Re: Bootable Ada/Gnat context for PC's

[James Ross <rem.jr@rem.webross.com>]

On Sun, 31 Mar 2002 15:28:03 -0600, sk <sknipe@ktc.com> wrote:

>However, a completly bootable Ada context is 
>available (I deliberately do not use the term "OS").
>
>This release is premature but I have to move onto 
>other things. So I am releasing to prevent the 
>project from disappearing into the black-hole of 
>archives and backups.
>
>The project is available for download through my 
>homepage
>
>www.ktc.com/~sknipe

Good work!  And thanks for making it available before it got lost in
the bit bucket :)  Even though there are some difficulties to overcome
yet, this proves that it is possible to get a "quasi-OS" up and
running using Gnat.  I had to replace gcc with gnatgcc in the Makefile
on my Linux Gnat 3.13p installation, but after that it worked fine.

I gave up on the example at web.wanadoo.be/rc.s/AdaOS because it
relies on GRUB as the loader and I didn't want to redo my Linux loader
just to play with it.  Also, I wouldn't like that exclusive dependency
on a loader anyway.  

I have been toying with getting a boot disk to load.  There are quite
a few how-to's on the net about it. I have gotten as far as loading
the extra sectors from the floppy into memory.  But haven't got a Gnat
image yet.

A good tool for testing the boot process by the way is at
bochs.sourceforge.net  (The EduOS fails on bochs however!  It
complains that a floppy seek was made out of bounds)

Also, does anyone know why ld (the linker) crashes when I execute the
-oformat binary option on the Windows version of Gnat?  Or is just on
my Windows XP box?
JR