I've written a simple kernel that tries to write two characters to the frame buffer.
If I define a string literal in the kernel, I get the following output when it boots:
Booting 'os'
kernel /boot/kernel.elf
Error 13: Invalid or unsupported executable format
Press any key to continue...
Otherwise, if I define two characters I get the following (note 'ab' at the start of the output):
abBooting 'os'
kernel /boot/kernel.elf
[Multiboot-elf, <0x100000:0x201:0x0>, <0x101000:0x0:0x1000>, shtab=0x102168,
entry=0x1001f0]
loader
I wrote the loader in assembly:
global loader ; the entry symbol for ELF
MAGIC_NUMBER equ 0x1BADB002 ; define the magic number constant
FLAGS equ 0x0 ; multiboot flags
CHECKSUM equ -MAGIC_NUMBER ; calculate the checksum
; (magic number + checksum + flags should equal 0)
KERNEL_STACK_SIZE equ 4096 ; size of stack in bytes
section .text: ; start of the text (code) section
align 4 ; the code must be 4 byte aligned
dd MAGIC_NUMBER ; write the magic number to the machine code,
dd FLAGS ; the flags,
dd CHECKSUM ; and the checksum
loader: ; the loader label (defined as entry point in linker script)
mov eax, 0xCAFEBABE ; place the number 0xCAFEBABE in the register eax
mov esp, kernel_stack + KERNEL_STACK_SIZE ; point esp to the start of the
; stack (end of memory area)
extern run
call run
.loop:
jmp .loop ; loop forever
section .bss
align 4 ; align at 4 bytes
kernel_stack: ; label points to beginning of memory
resb KERNEL_STACK_SIZE ; reserve stack for the kernel
The kernel is written in c
#include "io.h"
#include "fb.h"
void run()
{
// try writing message to port
char* c = (char *) 10000;
c[0] = 'a';
c[1] = 'b';
fb_write(c, 2); // this does not cause the error
// fb_write("ab",2); // this line would cause the error
}
External headers
There are two external headers. One for IO ports called io.h and one for writing to the frame buffer called fb.h
Here is io.h and the implementation io.s
io.h:
#ifndef INCLUDE_IO_H
#define INCLUDE_IO_H
/** outb:
* Sends the given data to the given I/O port. Defined in io.s
*
* @param port The I/O port to send the data to
* @param data The data to send to the I/O port
*/
void outb(unsigned short port, unsigned char data);
#endif /* INCLUDE_IO_H */
io.s:
global outb ; make the label outb visible outside this file
; outb - send a byte to an I/O port
; stack: [esp + 8] the data byte
; [esp + 4] the I/O port
; [esp ] return address
outb:
mov al, [esp + 8]
mov dx, [esp + 4]
out dx, al
ret
fb.h
#include "io.h"
// FRAME BUFFER ================================
// Text colors
#define FB_BLACK 0
#define FB_BLUE 1
#define FB_GREEN 2
#define FB_CYAN 3
#define FB_RED 4
#define FB_MAGENTA 5
#define FB_BROWN 6
#define FB_LT_GREY 7
#define FB_DARK_GREY 8
#define FB_LT_BLUE 9
#define FB_LT_GREEN 10
#define FB_LT_CYAN 11
#define FB_LT_RED 12
#define FB_LT_MAGENTA 13
#define FB_LT_BROWN 14
#define FB_WHITE 15
// IO PORTS
#define FB_COMMAND_PORT 0x3D4
#define FB_DATA_PORT 0x3D5
// IO PORT COMMANDS
#define FB_HIGH_BYTE_COMMAND 14 // move cursor command low
#define FB_LOW_BYTE_COMMAND 15 // move cursor command high
/** fb_write_cell:
* used to write a character to a cell in the framebuffer
*
* param i which cell to write to
* param c the ascii char to write
* param fg foreground color
* param bf background color
*/
void fb_write_cell(unsigned int i, char c, unsigned char fg, unsigned char bg);
/** fb_move_cursor:
* used to move the cursor within the frame buffer
*
* param pos position within frame buffer to move cursor to
*/
void fb_move_cursor(unsigned short pos);
/** fb_write:
* write some text to the cursor
*
* param buf pointer to character string
* param len length of string to write
*/
int fb_write(char *buf, unsigned int len);
fb.c
#include "fb.h"
void fb_write_cell(unsigned int i, char c, unsigned char fg, unsigned char bg)
{
char *fb = (char *) 0x000B8000;
fb[i*2] = c;
fb[i*2 + 1] = ((fg & 0x0F) << 4) | (bg & 0x0F);
}
void fb_move_cursor(unsigned short pos) {
outb(FB_COMMAND_PORT, FB_HIGH_BYTE_COMMAND);
outb(FB_DATA_PORT, ((pos>>8) & 0x00FF));
outb(FB_COMMAND_PORT, FB_LOW_BYTE_COMMAND);
outb(FB_DATA_PORT, pos & 0x00FF);
}
int fb_write(char *buf, unsigned int len) {
unsigned int i = 0;
for(i = 0; i < len; i++) {
fb_write_cell(i, buf[i], FB_BLACK, FB_WHITE);
}
return 0;
}
Building it
I have a linker script called link.ld and a Makefile. I'm using gcc cross compiler for i386-elf That I compiled using this guide (http://wiki.osdev.org/GCC_Cross-Compiler).
ENTRY(loader) /* the name of the entry label */
SECTIONS {
. = 0x00100000; /* the code should be loaded at 1 MB */
.text ALIGN (0x1000) : /* align at 4 KB */
{
*(.text) /* all text sections from all files */
}
.rodata ALIGN (0x1000) : /* align at 4 KB */
{
*(.rodata*) /* all read-only data sections from all files */
}
.data ALIGN (0x1000) : /* align at 4 KB */
{
*(.data) /* all data sections from all files */
}
.bss ALIGN (0x1000) : /* align at 4 KB */
{
sbss = .;
*(COMMON) /* all COMMON sections from all files */
*(.bss) /* all bss sections from all files */
ebss = .;
}
}
And here is my makefile
OBJECTS = io.o fb.o loader.o kmain.o
#CC = gcc
CC = /home/albertlockett/opt/cross/bin/i386-elf-gcc
CFLAGS = -m32 -nostdlib -nostdinc -fno-builtin -fno-stack-protector
-nostartfiles -nodefaultlibs -Wall -Wextra -Werror -c
LDFLAGS = -T link.ld -melf_i386
AS = nasm
ASFLAGS = -f elf
all: kernel.elf
kernel.elf: $(OBJECTS)
ld $(LDFLAGS) $(OBJECTS) -o kernel.elf
os.iso: kernel.elf
cp kernel.elf iso/boot/kernel.elf
genisoimage -R
-b boot/grub/stage2_eltorito
-no-emul-boot
-boot-load-size 4
-A os
-input-charset utf8
-quiet
-boot-info-table
-o os.iso
iso
run: os.iso
bochs -f bochsrc.txt -q
%.o: %.c
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $< -o $@
%.o: %.s
$(AS) $(ASFLAGS) $< -o $@
clean:
rm -rf *.o kernel.elf os.iso
Run it
The makefile builds an iso from the contents of a directory called iso. That folder contains a preconfigured version of grub that I got here (https://github.com/littleosbook/littleosbook/blob/master/files/stage2_eltorito) and a menu.lst file for grub
menu.lst:
default=0
timeout=0
title os
kernel /boot/kernel.elf
contents of iso directory:
iso
`-- boot
|-- grub
| |-- menu.lst
| `-- stage2_eltorito
`-- kernel.elf
The iso image boots in bochs. Here is my bochsrc.txt file
megs: 32
display_library: term
romimage: file=/usr/share/bochs/BIOS-bochs-latest
vgaromimage: file=/usr/share/bochs/VGABIOS-lgpl-latest
ata0-master: type=cdrom, path=os.iso, status=inserted
boot: cdrom
log: bochslog.txt
clock: sync=realtime, time0=local
cpu: count=1, ips=1000000
com1: enabled=1, mode=file, dev=com1.out
Does anyone know why the string literal in the kernel file produces the error when I try to boot the iso?
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