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Hi. i am new here and very interested in messing around with creating my own OS for fun. i am learning assembly language and C, and know c++ and have just learned how to make a bootable real mode kernel, output simple text, switch video modes using VESA, etc...

i have heard a bit about protected mode and would like to figure out how to use that, could someone help me out with being able to switch to that, set up the GDT, LDT, and IDT (and what exactly they are used for) or at least point me to some good tutorials?

also, are there things that i cannot do once in protected mode (such as VESA functions or something???)

thanks a lot

If you are looking for information about IDT, GDT ... you have to read INTEL 386 (or higher) specification. You can found it on intel.com.

(or just read some OS source)

About protected mode and VESA
you must found VESA 2.0 specification.

You can download the VESA 3.0 specs at www.vesa.org. VESA works in real-mode and pmode, but the BIOS only works in real-mode.