| Filename | Latest commit message | Latest commit date |
|---|---|---|
751f5718cd
The screenshot was mode 16. OVMF advertises it as 1366 wide; asking for it produces a framebuffer QEMU scans out at 1360, so every row written lands six pixels further along than the one above and the whole screen shears. The firmware never says it rounded, and nothing in the mode information hints at it -- PixelsPerScanLine agrees with the width it claims. So a mode is only usable if its width is a multiple of 8, which is the VGA scanout granularity. Checked rather than assumed: 1400x1050 and 1280x720 render perfectly centred, 1366x768 does not, and it is the only advertised width that is not a multiple of 8. The single cycling row is now a list. Every usable mode the firmware offers, deduplicated -- it advertises the same geometry several times with different internals, and a menu with 1280x1024 in it three times is one nobody trusts -- plus a row for typing a size. A typed size is matched against the same filtered list, so a mode that would shear cannot be reached by typing it either, and a size that does not exist says so rather than silently keeping the old one. Also fixes the panel layout you spotted: the title band was exactly as tall as the heading, so the rule was drawn through the lettering and the first row sat on its baseline; and the selected row's highlight had a fixed 3px offset against a 24px row, so it sat on the text rather than around it. Verified by applying four resolutions from the list -- 1280x800, 1024x768, 1280x960, 1600x1200 -- and checking the panel is centred in each. bootcheck 108 [ok]. BIOS still asks in a text prompt before the framebuffer exists, and that is the remaining half of "the same for both". See the next commit message or the note in stage2.S: VBE is INT 10h, so it needs real mode, and a graphical chooser needs either unreal mode before the switch or a return to real mode after it. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> |
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| .. | ||
| bios | ||
| common | ||
| uefi | ||
| README.md | ||
Booting SchOS
Two firmware paths, kept apart on purpose:
boot/
bios/ legacy BIOS: MBR, El Torito CD stub, real-mode stage 2
uefi/ UEFI application (not written yet)
They are separate directories rather than #ifdefs in one because they share
almost nothing. A BIOS loader lives in 16-bit real mode, talks to the firmware
through software interrupts, and has to walk itself up into long mode. A UEFI
loader is a 64-bit PE executable that the firmware has already placed in long
mode with paging on, and it asks for services by calling through a table of
function pointers. The only things genuinely in common are the logo bitmap, the
menu's appearance, and the hand-off contract below.
What the loader must hand the kernel
Whichever path runs, the kernel expects the same things. This is the contract; a second loader is correct exactly when it satisfies it.
| Where | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| Kernel image | loaded per its ELF program headers | entry at entry64 |
| CPU state | see below -- the two paths differ here | |
| Memory map | E820_MAP_ADDR, 24-byte entries, count at E820_COUNT_ADDR |
kernel/arch/x86_64/e820.c reads it |
| Framebuffer | VBE_INFO_ADDR |
address, pitch, width, height, depth |
| Verbose flag | BOOT_VERBOSE_FLAG_ADDR |
set by the F8 menu |
The addresses are defined once, in include/memlayout.h and
boot/bios/stage2main.c. A UEFI loader must fill the same structures — the
kernel does not care which firmware produced them, and that is what keeps the
split cheap.
Two entry points, because the two firmwares hand over differently
The BIOS path enters the kernel in 32-bit protected mode at the multiboot
entry, with EAX holding the framebuffer address; mboot_entry then builds page
tables and climbs into long mode itself.
UEFI hands a loader long mode with paging already on. Dropping back to
protected mode only to climb out again is a mode switch whose failure mode is a
triple fault with no console, so the kernel publishes a second entry instead.
kernel/arch/x86_64/entry.S carries a sch64_header — magic SCH64BOO,
8-byte aligned within the first 16 KB, followed by a 64-bit physical address —
found by scanning, exactly as the BIOS loader scans for the multiboot magic.
include/schboot.h holds the magic so loader and kernel cannot disagree.
What that entry expects:
- long mode, interrupts off
- CR3 pointing at tables that identity-map the low 4 GB and map the same
4 GB at
0xffff800000000000.entry64low's first instruction is amovabsto a high address, so identity alone triple faults immediately. - RBX = the framebuffer physical address, and never 1 — that value marks an
application processor in
entry64high.
The kernel loads its own GDT at that entry (entry64uefi), rather than the
loader doing it. A loader arriving in long mode is still on the firmware's
descriptors, and the first thing the kernel does that depends on its own
selectors takes a #GP against a GDT the firmware no longer owns — it
surfaced as unexpected trap 13 ... cs=38, a long way from the cause.
e820.c reads a BIOS memory map. UEFI hands out a different structure
(EFI_MEMORY_DESCRIPTOR, from GetMemoryMap), so the UEFI loader has to
translate it into the same 24-byte entries rather than inventing a second
format for the kernel to learn.
The BIOS path today
bios/bootasm.S— the literal MBR sector. Signed to 512 bytes bytools/sign.pl, loads stage 2 from LBA 1 and jumps.bios/cdboot.S— the same job for optical media, as an El Torito no-emulation image. Separate because the loader never uses INT 13h and so needs a real ATAPI read.bios/stage2.S— collects the E820 map, sets a VBE mode, enters protected mode.bios/stage2main.c— the boot menu and splash, then loads the kernel and enters long mode.
STAGE2_SECTORS is defined once, in the Makefile, and passed to both the
assembler and the dd that writes the image. It used to be written out by hand
in five places and silently truncated the loader when they disagreed.
Why UEFI is worth doing
Everything since roughly 2012 boots UEFI by default, and Secure Boot machines will not run the BIOS path at all without firmware settings most people never touch. The BIOS loader stays regardless: it is what QEMU's default machine and older hardware use, and it costs nothing to keep once the two are separated.