benOS Bootloader

Bootloader for benOS Mercury.

Overview Of benOS Bootloader

The benOS bootloader goes through a strategic and a lightweight boot process whenever a computer or virual machine running benOS is powered on or restarted. Below, we will explain the process and how everything works from the ground up.

A. Bootloader [ENTRY]

1. benstart (benstart.asm)
2. benboot (bootloader stage of benstart) is initialized via the primary partition of the device.

The benOS Bootloader is written in mostly Assembly and is built for x86_64 hardware. Currently we are working on an ARM-based integration but will probably never become compatible with i386-based computers.

B. benOS Microkernel [KERNEL] < global benOS microkernel variable within the bootloader.

1. benkernel (microkernel for benOS) is loaded at 0x10 initially and after db loads, 0x100000.
2. memoryMap - Memory mapping boot stage (ben_mm.asm)
3. BenPlay - BenPlay display boot stage (benplay.asm)

C. benInit

1. ramDiskInit - At this boot stage, drivers, including drivers for the benFS (benOS Local File System) are loaded as apart of the benOS microkernel image. Due to the way we load drivers at the ramDiskInit stage, it's an easy process when wanting to modify benOS, for loading different local filesystems, other than benFS, as the Administrative user. It is also just as easy to move benOS processes and/or drivers in/out of the ramDisk.

Example of how benOS loads benFS

echo ############################
echo ##   benOS is booting     ##
echo ############################
echo

# Load the driver for the benFS Local Filesystem
initfs:/bin/benfsd disk:/0

# Launch the benFS filesystem
cd file:/
fsinit

2. benFS Loader - benOS Local FileSystem is loaded

D. Login

1. benOS Server utilizes a terminal-first approach but can load the benOS GUI by simply typing 'x'
2. benOS Desktop utilizes a GUI-first strategy and loads the GUI login screen immediately upon the finalization of the benOS Bootloader.

Note: memoryMap and BenPlay are loaded along with the kernel, because they heavily rely on functions within the benOS BIOS and it's a bit difficult to access them once the kernel has been loaded, so it is best to add them to the boot process at the same time we load the benOS microkernel.

Using interrupt 0xFF, we load the benOS microkernel through an interrupt table. With benOS and our Assembly-based bootloader, the microkernel interrupt will only be available during the loading stages of benOS bootloader. Afterwards the benOS bootloader switches to the next stage ben_mm where the benOS microkernel duplicates the memoryMap via the lowMemory, initiates pageMapping, distributes the global ENV object and associated variables that are defined in the benOS microkernel. It takes the ENV object and then begins to initialize Bench Hardware-related drivers like BenPlay and schemes, directly into the benOS microkernel. It will also print out benOS microkernel information at this boot stage, like you can see below.

benOS Microkernel Info (Printout Example)

benOS 64 bits
 + PS/2
   + Keyboard
     - Reset FA, AA
     - Set defaults FA
     - Enable streaming FA
   + PS/2 Mouse
     - Reset FA, AA
     - Set defaults FA
     - Enable streaming FA
 + IDE on 0, 0, 0, 0, C120, IRQ: 0
   + Primary on: C120, 1F0, 3F4, IRQ E
     + Master: Status: 58 Serial: QM00001 Firmware: 2.0.0 Model: QEMUHARDDISK 48-bit LBA Size: 128 MB
     + Slave: Status: 0
   + Secondary on: C128, 170, 374, IRQ F
     + Master: Status: 41 Error: 2
     + Slave: Status: 0

CREDITS AND ATTRIBUTES

benOS may use software from other open source libraries. For a full list of software credits and acknowledgements, please visit https://github.com/benchlab/benOS/blob/master/ATTRIBUTES.md. The original LICENSE or LICENSES for the originating software(s) and library or libraries that were used to create benos-bootloader are still active, although, considering this Bench software and the softwares and/or libraries/packages it is imported into may be used to issue illegal securities, the BENCH LICENSE is activated for this purpose. This does not take away the credits, disable the originating LICENSE or in any way disown the original creation, creators, developers or organizations that originally developed many of the libaries used throughout Bench's large array of software libraries packaged together for the purposes of building a decentralized operating system (benOS)

VERSION

1.0.1

LICENSE

BENCH LICENSE
For benOS Bootloader

Copyright (c) 2018 Bench Computer, Inc. legal@benchx.io

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