At 05:29 PM 6/10/00 -0400, "Todd L. Miller" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> BTW -- if people are having problems booting JOS, I can post the
>(GRUB) (floppy) disk image I use somewhere. (I was going to mention this
>earlier, but forgot about it.)
If we're serious about creating a Java-based operating system, a Java
application should be able to create a boot diskette. This is on my wish
list. Any volunteers?
I would like to see a Java application that is capable of creating a GRUB
boot diskette. This application should be distributed in a jar as well as
in source code.
Here is how it might work. The boot image would be stored within the class
file itself. This application should be self-contained. It should not use
an external "resource" file. The raw boot image is converted to a byte
array, like this:
private byte[] payload = {
0x??, 0x??, 0x?? .. 0x??
};
Where does the byte array come from? A Java program should be written to
create the .java file from a GRUB boot image.
The Java application opens /dev/fd0 for output and writes the payload byte
array to the disk. See there! A GRUB boot diskette has been created.
One Java application could create a GRUB boot diskette and a Etherboot boot
diskette. A command line version might enable me to select GRUB or
Etherboot. A GUI version of this application might enable me to select
/dev/fd0 or /def/fd1 and GRUB or Etherboot.
Taking this one more step, there should be a suitable API so that any Java
object can create a boot diskette.
How do I create a boot diskette from MS-DOS or Microsoft Windows? I should
be able to create a boot diskette on any foreign operating system with one
platform-independent Java application.
Does anyone have enough talent (and time) to write this app? It would make
my life a lot easier. I still don't have a GRUB boot diskette.
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