[ros-kernel] Re: Gcc and binutils release

[Robert C. <rob...@it...>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Collins" <rob...@it...>
To: <ros...@re...>
Sent: Monday, October 15, 2001 9:30 PM
Subject: [ros-kernel] Re: Gcc and binutils release



> All I know is that on Linux, 16 bit code for bootloaders is generated
> and linked by the gcc-gas-ld toolchain. I can look into their
makefiles
> for you guys ... if you'd like.
>

Side question: Can someone remind me why making ReactOS multi-boot
compliant so that Grub et al can boot it was a bad thing? - Grub should
build under cygwin very happily. The makefiles would need a little
tweaking for use under mingw without cygwin.

---

and now onto the
Main issue: generating boot code from gcc + binutils.

Grub is built from gcc + binutils.

http://savannah.gnu.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/grub/grub/stage1/ contains the
stage1 portion of Grub, which is the assembly code. They simply
use -fno-builtin -nostdinc on the commandline to gcc to prevent
accidentally pulling in a library header...

So I can offer the following:

It *is* possible with a standard x86 targeted gcc+recent binutils (all
the ReactOS ones are ok) to generate 16 bit assembly suitable for
bootstrapping a bootloader.

I can see several options:
1) convert freeloader to use standard gcc+binutils as Grub does.
2) make ReactOS multiboot compliant so that it can be used with Grub or
other multiboot bootloaders. then phase out freeloader, or make it a
multiboot compliant bootloader.
3) Start from scratch under gcc+binutils.

I suspect that 1) is actually quite easy and is the way to go... However
you'll need to get gcc to support Intel asm memnomics or change to AT&T
as it only supports AT&T by default. I'm sure there are patchs out there
to give gcc Intel support, this came up somewhere else recently I
think... maybe even here:}.

Rob

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