OSDev.org

This may help other OS Dev's
I got my hands on a eee pc and got DexOS to run on it, without any problems .
The only problems, from a OS Dev's point of view is that so far i have only got it to use vesa2 640*480 32bpp and the built in mouse is over sensitive.
Here are some (bad ) photos:

Some more photos here:
http://www.dex4u.com/eeepc/
i will post more info later .
But so far it seem very standard

Looks nice.

Since the EeePC (really weird name, BTW) is x86 based, it should be pretty easy to port DexOS or other OSes to it, right? Or are there special constraints in terms of memory, architecture, boot process, etc?

And how did you get the touchpad to work? I'm thinking of supporting that in my OS.

I would think that programming a touch pad would be the same as a mouse

Nice pictures Dex

Here are 2 screenshots of Solar OS running on Eee PC:

http://www.oby.ro/os/images/sol_eee_pc_001.jpg
http://www.oby.ro/os/images/sol_eee_pc_002.jpg

You can see how SOL is booted from an USB stick and also how SOL does explore and USB stick by using the USB mass drivers. The internal SD drive is also recognized.

In the background it is the USB driver test application showing USB transactions status.

Besides the size and beeing cute there is nothing special about the Eee PC.

It is a normal x86 machine with an Intel CPU at 900Mhz down clocked at 640Mhz and 512M of RAM. The internal SD is seen as an normal ATA IDE. The video is Intel (need drivers for higher resolutions) but a 640x480 VESA compatible video mode is functional. The touch pad emulates a simple PS/2 mouse. Ah... and it does have 3 USB ports

It is a smaller packed PC.

I only have a standard p2 mouse driver implemented, and you may think that as its a x86 it would work fine, but a lot of these device have custom hardware, that means they do not work without alot of moding etc. Remember this device has no hdd or cd/dvd.

Cool images too bontanu , you must of posted when i was posting, we are like buses (its a old english joke).

I get the joke

Despite my typos ... my English language understanding and speaking is very very good.


The EeePC is good as an OS Dev real "virtual machine".

You can boot it fast, it does no matter if you "break it" (not too much).

For example my USB drivers have been working "perfectly" in an virtual machine until... well until they meet the EeePC and I was forced to do more testing on multiple real hardware.

EeePC can even stand on the same table with my working machine ie... on the same "desktop"

Hence a small, cheap real machine very useful for testing in OS Dev.

Okay. It's official. I have to get me one of those.

Alboin wrote:Okay. It's official. I have to get me one of those.

Me too but i will wait for the Atom.
Here is a list of cuestions,not really important but i´m curious.
>You can boot it fast
how many seconds is fast?
Whats the problem with videomodes,only 640*480 is supported by vesa bios?
what about the other hardware (sound,wifi,ethernet) is compatible or documented?
when booting from usb ,what bios services can be used ?
usb is ehci+ohci/uhci?
does it supports int 13h extensions (lba)?
These computers come with linux, are the drivers open source?
And how much time the battery works?

octavio wrote:what about the other hardware (sound,wifi,ethernet) is compatible or documented?

In the 701 model..

The audio chipset is standards compliant, Intel 82801FB HD Audio.

The wired Ethernet controller is a Attansic Technology L2, OpenBSD has a driver for this device.

octavio wrote:usb is ehci+ohci/uhci?

It's UHCI+EHCI.

octavia wrote:These computers come with linux, are the drivers open source?

They might not have been initially, I think they are now though.. if you consider the GPL open source that is.

OpenBSD supports the eeepc with it's own drivers.

octavio wrote: Me too but i will wait for the Atom.

If I only would have waited a few extra days I could have obtained one with a web cam at the same price... sorry but my kid did not wanted to "wait" and more important I did not wanted to wait also.

Many times the "impulse" is more important than logic .

It is always more logical to wait but as you wait other devices emerge and then you have to wait for those and while you wait.... (recursive)


About the Atom: I wonder if the Atom CPU is still fully x86 compatible.

What makes this EeePC so attractive is the fact that it is a standard x86 machine but with reduced size and wight.

Here is a list of cuestions,not really important but i´m curious.
>You can boot it fast
how many seconds is fast?

My stopwatch:
============
12s - from Power ON button until the choose boot device menu.
07s - from Ctrl+Alt+Del to choose boot device menu
06s - to boot Sol_Os from the USB stick until SOL choose resolution Menu
0.01s - after choose resolution until Sol_GUI is active

Notes:
- This includes a few Esc key press required by the BIOS.
- directly booting from HDD should much faster
- BIOS is in "slow boot" mode

Whats the problem with videomodes,only 640*480 is supported by vesa bios?

Yes only 640x480 video mode is supported.

With device drivers you can get into 800x480 video mode but my guess is that the LCD max height is 480 no matter what. On external monitors you could use other resolutions but NOT with VESA support.

what about the other hardware (sound,wifi,ethernet) is compatible or documented?

Sound: Intel HDA + Realtek
Video: intel Mobile 915GM
Netwok: AtherOS L2 10/100
Wireless: I disabled it but if I recall correctly it was also AtherOS.

when booting from usb ,what bios services can be used ?

Int 13h

usb is ehci+ohci/uhci?

UHCi + EHCI Intel host controller

does it supports int 13h extensions (lba)?

I only check for their presence in my OS. My code detected int 13h extensions as being ON (available) but I do not use them while booting (not yet).

These computers come with linux, are the drivers open source?

I guess they are. I guess that everything in Linux is open source hence by logical consequence the drivers should be open source but I did not checked them.

I have removed Linux from the EeePC and installed WinXP. Linux / Unix is an OS that I dislike completely (no flame just my personal option).

And how much time the battery works?

3 hours on average ... could be longer but i did not bother to time it.

I will just add that with fast boot, its about 3 seconds get to DexOS CLI, as far as booting goes, i use a usb fob, with a normal floppy image on it, i read/write to fob using my bios driver (eg: it goes too and from realmode), also i could readwrite to internal SD if it was fat16/32.
Its also possible to boot from a ext CD drive through USB.

thats pretty cool you two... i can't wait until i get to a point where i have an OS worth porting!

bloody exams/getting ELF DLL's working!

That is not "porting" it is just "testing". The EeePC is a standard x86 machine so there is nothing to "port".

Dex wrote:I only have a standard p2 mouse driver implemented, and you may think that as its a x86 it would work fine, but a lot of these device have custom hardware, that means they do not work without alot of moding etc. Remember this device has no hdd or cd/dvd.

thats what i meant by porting, sorry for not clarifying