Re: Loading below 1 MB

[Viktor Pracht]

> Why? If you use your own boot loader on the latter systems, you don't
> have to use the Multiboot-style booting method on them. So you should
> be able to have your OS image to have different startup code both for
> real PCs and for old and embedded systems simultaneously. Note that
> you can distinguish if your OS image was booted by a
> Multiboot-compliant boot loader or not, by examining the value of the
> register EAX.

AFAIK, special startup code is exactly what the Multiboot standard aims to
eliminate. The V2_OS boot sector is Multiboot-compliant and the kernel doesn't
have any special code for non-Multiboot loaders. I'd like to keep it that
way.

I think I already mentioned it: embedded and other non-PC systems are the
main reason for V2_OS being Multiboot-compliant. These systems need special
drivers that replace those compiled into the kernel. A custom loader would need
to implement pretty much of the functionality of the Multiboot standard
anyway, so why not use a Multiboot compliant loader in the first place?


- VP

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