OSDev.org

I read the following tutorial on C++ Kernels here and I understand everything (except the part about setting up global variables, but I'll learn that later).
This kernel seems simple enough but that is about the extent of my knowlege. I am new to OS dev (tried to read some tutorials) but many of them are difficult to understand and overall it's hard to figure out just where everything fits together.

Basically I would like to understand how to get from nothing(where I am now) to that kernel operating. I read some tutorials on bootloaders but none which got to the point of loading a kernel.

So I guess what I really need is:
How to I create a basic bootsector/loader
How do I use it to load a C++ kernel (as in above tut)
Anything else needed inbetween.

Check out my site:

OS Development Series

It covers creating a basic 2 stage bootloader from scratch, and loads a basic 32bit kernel; specifically meant for beginners to systems programming.

Please note that it is still being worked on. Im not quite up to the C/C++ Kernel yet, but it sets up the system so that one can.

If you wanted to, you can also use an existing bootloader, such as GRUB, to boot your C++ Kernel. This way you can start at the Kernel, and not worry about the ugly bootloader code.

GRUB sounds like it would save a lot of work, is there any pros/cons of using GRUB vs. making my own bootloader.

Also, any good tutorials of using GRUB in my situation

Unless you are really good with assembly and know how to read and write to disks without an OS present I would recommend using GRUB. This is coming from a person who spent 3 weeks debugging his kernel only to find that the boot loader was overwriting a portion of the kernel code with its stack. GRUB has thousands of hours of testing and debugging and will save you a lot of trouble.

EDIT: Although you may want to write a small hello world boot loader just for the experience. But don't spend too much time on it.

Thanks, I'll take your advice and use GRUB (but play around with some simple bootloader things "ie. Hello World" just for some practice and testing)

GRUB is the way forward. There are actually much better C tutorials out there than C++, so I recommend that you firstly get hello,world working in C, then port straight to C++ (it's not a lot of work at that stage). Might save you some grief.

If you've tried the barebones and Bran's tutorials, maybe these might help:

http://www.jamesmolloy.co.uk
EDIT: these use GRUB, by the way, and talk you through how to use it properly.

They're 'basic-get-me-started-quick' tutorials I cooked up in some free time at work. Haven't got too far - up to the GDT and IDT, but it'll get you going. Sample code provided of course.

Once you have a C kernel up (that can print to screen, for example), read the C++ barebones article on the wiki and implement what it says.

Happy coding!