BOOTSECTORS

This repository contains programs that can boot an IBM-compatible PC. Such programs are 512 bytes or less of 8086 machine code, whose last two bytes are a magic number denoting bootability. They make up the master boot record (MBR) of a legacy-style disk.

The included Makefile (written for bmake) will by default create two files for each program. First there is the 512-byte MBR image itself, whose suffix is .bin. Then there is a 160K floppy image, suffixed by .img, suitable for booting emulated PCs through 86Box or similar.

Compilation

The following is written for a UNIX-like environment. Ensure that nasm and bmake are installed, then invoke the latter:

bmake

Caveats

Writing the resulting MBR file or disk image to a disk will render inaccessible any data that the disk previously contained. (The MBR contains both the boot program and the partition table.)

Useful Links

• x86 instruction set
• BIOS calls
• Keyboard scancodes
• Address space