Using the Boot Loader

How you are going to boot your new OS is going to vastly vary depending on the architecture you are using. Here is how to use the SigOps uBoot system on a variety of architectures. The uBoot system is a great resource provided by us that can get you off the ground and going right away. The concept is simple, compile to elf or object files and create a SBBB (SigOps Bitchin' Boot Block) boot image using bootmaker, then boot using the method of your choice. Here is the technical documentation for the uBoot system. The source is available as well.

• bootmaker: a unix utility that packages up object files into a SBBB image. use the -floppy flag to make an image that includes a boot sector and is ready to be raw written to disk and booted (for the PC architecture only, sorry) (Download AIX sun linux) (Source) Building from source is recommended, although the linux binary OUGHT to work.

Unsupported/Not recommended:

• boot.com: This is a boot loader that will load a SBBB from a machine running DOS in real mode. Here is some more technical information about the boot loader. (Download) (Source)
• netboot: a unix utility to send a SBBB image to a remote computer. (Download AIX sun linux) (Source)
• netrom.bin: this image can be burned onto an EPROM and put on an ISA NE2000 network card to boot off of. it will automaticlly RARP for it's IP, so make sure you setup a RARP server. (Download) (Source)
• netboot.bin: this is an image that can be booted with boot.com to enter the netboot system. (Download) (Source)

• i386
  • from DOS in "real" mode transfer the image to the test bed through some means such as FTP or NFS (using a DOS client such as XFS v1.91. then boot using boot.com.
  • from DOS enter the netboot system using boot.com and send the image from a remote system.
  • from the boot secter of a floppy with an image constructed with bootmaker -floppy.
  • from a boot ROM enter the netboot system.
• sparc