From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Fri, 10 Aug 2001 10:06:19 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Fri, 10 Aug 2001 10:06:07 -0400 Received: from web11803.mail.yahoo.com ([216.136.172.157]:33803 "HELO web11803.mail.yahoo.com") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id ; Fri, 10 Aug 2001 10:05:53 -0400 Message-ID: <20010810140605.10175.qmail@web11803.mail.yahoo.com> Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2001 16:06:05 +0200 (CEST) From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Etienne=20Lorrain?= Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCE] Gujin graphical bootloader 0.4 To: cate@dplanet.ch Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Gujin-devel@lists.sourceforge.net In-Reply-To: <3B73DB6C.BEE29C03@math.ethz.ch> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org --- Giacomo Catenazzi a écrit : > Etienne Lorrain wrote: > > These two files in memory have also to be at fixed linear > > addresses in real mode - and if you have a memory manager > > (himem.sys) loaded, these address may not be free. Usually > > you will find at the bottom of the himem memory the smartdrv > > (disk cache) data. It is then impossible to load a file at a random > > memory address and stay in real mode to do futher processing. > > In this case, Gujin is just malloc'ing the memory (using himem.sys), > > loading and decompressing this file (checking its CRC32), and > > only then disable interrupts, switch to protected mode, copy > > the file at its intended linear address and jump to the kernel > > code. > > > > hmm. > > You say: BIOS/hardware can be broken, let use DOS do load Linux! There are ISA/PCI cards which are initialised before the first sector of the HD/FD is loaded (SCSI, network boot ROM or special devices), but it is true that they are not usually using memory at 0x100000. I have just done this relocation thinking that it may be nice to be able to load a kernel over the 16 Mbytes limit - to free a maximum of space to the 16 Mb DMA-able area (if DMA is 16 Mb only) - but that is stuff for the future because the kernel would be linked at another address. I applied this late-relocation in case of himem. > IMHO using DOS (himem.sys and letting DOS to setting our > hardware in ibmbio.com and ibmdos.com) give us more problem > that solution! I am not able to open the A20 gate in all the ways himem.sys can, objdump will be your friend here. Note that Linux has never booted on such a special machine - using I/O ports 0x329 or 0x320 to open A20 - I just leave the door open to run from DOS/win, even for beginner who do not know what is himem/emm386 - or people wanting to remote boot Linux from a DOS/win machine getting vmlinuz from the network. > We should have complete control to hardware, not letting DOS > to hide/modify the BIOS segment 0040:0000 and some other > hardware setting. So Gujin will boot from an IDE HD not supported by the BIOS, on a VGA card without BIOS (or nearly: see VGA_MEMORY compile switch). It can also do what loadlin does - I do not want to maintain two identical software. > Thus we should (if possible) use only BIOS call (or directly hardware), > but forget DOS. (BTW you know what DOS makes before himem.sys ? > Do we have the sources?) Forget DOS/Win - what a dream... Can I join your dream? Etienne. ___________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? -- Vos albums photos en ligne, Yahoo! Photos : http://fr.photos.yahoo.com