How to begin to write an Os --------------------------- This tutorial is meant for those who are familiar with assembly languges and some knowledge of system internal. Writing an Os is a challenging project. The initial step of writing one is to code an efficient boot loader to load the kernel. What happens when you boot a computer? - The Bios is started first - It read the boot sector and loads it into the memory The boot sector is the first sector of the disk. A sector contain 512 bytes and that is the limitation to write our boot loader. So the boot loader must be at the most 512 bytes. So we must load the real program or the kernel using the loader. The boot sector is loaded at the physical address 0000:7c00. And how does the Bios knows whether the disk has a valid bootsector? The final two bytes of the bootsector ie; bytes 511 and 512 should be Aah and 55h respectively. In other words, the last word in the bootsector should be AA55h. Tools required: - NASM or any other good assembler - Interrupt list like Ralf Brown's interrupt list - PC Emulator like Bochs will help you and avoid frequent reboot of the system. But this is not a compulsory requirement. Now we will move into the coding part. Let's start with a simple boot loader. ;*************************** ; A simple bootloader-bl.asm ;*************************** org 0x7c00 ; Bios loads our loader at this point mov si, msg ; Displays a message on the screen call displaystring
mov ah, 0 ; Wait for key int 016h db 0EAh ; Machine reboot dw 0000h dw 0FFFFh displaystring: ; Function to display string lodsb or al,al jz short finish mov ah,0x0E ; Echo a char mov bx,0x0007 int 0x10 jmp displaystring finish: retn msg db 'Press Any Key …', 13, 10, 0 times 510-($-$$) db 0 ; Fills the rest of the space except the last two bytes with zero dw 0AA55h ; Magic word for a valid bootsector
;*************************** ; The End ;*************************** Now we have to compile this to plain binary. And then write the bl.bin into the bootsector. NASM bl.asm -f bin -o bl.bin You can use any programs to write the binary file onto the bootsector. Even the good old Debug.exe can also be used for that. c:/>debug bl.bin -w 100 0 0 1 ; writes bl.bin into the floppy bootsector -q c:/> Set the defualt boot to floppy and boot the machine. If you are using a Bochs freedos emulator, you will have to do the following steps; - Edit file 'bochsrc' and change boot to 'a' ie; boot: a - Copy the binary file 'bl.bin' into the Bochs directory and rename as 'a.img' - Run 'Bochs.exe' You will see the message 'Press Any Key …' He he….Did I hear you screaming in joy? Yes, you have written a successful bootloader. This is not the end. The main purpose of a bootloader is not yet sattisfied. And what is it? You will have to load the kernel into the memory because a 512 bytes of code will not run a machine with all its power. The next step is to load a simple kernel into the memory. I have used many interrupt calls in the following example code. Each of them is properly commented. First of all we have to allocate stack for our program. Then load the kernel into any know address. I have loaded the kernel into 7c00h + 512 for the simplicity of compiling the loader and kernel in the same program. Before loading we have to reset the disk ie; bringing the disk head to the track zero. This is same like seeking the file descriptor to beginning of the file. Then load the kernel into memory. And what mext? Ofcourse jump into the loaded kernel. So simple…isn't it? Try studying this example code given below. ;********************************** ;***********Boot Loader************ ;********************************** ; Boot Loader by Fajib ; This is the boot sector…. ; This will load the real os from the disk into the memory org 0x7c00 start: ; setting the stack for loading the program cli mov ax, 0x9000 mov ss, ax mov sp, 0xffff sti mov [bootdrv], dl ; dl contains the bootdisk name ie; dl = 0 if floppy a:/ call load ; function to load the kernel from disk into memory mov si, msgloadsuccess call putstr jmp loadkernel ; I can directly jump into kernel becoz I load the kernel ; at 7c00 + 512 ;hangs if kernel not loaded oops: mov si, msghang call putstr jmp oops retf ; loader variables bootdrv db 0 msgresetfail db 'Disk Reset Failure!', 13, 10, 0 msgresetsuccess db 'Disk reset success…', 13, 10, 0 msgkernelload db 'Loading kernel…', 13, 10, 0 msgloadsuccess db 'Kernel loaded successfully…', 13, 10, 0 msghang db '.', 0 ; loader functions load:
; we have to reset the disk before it move to the loaded program ; say our real program is stored in sector 2 ; let's load it push ds ; reset disk system mov ax, 0 ; forces controller to recalibrate drive heads (seek to track 0) mov dl, [bootdrv] int 13h pop ds jc resetfail mov si, msgresetsuccess call putstr mov ax,0 ; loads sector into memory mov es,ax mov ah,2 mov al,1 ; loading 1 sector-kernel will be loaded. Increase al for loading more mov dx,0 mov cx,2 ; ch = cylinder number and cl = sector number 1-63 mov bx,7e00h ; 7e00h = 7c00h + 512 … loading my program here makes it easy for me int 13h ; we can directly compile bootsector and kernel together in a single ; program jc load ; if fail then try to load it again mov si, msgkernelload call putstr retn
resetfail: mov si, msgresetfail call putstr retn putstr: lodsb or al,al jz short putstrd mov ah,0x0E mov bx,0x0007 int 0x10 jmp putstr putstrd: retn times 510-($-$$) db 0 ; Filling the remaining free space in the sector dw 0AA55h ;********************************** ;*********End Boot Loader********** ;********************************** ;********************************** ;**********Start Kernel************ ;********************************** ;Kernel stored in Sector 2 loadkernel: mov si, mymsg call putstr call Console ; Simple Console db 0EAh ; machine reboot dw 0000h dw 0FFFFh mymsg db "Message from Fajib's Simple Kernel…", 13, 10, 0 Console: mov si, msgconsole call putstr mov si, prompt call putstr Waitkey: mov ah, 00h ; Wait for key int 016h cmp al, 27 ; Check for ESC key je Finish cmp al, 13 ; Check for ENTER key je NewLine jmp EchoChar NewLine: mov si, prompt call putstr jmp Waitkey EchoChar: mov ah, 0x0E ; Display the char with out attribute mov bx, 0x0007 int 10h
jmp Waitkey Finish: retn prompt db 13, 10, 'C:/>', 0 msgconsole db 13, 10, 'Console: Press ESC to reboot', 13, 10, 0 ;********************************** ;***********End Kernel************* ;********************************** Wow! You have now loaded a kernel successfully… But do not stop here… Improvise your kernel as good possible… Experimentation is the best learning method… Do inform me about your improvements and bugs in my code to me at; Email: fajib@mail.com Irc: I will be there in #osdev as Devil_liveD |