source: trunk/bootcode/devinfo.txt@ 201

===============================================================================
Information on AiR-BOOT Development                                [2017-04-13]
===============================================================================


This is the AiR-BOOT Development Build Directory
------------------------------------------------
AiR-BOOT roughly consists of the following components:
o The BootLoader
o The Installer Program
o The SetABoot Program

Required Tools
--------------
o Open Watcom -- v1.9 is the version used by the maintainer
o JWasm       -- v2.06d (July 9 2011) is the version used by the maintainer
o GNU Make    -- v3.81 or higher

A note on supported Assemblers and Build Utilities
--------------------------------------------------
The (earlier) support for TASM/MASM and WASM was actually an excercise
investigating assembler capabilities and code-generation. This has not been
maintained and the relevant sections and files will be removed. The only
supported assembler is JWasm, specifically v2.06d for OS/2. Also, the Watcom
Make utility (wmake) is about to be replaced by GNU Make to enhance the overall
build-system.

The BootLoader
--------------
The main source file is 'airboot.asm', from which other sources are included
at the source level. Building the BootLoader results in a 16-bit binary image
called 'airboot.bin' which is the stuff that gets installed in TRACK0 of the
boot-disk.

Post Processing of the BootLoader
---------------------------------
When 'airboot.asm' is assembled, the resulting binary is not ready yet.
The 'mbr-prot' module is a seperatedly built module that has to be embedded
to form the final loader-image. This is done by the 'fixcode' utility.
Even when this embedding is done, the resulting image is not ready yet because
the CRC that protects the code-section has not been calculated yet, because
that is done by the installer when the loader-imaged is installed. This means
that a regular built loader-image cannot be manually merged to TRACK0 of a disk
and be functional. The moment AiR-BOOT starts it will halt on the invalid
code-section CRC. See the para below on how to circumvent that.

The 'CRC_IGNORE' build-option
-----------------------------
If you look at 'fc.mnu' you see the use of the 'CRC_IGNORE' build-option.
This option disables the CRC check for the code-section in the resulting
loader-image so that it is now possible to manually merge the loader-image to
TRACK0 of a disk. This is handy when using virtual machines for development.
Of course you cannot blindly copy the loader-image to TRACK0, because that
would overwrite the partition-table of the disk.

The Internal Mini Debugger
--------------------------
If AUX_DEBUG (airboot.asm:~97) is enabled, rudimentary COM-port debugging is
possible. If a terminal is attached to the COM-port, AiR-BOOT will dump
information there when it is loading and a few 'hotkeys' exist to dump some
internal stuff when the MAIN MENU is active. Press 'h' to have AiR-BOOT dump
de hotkeys to the COM-port.

Adjusting the Mini Debugger to your needs
-----------------------------------------
The debugger hooks into the main keyboard loop to check if the key pressed is
one of its hotkeys. These hotkeys are defined in 'debug.asm'. More precisely,
they are part of a dispatch-table where each hotkey maps to a pointer that
points to the function to be executed. This makes it easy to redefine existing
hotkeys or add new ones and their corresponding functions to suit your needs.

The need for the '/forcecode' flag
----------------------------------
When developing, if the regular installer is used to install a new build,
the '/forcecode' option is required. This is because the installer checks the
version, which is most probably the same as the previously installed build,
so the installer assumes the installed version 'up-to-date'. The '/forcecode'
flag forces the installer to write the new code-section to TRACK0 of the disk.

CAUTION when developing on a Real System
----------------------------------------
Remember that AiR-BOOT always accesses all disks and modifies the boot-flags
in the MBRs it finds. A small bug can render disks unusable. This also involves
attached USB mass storage devices (accidently) left plugged-in. Needless to say
that a virtual machine environment is the safest and both Qemu and VirtualBox
are very suitable for that.

The Installer Program
---------------------
This is a cross-platform program written in C.
It takes the 'airboot.bin' loader-image and installs it into TRACK0 of the
boot-disk. Needless to say that the OS/2 version of the installer,
'airboot2.exe', is the most tested version. Versions for the other platforms
are tested occasionally but not intensively.

The SetABoot Program
--------------------
This is the AiR-BOOT replacement for 'setboot.exe'.
If offers roughly the same functionality, but instead of acting on IBM-BM,
it of course acts on AiR-BOOT. If AiR-BOOT is not found, it delegates to
'setbm.exe' which it assumes is the original 'setboot.exe' renamed.

The FixCode Utility
-------------------
This utility is used to embed the 'mbr-prot' module into the loader-image.
It is only used when developing and not part of the AiR-BOOT distribution.

The File Commander Build Menu
-----------------------------
The Swiss Army Knife used to provide Build Menus.
Just press F2 here for the Developer Build Menu.

Resources:
----------
Netlabs Project Page  : http://trac.netlabs.org/air-boot
Netlabs Respository   : http://trac.netlabs.org/air-boot/browser/trunk
Netlabs Revision Log  : http://trac.netlabs.org/air-boot/log
Bug tracking:         : http://trac.netlabs.org/air-boot/report
GitHub Project Portal : http://rousseaux.github.io/netlabs.air-boot
GitHub Repository     : http://github.com/rousseaux/netlabs.air-boot
Contact e-mail        : rousseau.os2dev@gmx.com



Ben Rietbroek <rousseau.os2dev@gmx.com>,

  AiR-BOOT maintainer.