reactos/freeldr/notes.txt
Eric Kohl 13206a61a1 Added ISO-9660 boot sector description.
svn path=/trunk/; revision=2864
2002-04-22 12:05:07 +00:00

65 lines
2.7 KiB
Plaintext

FreeLoader notes
To build FreeLoader you will need DJGPP because Mingw32 doesn't support 16-bit code
FreeLoader does not currently work with extended partitions.
Linux booting support needs to be added.
ext2 filesystem support needs to be added.
The MessageBox() function needs to not allocate memory. Because it gets called when memory allocation fails.
Old memory layout:
0000:0000 - 0000:0FFF: Interrupt vector table & BIOS data
0000:1000 - 0000:6FFF: Real mode stack area
0000:7000 - xxxx:xxxx: FreeLoader program & data area
xxxx:xxxx - 6000:0000: Protected mode stack area & heap
6000:0000 - 6000:C000: Filesystem data buffer
6000:C000 - 7000:0000: FREELDR.INI loaded here
7000:0000 - 7000:FFFF: scratch area for any function's use (ie sector buffer for biosdisk()) - can be overwritten by any function
8000:0000 - 9000:FFFF: fat table entry buffer
A000:0000 - FFFF:FFFF: reserved
New memory layout:
0000:0000 - 0000:0FFF: Interrupt vector table & BIOS data
0000:1000 - 0000:6FFF: Real mode stack area
0000:7000 - 0000:7FFF: Unused
0000:8000 - xxxx:xxxx: FreeLoader program & data area
xxxx:xxxx - 7000:7FFF: Random memory allocation heap
7000:8000 - 7000:FFFF: Protected mode stack area
8000:0000 - 8000:FFFF: File system read buffer
9000:0000 - 9000:FFFF: Disk read buffer for BIOS Int 13h
A000:0000 - FFFF:FFFF: reserved
FreeLoader Boot Process
FAT 12/16/32 Boot Sector
The BIOS loads the boot sector at 0000:7C00. The FAT32 boot sector
relocates itself higher in memory at 9000:0000 and loads it's extra sector
at 9000:0200 and then looks for freeldr.sys on the file system. Once found
it loads freeldr.sys to 0000:7E00 and then jumps to it's entry point at
0000:8000. The FAT12/16 boot sector does no relocation, it just searches for
the freeldr.sys and loads the first 512 bytes to 0000:7E00. This extra code
enables it to fully navigate the file allocation table. Then it loads
freeldr.sys to 0000:7E00 and jumps to it's entry point at 0000:8000. Before
FreeLoader gets control the boot sector saves the screen contents to a buffer
at 9000:8000 and the cursor x & y position to bytes at 9000:8FA0 & 9000:8FA1
respectively.
ISO-9660 (CD-ROM) Boot Sector
The BIOS loads the boot sector (2048 bytes) at 0000:7C00. First, the
boot sector relocates itself to 0000:7000 (up to 0000:7800). Then it looks
for the I386 directory and makes it the current directory. Next it looks for
FREELDR.SYS and loads it at 0000:8000. Finally it restores the boot drive
number in the DL register and jumps to FreeLoader's entry point at 0000:8000.
FreeLoader Initialization
When FreeLoader gets control it saves the boot drive, passed to it in
the DL register, and sets up the stack, enables protected mode, and calls
BootMain().