lisaikeha / osfs03

Operating System From Scratch : learn OS by practice

Operating System From Scratch

Step 03: x86 Protect Mode

If our OS supports only one architecture, I'll choose x86. You won't be surprised by this. Now let's study how the cpu works and, most importantly, how x86 protect mode works.

We're going to write some code when learning protect mode. Soon you'll find a 512-byte boot sector is too small for us. My solution to this problem is to test our code in FreeDOS:

1. compile the assembly code to COM format:

   $ nasm foo.asm -o foo.com
   

2. create a new floppy image (say pm.img) and copy the COM file to it:

   $ sudo mount -o loop pm.img /mnt/floppy
   $ sudo cp foo.com /mnt/floppy/
   $ sudo umount /mnt/floppy
   

3. "insert" the new floppy into the virtual machine by adding a line in bochsrc:

   floppya: 1_44=freedos.img, status=inserted
   floppyb: 1_44=pm.img, status=inserted
   

4. run FreeDos:

   $ bochs
   

5. run our code:

   A:\>B:\foo.com
   

You can try the instructions above in directory b. Remember to replace foo.asm with the true source file name and unzip the image files first.

‹prev next›