That's what drivers are for. Now you know why it is important to properly match the driver to the hardware. With the wrong driver, at best simply won't work, and at worst can destroy data.

Very true.

> only LBA 28 and LBA 48

Very true.

> FAT32 is FAT28

Very true. But it limits to 2^28 clusters , not 2^28 sectors.

> with LBA28, you can theorically access up to 2^28*2^9 = 2^37 bytes.
256 Gigabytes.

Wrong. 2^37 bytes -> 128 GiB

> revolution, getting back to nihilist's first question, is it possible to use INT 13h in long mode after all?

Switch to RM ?

neville wrote:



Very true.

> And of course in INT13h EDD BIOS extensions.

64-bit

EDIT fixed bug

haha!


no way!
2^10 ==> kilo
2^20 ==> mega
2^30 ==> giga
2^7 ==> 128

then, ok!
wrong but 128 GiB

and the fact it is in clusters dn't change anythng.
there is a limit in LBA address lines.

In (flat) real mode it is possible to use standard (extended) system bios calls to access large disks, which work on all types of hardware.

Revolution, are you saying that for a new OS in long mode, proprietary information from every manufacturer is needed so drivers can be written for each? That would probably be almost impossible to achieve IMHO. And anyway, if the bios programmers can write an essentially "universal" driver for real mode, surely the same could be done in long mode?

I sure am saying that. It already happens with Win95 and up. It is not something new. The only change nowadays is that manufacturers must have their 64bit drivers signed by MS before Vista will load it.

As for *nix OSes, it has always been a problem to get good drivers. A lot of manufacturers seem reluctant to give all the necessary details. Take the GPU cards as an example. You only get the binary driver (no source code or other information) in most cases.

[edit]Remember the BIOS is not intended to give you full capability. It is only designed to give you enough access to start your OS. After that you are expected to take over with your own code/driver to make full use of all the available features.[/edit]

And in future the BIOS will be removed. EFI/UEFI will replace it in near future. So you can not base your OS on BIOS. You can start with BIOS for now... or use it if present and EFI is not ... but not for long


You have to do your own drivers and to provide an API for it so that applications (and binary applications) can use it to perform usefull specific tasks. You do not do that then you do not have an OS yet.

In fact OS kernel concepts or memory layouts are not the problem for OS development. The real problem are the drivers.

A very mundane and not funny problem the requires a lot of work and is complicated by the fact that manufacturers do not want to share information and make it complicated for the "single man team" with low budget to do this.

Hence as long as you keep your OS in real mode or in flat RM you hardly have an OS at all and soon you will not be able to boot it at all. For example I can not start Solar OS on Intel based Mac's because they have no BIOS... only EFI... although once in memory SOL would run because I do have the basic drivers now.

You need 32bit protected mode or 64 bits long mode (lately) and a lot of drivers for a lot of hardware. BIOS is still useful for staring up but with caution...

Yes it was a good idea but it gives you too much independence from profit making firms and it has to be eliminated and it will be eliminated now because the major competitors have the needed drivers. Do not dream.

I agree with bogdanontanu, I think it's time to start using hardware more and software less.
Take a tcp/ip stack as a example, we know how long it would take to code one, then you can buy this http://www.futurlec.com/TCP-IP-DevelopmentBoard.shtml
If i were starting OS Dev today, i would code it for a arm chip.

Revolution, it's very sad really, but we must stand up and fight against these evil forces. What we need is a .... revolution !! Are you up for it

Bogdan, sadly I fear you speak the truth too. But we must never stop dreaming, even if we think it is futile. If those b@#$%^& big corporate "profit making firms" take everything from us, including even our dreams, then they have won. Long live the "single man teams" and their dreams! Hey, that rhymes!

Do you remember the ABBA hit "Money, Money, Money, must be funny, its a rich man's world" ? Can we prove them wrong?

Dex, you won't be able to use "their" hardware unless they tell you how, and/or you pay them enough money, so are you going to start building your own computers now? Bring it on !

No, i am not going to make one on my own, but a group of us are .
http://www.openpandora.org/

i don't see the link between money and HDD access.
maybe banks use HDD, and as it is the crisis, ho my god! wall street = -2%

pandora seems top be very good, but for arm

just wait for PC/104 Atom duo. slots for CF and bios redirect of console to serial port.

But asm arm is easy once you know x86 and you can still use fasm, eg: FasmArm
http://board.flatassembler.net/topic.php?t=4191&start=0