Re: VSTa standalone boot loader status?

> I've got the GNU binutils for VSTa built under NetBSD-current, and I'd
> like to be able to boot VSTa without having to go through the DOS
> mire, if at all possible. So can anyone tell me what the status of
> the standalone boot loader is?

I've written a boot loader that will allow you to boot from a floppy - this
was done under Linux, but I'd guess it should be pretty easy to get it
running under NetBSD. The loader reads a boot.lst file and builds a memory
image. It then writes a boot sector, setup routine and the image to a
floppy (just using dd - so nothing implementation specific). The only
problem you may have is with the real mode assembler code - but only if you
want to build it yourself. I currently use the as86/ld86 pair under Linux,
and I don't know how bootstrap code is build under NetBSD or whether the
assembler (or whatever) is compatible. You could just use the pre-assembled
versions however, as they don't need to be rebuilt to change the boot
servers, etc.

Can you let me know how the real mode bootstrap works under NetBSD as I'd
like to port some sort of tool to VSTa itself to do true self hosted
building.

I'm currently working on a new boot loader, using a modified bfs filesystem,
but I wouldn't expect this to be finished for about a month yet. When it's
finished it should be possible to boot fixed disks into either DOS or VSTa
and hopefully Linux as well - I'll look at others as they arise.

                Regards,
                Dave
Received on Thu Feb 3 11:36:59 1994