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1.1 root 1: Welcome to OpenBIOS
2: -------------------
3:
4: OpenBIOS is a free, portable implementation of IEEE 1275-1994
5: (Open Firmware). Find detailed information about OpenBIOS at
6: http://www.openbios.org/
7:
8: What is OpenBIOS?
9: -----------------
10:
11: OpenBIOS can replace your system firmware (BIOS) partly or completely. It
12: can also be used as a bootloader to create an Open Firmware compatible
13: interface between legacy firmware and an operating system.
14:
15: This is achieved by a modular concept that consists of a portable Forth
16: kernel and three interfaces for user interaction, device initialization
17: and client (operating system) control.
18:
19: While far not all possible applications of OpenBIOS are implemented yet,
20: a lot of functionality is already there. OpenBIOS can be used to enhance
21: LinuxBIOS (http://www.linuxbios.org), or be booted from any multiboot
22: capable bootloader to bring Open Firmware to your machine. OpenBIOS can
23: also be used when an operating system is already running. It provides
24: the needed OpenFirmware functionality to MOL (MacOnLinux) to boot MacOS
25: 9 and X on PPC machines, as well as Linux (all supported platforms)
26:
27: OpenBIOS build options
28: ---------------------
29:
30: config/scripts/switch-arch <platform> - build for specified platform
31: Look in config/example for
32: platforms.
33:
34: make - build all configured binaries
35:
36: make run - run unix example.
37:
38:
39: How OpenBIOS works
40: ------------------
41:
42: The OpenBIOS forth core is split into a forth kernel written in portable
43: C and a forth dictionary which operated on by the kernel.
44:
45: When building the forth core, you get different versions of
46: the forth kernel:
47:
48: * a unix executable program
49:
50: - to execute a forth dictionary from a file. This can be used for
51: easily testing and developing OpenBIOS on a unix host.
52:
53: - to create a dictionary file. Such a dictionary file sets up
54: all of the forth language. Primitives are indexed to save relocations.
55:
56: The default is to create a forth dictionary forth.dict from
57: forth/start.fs. This file includes all of the basic forth language
58: constructs from forth/bootstrap.fs and starts the interpreter.
59:
60: To achieve this, the hosted unix version contains a basic set of
61: forth words coded in C that allow creating a full dictionary.
62:
63: * a varying number of target specific binaries. On x86 you can start
64: openbios for example from GRUB or LinuxBIOS. They are all based on
65: the same forth engine consisting of a dictionary scheduler, primitive
66: words needed to build the forth environment, 2 stacks and a simple
67: set of console functions. These binaries can not be started directly
68: in the unix host environment.
69:
70: Requirements
71: ------------
72: * gcc
73: * gnu make
74: * OpenBIOS FCode Utils
75: Download with svn co svn://openbios.org/openbios/fcode-utils
76: * grub or any other multiboot loader to run the multiboot
77: binary "openbios.multiboot" with it's module "openbios-<platform>.dict"
78: * xsltproc
79:
80: Building & Usage
81: ----------------
82:
83: * make
84:
85: this builds "openbios.multiboot", the standalone image and "openbios-unix",
86: the hosted image. Additionally it creates a forth dictionary
87: file from forth/start.fs. All generated files are written to
88: the absolute directory held by the variable BUILDDIR, which defaults
89: to obj-[platform]. Some compile time parameters can be tweaked in
90: include/config.h
91:
92: * use "openbios-unix" to create a forth dictionary on your own:
93: $ obj-x86/openbios-unix -Iforth start.fs
94: creates the file forth.dict from forth source forth/start.fs.
95:
96: * use "openbios-unix" to run a created dictionary:
97: $ obj-x86/openbios-unix obj-x86/openbios-unix.dict
98: This is useful for testing
99:
100: * booting openbios
101: You can boot openbios i.e. in grub. Add the following lines to
102: your menu.lst:
103:
104: title openbios
105: kernel (hd0,2)/boot/openbios.multiboot
106: module (hd0,2)/boot/openbios-x86.dict
107:
108: Note: change (hd0,2) to the partition you copied the openbios image and
109: openbios-x86.dict to.
110:
111: To boot OpenBIOS from LinuxBIOS/etherboot, you can either use
112: "openbios-plain.elf" or "openbios-builtin.elf":
113:
114: - openbios-plain.elf is the pure kernel that loads the dictionary from a
115: hardcoded address in flash memory (0xfffe0000)
116:
117: - openbios-builtin.elf also includes the dictionary directly so that it
118: can be easily used from etherboot or the LinuxBIOS builtin ELF
119: loader without taking care of the dictionary
120:
121: CREDITS
122: -------
123: OpenBIOS was developed by Stefan Reinauer, Samuel Rydh and Patrick Mauritz.
124: The OpenBIOS IDE driver was written by Jens Axboe.
125: For license details on this piece of software, see Documentation/COPYING.
126:
127:
128: If you have patches, questions, comments, feel free to contact the OpenBIOS
129: mailinglist.
130:
131: Regards,
132: the OpenBIOS team
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