From owner-freebsd-hackers Sat Nov 8 03:11:45 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id DAA01146 for hackers-outgoing; Sat, 8 Nov 1997 03:11:45 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers) Received: from word.smith.net.au (ppp13.portal.net.au [202.12.71.113]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id DAA01137 for ; Sat, 8 Nov 1997 03:11:38 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from mike@word.smith.net.au) Received: from word.smith.net.au (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by word.smith.net.au (8.8.7/8.8.5) with ESMTP id VAA01053; Sat, 8 Nov 1997 21:36:48 +1030 (CST) Message-Id: <199711081106.VAA01053@word.smith.net.au> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0zeta 7/24/97 To: wghhicks@ix.netcom.com cc: Jonathan Mini , Mike Smith , hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: x86 gods; advice? Suggestions? In-reply-to: Your message of "Sat, 08 Nov 1997 06:00:44 CDT." <3464465C.435B3950@ix.netcom.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Sat, 08 Nov 1997 21:36:46 +1030 From: Mike Smith Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > Jonathan Mini wrote: > > I have looked at FreeBSD's boot loading code in detail. As to writing > > realmode code, I feel your pain. Currently I am suffering from the same > > problem myself. The closest I have come is Bruce's bcc package, which is > > *ahem* an entertaining set of utilities. The C compiler has been more annoying > > that frustrating. > > Well, in the bad old days, I would probably have reached for Forth. > There is some precedent for this approach over at Sun... OpenBoot is big and expensive. > I could probably whip up a Forth metacompiler for FreeBSD pretty quickly > using PFE as the host. Just a thought. If you can roll a bootloader that uses just the BIOS and has a footprint around 7k, you'll have our attention... mike