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Nightloader/i386/loader
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Eric-Paul Ickhorn 94e5e70305
Add driver manager's setup routine 
The setup_drivers routine existed locally for some time now, so now
it also exists in the repository. It has gone through two iterations:

1. The drivers are all listed in a null-terminated array of function
   pointers to initialization functions (this didn't work and the time
   for debugging just wasn't there).

2. All drivers (currently, only the PCI driver, because that's the
   only one that exists) are initialized after each other; their
   initialization functions are called manually.

It might be possible that the bug from the first iteration was due to
the memory space being offset by 128 or 256 bytes; it might be useful
to use that concept again because then, it will be easier to add new
drivers. That's not of high importance now, though.
 		2024-07-23 01:04:35 +02:00
..
src-asm Add driver manager's setup routine 2024-07-23 01:04:35 +02:00
README.md Add README.md for loader on i386 2024-07-06 00:12:06 +02:00
build.bash
…

README.md

loader | Nightloader Code Partition

The partition of which the creation code is contained in this directory isn't formatted in any particular way; the partition which is created using this source code contains the instructions and data for giving control over to the next stage. More on the features of the loader can be found here

Features

The loader partition has to perform the following tasks:

  1. Perform the general setup
    • Setup a bigger stack
    • Enable the A20 address line
    • Enter 32-bit mode (Protected Mode)
    • Setup Paging
  2. Enable the built-in drivers
  3. Load additional addons
    • Find partitions accessible with the existing drivers
    • Check the path /bin/nightloader/ for addons
    • Load and start those addons
    • If any more filesystem drivers were found, repeat the last three steps
  4. Choose the appropriate action of the three following ones:
    1. If no operating system was found,
      • Send an error to any output
      • Halt execution after 30 seconds
    2. If an operating system was found and there is no addon to take control
      • Display all options onto the screen and let the user choose which operating system to start
    3. If an operating system was found and there is an addon which takes the control
      • Give the control to that addon and let it handle the task of finding out what to do
  5. Execute the action chosen by the user in the last step