Mail Archives: djgpp/2001/07/30/15:07:44
This may be of interest to members of the djgpp community.
--
jtw
----- Forwarded message from Salvo Isaja <salvois AT libero DOT it> -----
Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 14:49:44 +0200
From: Salvo Isaja <salvois AT libero DOT it>
Subject: Current project status
To: freedos-32-dev AT lists DOT sourceforge DOT net
Cc: fd-kernel32 AT topica DOT com
============================================================
Get your free credit report online, by fax or mail.
Always private and always secure, click here to get
yours FOR FREE at ConsumerInfo.Com!
http://click.topica.com/caaacMBb1di16b2Ck8ta/ConsumerInfo
============================================================
Hello,
I'm going on holiday on August 1st and I'll return on August 18, and
probably I won't have a computer to work or read my mail, so I've thought to
write a little summary of the project status to let you do something in this
period, if you want.
The kernel is up'n'running and can execute COFF files compiled with DJGPP,
passed as multiboot module. Only a few system calls have been implemented,
but they are enough to let the DJGPP initialization code to work and to
handle exceptions for it.
The FAT driver is almost all finished. Only a few things are missing on
'truename' services and I'll fix them ASAP. However, the driver is still
hard-coded to use the floppy driver, even if no problem should be present on
hard disks with both FAT16 and FAT32 file systems (I've tested them only for
reading, though, but the code is the same as FAT12 with minor changes).
Luca is working on the low level part of the kernel and AFAIK his goal is to
get 'printf' working. We're also thinking to a possible solution to import
my FAT driver into FreeDOS 32.
Our idea is to have a table of function pointers into the kernel which
points to each of the public functions of the file system driver, passing
the parameters in a way they are independent with the file system structure
(integer handle, pointer to a private driver structure, signed long longs
for positions and similar).
Comments are welcome.
A dynamic linker written by Luca allows us to load drivers (or wrappers, or
modules, or native applications or whatever you want) in the kernel address
space making all system calls near calls. At the moment the API exported to
applications is only DPMI's int 31h.
The lack of a well defined driver interface makes the work somewhat limited,
but until it will be available we'll try to put our works together to make
FreeDOS 32 functional. Enhancements, cosmetic fixes and clean-ups will be
done later.
...Unless before August 18 somebody define a complete driver interface to
use from now. Recently I've had the idea not to use a single driver
interface, but to use different interfaces as layers above the kernel, to
let us use different kinds of drivers (e.g. standard DOS, if feasible, UDI
etc.). But this is still in some dark corner of my mind.
I'd like to write support for CD-ROM file system, too. I think it will be
much simpler than the FAT driver, and will be a native support, on the
contrary of how standard DOS handles the thing.
But we need the code to access the CD-ROM drive first.
I don't know if it can be accessed through BIOS, i.e. using my current
BIOSDISK module. Of course BIOSDISK is still a temporary solution before a
true low level IDE driver, but for now it works well.
So we need ATAPI support. If you want to contribute some code it would be
nice. If BIOSDISK can be used, instead, please let me know how.
I think it's all for the moment.
See you later!
Salvo/Sampled Sensations
E-mail: salvo AT sampsens.cjb.net
Sampled Sensations - digital music : http://www.sampsens.cjb.net
FreeDOS 32 - the 32-bit DOS : http://freedos-32.sourceforge.net
PGP Key Fingerprint: 5991 4C97 D4D8 0B3D BA43 5398 BE9F 07E8 4CD2 1042
============================================================
Coffee, pastry, orange juice, and developerWorks.
Fuel for a developer's day.
Get the developerWorks newsletter.
http://click.topica.com/caaacCLb1di16b2Ck8tf/developerWorks
============================================================
==^================================================================
EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?b1di16.b2Ck8t
Or send an email To: fd-kernel32-unsubscribe AT topica DOT com
This email was sent to: jeffw AT darwin DOT sfbr DOT org
T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail!
http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register
==^================================================================
----- End forwarded message -----
- Raw text -