even know that was possible!

If you do post it, please update the Visual C wiki page with a link - or at least tell us how you are approaching it.

Mike

Posted: **Wed Nov 02, 2005 7:50 pm**

??? I'm asking a simple question : "How to use ASM code file in MSVS.NET 2003?". I'm just begining in OS Dev, if you know a web site or a set of tutorials (with code samples, plz) write them!!
Thanks

Posted: **Wed Nov 02, 2005 9:27 pm**

AFAIK, short answer: You can't. MSVC++ doesn't come with an assembler, although it might have syntax highlighting.

You may be able to link a COFF object file from NASM with the MS Linker though.

Posted: **Thu Nov 03, 2005 2:53 am**

You certainly can write a kernel using Microsoft's tools, but there are some additional steps. Microsoft compiles Windows and all its drivers using its own tools.

The tools with 2005 .NET are very capable indeed, as they were with 2003 .net, a huge improvement over the VC 6 stuff.

You can control things like alignment, etc as you have seen with the 2005 beta configuration file posted in this thread, and you can get MASM free of charge several places on the 'net if you want MASM instead of NASM or whatever. E.g.:

http://www.masm32.com/

I would download the Visual C++ .NET 2005 Beta 2 if I were you, if you are interested in using MS tools. Certainly you can use MS's linker as well. It's nowhere near as flexible as GAS with its linker scripts, but it's do-able.

After producing your kernel, you will probably need to use MinGW's objcopy to convert from COFF/PE to flat binary. Otherwise you will need a custom bootloader to understand how to load and run the PE, or hack GRUB to do it for you.

There's excellent documentation on PE available at MSDN. Google for "Inside Windows PE format" and you'll find two articles on the inner workings of PE.

Have fun!

Posted: **Thu Nov 03, 2005 7:38 am**

thanks a lot

Posted: **Thu Nov 03, 2005 1:28 pm**

some one knows a good set of tutorials (with code samples)??

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