GZboot Bootloader

[gzaloprgm]

Hi!

I've done a simple fat12 protected mode bootloader, which loads a file from floppy at 1mb and executes it.

It's based on Teemu Voipio floppy driver and my fat12 driver implementation. Also I'm using Chris Giese mode13 set up code.

It works with qemu, bochs, virtualbox (slow but ok) and my pc.

Can anyone else test it? The kernel is just a file that says "Hello!!!" in top left of the screen.

Thanks,
Gonzalo

[Stevo14]

Works well in Qemu. Like you said, a little slow but it works well.

[chezzestix]

Your going to hear this alot until its fixed:
You have some optimization ahead of you. Granted I have seen Tiny Linux Distro boots take that long but then again they do a little more than output Hello on my screen.

However it does work on Virtualbox.

[gzaloprgm]

Yes, I know, I just made this "proof of concept" bootloader I can use to load files bigger than 64 KiB at 1MB and also a ramdisk and some other things.

And yes, you are right, I should optimize it. Most of the time is waiting 100ms after seeking, 10 ms for both writing and reading commands to the fdc and the actually read.

Cheers,
Gonzalo

[lukem95]

if you look at GRUB sources you may be able to find more accurate times (probably significantly less)

EDIT: woop 400 posts im so cool.