My Boot Loader

jzgriffin · Post by **jzgriffin** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 10:19 pm

Yeah, yeah, I know..."another boot loader?"

I don't like using GRUB in Windows and prefer to just concatenate a boot loader and kernel together then use a custom program to place them at the beginning of a floppy image. Plus, I wanted the full experience for my assembly kernel.

Originally I only intended to use this privately, but, I figured I might as well post it on here so that others can benefit from it.

It's written in fasm and includes a basic fasm example kernel. You can go to the site for more information or just download it directly.

Have fun, let me know if you spot any issues, areas that could be improved, etc etc. Constructive criticism only, please.

binutils · Post by **binutils** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 10:25 pm

if you really want full access your system, need to crack your mb' bios.

coreboot

xyzzy · Post by **xyzzy** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 1:15 am

Why would replacing the BIOS make any difference to booting your kernel. If anything coreboot/LinuxBIOS introduces difficulties for booting an OS.

Anyway, looks cool

I thought for a moment it hadn't done anything and then noticed the "Hello!" in the top left corner

jzgriffin · Post by **jzgriffin** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 3:17 pm

Thanks, Alex. I probably should have made it clear the screen, too, but the example kernel was a last-minute addition.

This boot loader is the result of a lot of trial and error, reading the Intel manuals, and Googling. I'd never done the protected mode switch myself, or enabled A20...GRUB always did that for me. It is because of that, and because of the lack of minimal protected mode boot loaders on the Internet, that I chose to release it. Plus I had never released anything before.