TBOS 0.5.1 released!

[Troy Martin]

After some time reading up on assembly language, I've released TBOS 0.2.1 (runs in real mode). It's not too functional, but it has a tiny shell working in 80x50 text mode. It's inspired by Linux and GNU stuff like bash.

It's all in NASM-syntax assembly and makes good use of NASM's features. Especially backquotes. I had a fun time coding this, so I hope you all like it. The next version will be able to do other basic stuff.

Wow, that was a long time ago...

Current version is 0.5.1! There were so many bugs in 0.5.0 it's been recalled. All the bugs we could find have been fixed, and we've added a print_dec_byte call as well.

NEW: Manual on the website, we need some Linux build instructions. Help us out, folks!

Thanks to Brendan for the print macro and Mike Saunders for the MikeOS bootloader, FAT12 code, and interrupt vector adding code (which I use.) Oh, and 01000101 for bugfixes, a call or two, and keeping me sane while coding (thank god for IRC!)

Get it from the website at http://code.google.com/p/tbos2!

[inflater]

Well it boots, runs, writes something, and you can exit from it, end of debate... nothing else to test?

[Troy Martin]

Well it's an alpha.

If you go to the site (in both sig and OP) you can anonymously checkout the source from svn. Newest source has a clear command. Woo,.

[inflater]

Okay, looking forward to the next version.

[Troy Martin]

Released 0.2.2, 0.2.3 is on the way, hopefully tomorrow morning, pacific time.

Basically just added a clear command, added program call vectors, and a 32KB space for programs (when they can be loaded and run.. )

[pcmattman]

0.2.2 is very good, I tried breaking it but failed.

The only gripe I really have is the 80x50 screen, which can make things a bit hard to read at times. Other than that, good work and I look forward to your next relelase!

[Troy Martin]

0.2.2 is very good, I tried breaking it but failed.

Heh, I think the only way to break it is to wait until file loading is available and load something over 32KB

The only gripe I really have is the 80x50 screen, which can make things a bit hard to read at times. Other than that, good work and I look forward to your next relelase!

Is the 80x50 that annoying? I'll see if I can find an 80x43 or something a bit bigger, but I really find 80x25 too big for displaying a lot of information to the screen at once.

0.2.3 is out, same place.

BTW, don't get any of the downloads with "Old" beside them in green. If it's not fairly obvious.

[Combuster]

Suffice to say, the new version works at least on one piece of real hardware.

[Troy Martin]

Make that two.

Anyone got any other old computers with a floppy drive? I've tested it on a Toshiba Satellite 4010CDT and Virtual PC (most of the testing is done in VPC)

[M-Saunders]

Hi Troy,

Congrats on getting the project running! I notice that a lot of the code (bootloader and some system calls) is taken from MikeOS. Please include LICENSE.TXT from the MikeOS tarball in your docs somewhere, in the interest of fairness for our contributors

Also, I notice that your OS design is the same as MikeOS, with 32K blank space at the bottom of your kernel for running programs, followed by system call vectors. Currently, the addresses listed in comments beside your vectors are incorrect, because you've put some segment modifying code before them. For the addresses to be correct, the vectors have to be right at the start of the kernel's 32K chunk. It doesn't matter now, but if you implement file loading it'll cause problems further down the line -- so I hope that helps!

Good luck,
Mike

[Troy Martin]

Actually, Mike, I wrote the syscalls myself. It's all real simple stuff, so I guess it would look the same!

Yeah, I liked the 32K design since it makes program loading much easier, and the kernel really won't need to take >32K of just code! Never noticed the vector issue, thanks!

Please include LICENSE.TXT from the MikeOS tarball in your docs somewhere, in the interest of fairness for our contributors

Sure. We still both use BSD-style though, but I'll include the MikeOS license since I'm using your bootloader (and probably will mod the loader into filesystem calls.)

[Troy Martin]

Alright, I've included the MikeOS license as "license2.txt", sounds good? I've also posted it on the TBOS site under "Licensing" and in the SVN.

Also, going to use another segment for programs, making bigger programs possible and putting less pressure on the license.

[M-Saunders]

Top stuff, thanks!

M

[Troy Martin]

Well, after some time coding, I've released TBOS 0.3.0 with some new features including a syscall interrupt. Get it from the link in the original post.

And whatever you do, do NOT change the %define debug 0 line in k_macros.asm to %define debug 1 or anything other than 0!! I mean it! I have many serial port issues...

[deflater]

Tested on real hardware, everything works as it should. Reminds me PortixOS... minus the case sensitivity.
You're using INT 19h to reboot? If you are in real mode, you can try this:

db 0xEA
dw 0x0000
dw 0xFFFF
jmp $

for rebooting. Anyways works good on emulators, too.

Regards
inflated deflater.. or deflated inflater? uh, nevermind.