Test Request: Caracal32

[AJ]

Hi All,

I have finally plucked up courage to requesting a test for Caracal. Note that I am still in a fairly early 'draft' stage of the OS, and am just interested in whether you get the initial page shown (screenshot here).

You should get a (deliberate) PFE at 0x10000000 to demonstrate my BSOD. Currently, other than GRUB the OS does not try to read/write to any disk drivers (in fact, it leaves the floppy spun up at the moment).

The download page is at: https://sourceforge.net/project/showfil ... _id=193516.

Thanks in advance for any comments!

Cheers,
Adam

[Combuster]

Works fine under bochs (with lots of warnings in the log)

LGDT: not recognized in virtual-8086 mode

VirtualPC has more issues with it (it could very well be the VME bug):

Caracal Boot Loader Version 0.8.1

Booting Kernel...
Privileged instruction 0x00CD, prefix 0x0000 is not supported by
the v86 mode monitor.
System Halted.

Testing on a real machine (Amalthea) displays three(?) lines of white text before going to a black screen after which there are no noticeable events.

[pcmattman]

Can't get into VESA mode in Bochs (default Windows binaries):

Code: Select all

Caracal Boot Loader Version 0.8.1

Booting Kernel...
Error with VESA mode detection!
System Halted.

bochsout.txt:

Code: Select all

<snip>
00043198656i[CPU0 ] LGDT: not recognized in virtual-8086 mode
00043281248i[CPU0 ] LGDT: not recognized in virtual-8086 mode
00043282490i[CPU0 ] LGDT: not recognized in virtual-8086 mode
00043347073i[CPU0 ] WARNING: HLT instruction with IF=0!
<snip>

[ucosty]

Can't get into VESA mode in Bochs (default Windows binaries):

Code: Select all

Caracal Boot Loader Version 0.8.1

Booting Kernel...
Error with VESA mode detection!
System Halted.

I get this also, in Bochs and VMWare

[viki]

On one pc it works fine on second VBE is not present! Maybe try VESA instead of VBE2. I’m looking for a starter for my os. I’ve checked out about 20 os’es. Then I leave 6.(caracal, minirighi,netcore,idylla,aceos and amos) Due to last changes I decided to choose caracal. Great work.

[Combuster]

Maybe try VESA instead of VBE2.

Dude, its the same thing

I just tested it on another build of bochs (emulating a 386) and it triplefaults on a move from CR4. All my other builds work fine. (for the record, they're all v2.3, maybe that has something to do with it)

[AJ]

Cheers for all the hard testing work, guys. The VBE thing is the fact that because it is just a stub at the moment, I have no 80*25 text mode driver - the system is therefore halted. That is next on the todo list! The VirtualPC error is indeed the V86 mode extensions error - but I'm glad that it at least gives you a sensible message. When I implement a v86 mode monitor in my kernel, I will add it to my second stage loader too, so I am not dependant on VME.

The LGDT error is a bit of a botch that I am taking out right now . When I originally wrote my v86 section, I got out of virtual mode by doing an LGDT, and thus causing a GPF which is caught by my boot loader!

More worrying is combuster's three lines of white text - I'll have a look at that later because I don't get it on my machine.

Again, thanks for the tests next job is to make it less dependant on specific hardware.

@viki: cheers for the complement - let me know how you get on!

Cheers,
Adam

[AJ]

I just tested it on another build of bochs (emulating a 386) and it triplefaults on a move from CR4. All my other builds work fine. (for the record, they're all v2.3, maybe that has something to do with it)

Looks like I have some detective work to do . Out of interest, how many builds of Bochs do you have

[Combuster]

Out of interest, how many builds of Bochs do you have

Eight:
2x bochs with 64-bit support (with and without debugger)
2x bochs with smp support (with and without debugger)
2x stock bochs (with and without debugger)
a 386 bochs
a bochs with debugger and a strange feature set