FC4 and Assembly Language Program

[Les]

On Fri, 2007-06-01 at 20:46 +0500, azeem ahmad wrote:

> hi list
> i am about to make a bootable floppy for test
> but i am being unable to get it done
> please review the code below and tell me if there is any problem with it
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> .code16		#assembler directive to start 16-bit real mode for execution
> .text		/*assembler directive to tell the start of 'read-only'
> 		code segment*/
> .org 0x00	/*assembler directive to set the origon to sector 0
> 		needed to copy the program to the very first sector
> 		of the floppy disk*/
> 
> .global _start	/*assembler directive to export the start section to
> 		all other programs, i.e. to make it visible to programs
> 		like linker or other user programs*/
> 
> _start:				#label of the start routine
> 	mov 0x07C0, %ax		/*move immidiate operand 07C0 to the
> 				accumulator register ax, so that it can be
> 				transfered to data segment register*/
> 	mov %ax, %ds		/*move contents of register ax to register ds*/
> 	call _boot		#call the boot section
> 	ret			#return the control to the caller routine
> 
> _boot:				#label of the boot section
> 	mov $msg, %si		/*move the address of the character string
> 				constant 'msg' to the source index register*/
> 	call _disp		#call subroutine disp
> 	ret			#return the control to the caller routine
> 
> _disp:				#label of the disp routine
> 	cld			/*clear direction flag, to permit string
> 				instructions to increment index registers
> 				by their own*/
> 	lodsb			/*load the string pointed by ds:si in a
> 				byte by byte manner into the accumulator*/
> 	or %al, %al		/*check if the entire string has been loaded
> 				byte-wise by oring al to al, if the result is
> 				zero, it shows there are no more byte to load*/
> 	jz ret			#jump if al zero to return
> 	mov $0xE, %ah		/*else put code for 'write a character on the
> 				screen and move forward' into the ah*/
> 	mov $7, %bh		/*enable normal attribute for all the blank
> 				lines on the screen*/
> 	int $0x10		/*call interupt 0x10, which is responsible
> 				for the video display, it will take codes
> 				from ah and bh*/
> 	jmp _disp
> 
> msg:				#label of the string definition
> 	.ascii "My Boot System"	#definition of the string
> 
> .org 510			#set origon to 510
> .word 0xAA55			#
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> saved the file with the name myos.s
> then
> 
> #as myos.s -o myos.o
> #objcopy -O binary myos.o BOOT
> #dd if=./BOOT of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=1
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> the system tries to boot from the floppy and it boots (as it doesnt give an 
> error or it doesnt go to the next boot device. but it doesnt display the 
> string that i had to show from the string
> 
> please check it and tell me about any possible errors in the code
> 
> Regards
> Azeem
> 
> _________________________________________________________________
> Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today it's FREE! 
> http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/
> 

Well, Does the BIOS actually contain the software interrupt code you are
attempting to access.  That is question one.
Question 2 is what would your bootstrap return to?  At boot time, the
system invokes a short reader that will read the first sector.  This
program is built into the bios.  There is no IO available for this
program, thus the system bio typically uses the system beep to give
error messages which you have to interpret by counting the beeps and
looking them up in the documenation on that particular bios.

You cannot just debug a boot or bios routine, because the debugger
already has been loaded with all the required tools, including all the
IO routines.  You have set yourself quite a task to boot a system.  A
good way to learn is to find an older CP/M reference manual.  In the
early days, one sort of had to write their own bootstraps, BIOS package
and then use patches to CP/M to get a working system.  Today the drivers
are either in ROM on the boards and read during the boot process, or
they are downloaded from a CD or the internet.  If you are doing this
for a class project, you will need to look more closely at the
references supplied for the class.  If this is something you are doing
to learn, this is not the appropriate list.  You should google for
developer mailing list.  Check some of the guys working on robotics or
some such, where they are writing simple OS's (some not so simple) for
embedded controllers.  These days, most people skip this part and go
with a developer package which has a boot and bios package built in,
like the Basic Stamp or the 8051 kits that are available.  Writing a
bootable system for a modern PC would be difficult I think, and to fit
it on a floppy would be very hard, unless you restricted it to something
like DOS or CP/M.  In the early days, we had memory mapped displays, and
serial I/O.  That was it.  the chips had 16 interrupts and most systems
used about 12.  That is no longer true today.  

    Good luck and I hope you can find some one to guide you on your
quest.

Regards,
Les H
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listman.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/attachments/20070603/f399410d/attachment-0001.htm>