OSDev.org

hi im a beginner in this feild of OS dev and im going to develop a project for my next 6 months for my university subject "system software" so kindly guide me abt wht kind of platform i must be familiar with bfr starting off and how do i get going right on the track.

any kind of help or suggestion is welcomed.

kindly help me.

Well, is you are interested in Operating System Dev, there are 2 kinds, [please don't kill me for that, I know there are a more] of operating systems, 'Real Mode' and 'Protected Mode' OS's. Now first of all your computer always starts up in 16-bit mode 'Real Mode'. In RM you have access to all of the BIOS interrupts however you only get 16 bit addressing which sucks if you want to really get the full use of your computer. Protected Mode gets you full 32/64 bit addressing with some ways to get 36 bit addressing, but I am blanking on that right now. For a 6 month project you should use Protected Mode because you have the time, assuming you have a lot of documentation.

The first thing you will need to learn is how to use/build a bootloader, I wrote my own and I think it is better if you write yours too. The bootload is designed to load your operating system and do all of your inital setup in 16 bit mode before jumping into 32 bit protected mode. Before you can make the jump though you will need to set up your gdt, idt and Stack.

I also recomend not getting 'Windows Clone Dreams' while starting, because it should take you a long time before you even thing of developing a GUI, like my OS is almost one year old right now, though I don't work on her every day, and she is a long time away from Graphics still.

You will also ahve to choose your programming Language. I use straight NASM assembler for my OS, though it is fully possible to use C or C++ or well, anything that can compile into straight binary and can get a little Inline assembler going. I would recomend using C just so save yourself some time, though your bootload will ahve to be done in assembler.

I hope this cleared some things up, repost if something else comes up.

k im fully ready now and geared in for this o/s dev project but i really need to know anything and everything abt the phases of development i will be going through. right now im jus blank and i really need to know wht all the components i got to make and even need to get if i need to design all those disk scheduling algo's as weel and .... i think i start off with the real mode frst cause i want to be stable at the frst step bfr i can thinking of jumping a bit higher so please get through with the phases i hv to go through and please help where i can get all the documentation and when u told me abt the assembler i really would like to know if tasm will do y job or not and then y should i go for c rather than c++.

there isn't plan how to make your OS, but:
1. Bootloader
2. Drivers
3. Interrupts/System Calls
then (if you want) you can make more advanced things, and last thing:
shell