Hi all,
I'm following Jody development and testing after him.
Here's a list of things that are still tricky to do before obtaining a
build of a working elks from github sources:
Kernel:
-[SOLVED] Elks kernel won't build correctly in x86_64 environment ->
now it works great
-It's impossible to set "Base memory size" (CONFIG_MEM_PAGES) because
pressing enter makes it looping on help page and you can't return to
previous menu. (btw... it's this setting used?)
Apart from this, make dep and make Image creates a good working image
with boot sector to boot from floppy.
There's just a strange thing: why if I set XT machine and 8086
processor, the boot log console talks about XMS memory?
elkscmd:
I got some bigger troubles for this:
-It needed "compress" executable that was not found by default on my
system, just had to put it.
-It want to have dev86's bootblocks folder in (GITHUB_ROOT)/linux-86/,
I put it and it worked, but I don't know if it's correct, as it's part
of another project. Furthermore we maybe should not rely on it and
fork to a dedicated boot loader "suite" for ELKS (I'm thinking of
MINIX monitor) integrated in the project
-In order to make dev86 bootblocks I had to manually add as86_encap
because my dev86 package (ebuild) is not putting it in default PATHS,
but I think this is just a problem on my system.
-Every time an error occours making elkscmd images, the loop file
remains mounted and I have to manually unmount it
-If I try make -j n, it mounts at the same time different images on
the same path, it should not.
-If it fails to create an image during the last steps, doing make
again says that it's up to date and do nothing, so I have to do a make
clean.
- [I'm working on this one] It's not possible to make a complete root
separated from a boot floppy image, I would like to make a root "tar"
in order to use it as I like (e.g. an already ready root image, an hd
image, etc)
Overcoming these issues it can build a good image (I tried "comb")
that boots and works (partially).
I tested the result on different (emulated, sigh.) environments, and
compared to minix 2:
-Hyper-V
- ELKS: boot correctly from floppy ("comb" image), but hangs after
some time (if you are fast enough, you can login, but it hangs after
some seconds)
- MINIX: (hd minix.mnx image) 203 -> black screen. 204 -> works
-Dosbox (with minix boot.com)
- MINIX: works fine
- ELKS: minix's boot.com just works with minix.
-Dosbox (with imgmount and boot -l)
-ELKS: prints "Booting ELKS.....:" then hangs.
-MINIX: don't even try to start.
-fake86 (a nice 8086 emulator for windows)
-ELKS: prints "Booting ELKS.....:" then hangs, making strange noises
-MINIX: boots, but hangs at "Multiuser startup in progress.
I think for now it's a good result, but it still needs some work.
What do you think? What are your experiences?
Regards,
Edoardo
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