Help booting OS (xv6)

mostwanted10 · **Joined:** Thu May 22, 2014 11:57 am **Posts:** 1

I want to boot xv6(a simple OS by MIT) on real x86 hardware. Im currently running it using qemu.
For starters,
There is a file inside xv6 source code with the following text

Code:

# Using GRUB 2, you can boot xv6 from a file stored in a
# Linux file system by copying kernel or kernelmemfs to /boot
# and then adding this menu entry:
#
# menuentry "xv6" {
#    insmod ext2
#    set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
#    set kernel='/boot/kernel'
#    echo "Loading ${kernel}..."
#    multiboot ${kernel} ${kernel}
#    boot
# }

I dont have GRUB as Im using a windows machine. Secondly, I get two files upon compilation, XV6.img and FS.img
As I have no experience with booting self written OSes on real hardware, I need your help.

Cheers

iansjack · **Posted:** Thu May 22, 2014 3:10 pm

1. I'm not convinced that this is a question about OS development. (Edit - OK, it's now been moved to a more appropriate place.)

2. I think you are going to have to install Grub to boot this OS which, realistically, means that you first have to install Linux.

3. I would strongly recommend that you do not do this on a machine that contains important information. If you must, at least use a dedicated hard disk.

4. If 2 is a problem then I don't think you should be attempting to install this OS on real hardware. I'm not sure that you have anything to gain by doing so rather than running it in a VM.

5. If none of the above helps then I think you would have more success posting on a forum dedicated to this OS.

OSDev.org

Help booting OS (xv6)

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