SIGOPS
"Hello World" OS

The "Hello World" OS is an example OS to get you started and accustomed to the development environment. Here you will find a directory with the source to this simple OS.

(10/5/02 Ed. note: The code here was out of date and not in such good shape... it has been partially rewritten, particularly the makefile and a switch from g++ (bleh) to gcc :-).


Explanation of main() in "Hello World" OS
char *vidmem = (char *) 0xb8000 is the memory mapped location of the color video memory. Then every other character is written with a letter of "Hello World OS" and the other characters are written with 0x7. 0x7 is the control character that sets the color of the text to be white on black and the attributes that it does not blink.


Steps to compiling "Hello World" OS
  • Download "Hello World" OS directory
  • Read main.c. Understand it.
  • Make main.c with the provided Makefile.
  • Run bootmaker with the helloworld.ini initilization file.
  • Boot the OS using your prefered method
    • Use the -floppy option on bootmaker to make the image bootable and either dd it to a floppy(UNIX) or rawrite(DOS/Win).
    • Use netboot to send the binary file to a machine.
    • Use boot.com to boot it from a (REAL DOS only!) dos prompt.
  • Now add a Text driver for your OS.