Re: [ros-kernel] Bootloaders

[Eric K. <ek...@rz...>]

"Robert K." <ro...@ko...> wrote:

> Is it possible for you to give me a short introduction about which
> loaders
> exist for ROS,
> why and why not they work,
> who wrote them,
> if they use Flat-Real-Mode
> and Dis/Advances?

Hello Robert!

None of the existing loaders uses Flat-Real-Mode.

1) Loadros:
Part of the reactos cvs module. DOS program, written in assembly language
and thus hard to maintain. Does not (an will never) have the ability to
detect hardware or analyze the system hive. Works reliably.

2) FreeLoader:
Main part of the freeldr cvs module. Boot loader/manager that includes boot
code for three filesystems (FAT12/16, FAT32 and ISO9660/CDFS). Written in
assembly language and C. Hardware detection can (and will) be added. The
flat-text system hive (system.hiv) is read and used for loading boot start
drivers. Still got several bugs in the boot code.

3) GRUB (GRand Unified Bootloader):
GNU utility (www.gnu.org). Mainly developed for *NIX OSs, like Linux or
*BSD. Can load kernel and drivers but cannot detect hardware and cannot
analyze the system hive. I don't use it so I cannot comment on the quality
of the code.

I hope this answers your question.

Eric