ext2-boot aims to be a configurable bootloader utilizing the reserved bootloader block from the ext2 specification to load and run 32 bit ELF executables. Stage2 is essentially a minimal kernel, with only print-to-screen, ext2 file reading, and ELF execution capabilities.
ext2-boot currently supports BIOS memory mapping, and passes along the information. Goals of this project are to provide easy-to-read, minimal yet functional code that can be used on native ext2 partitions, and be easier to set up than GRUB for people running Windows.
- Add in configuration file
- Finish video mode selection code
- Add support for multiboot
- ext2util, or some other way to write the second stage loader to inode #5
- elf32 executable
Simply run
$ make
And all necessary files will be compiled and moved onto the ext2 image.
If you need a fresh ext2 disk image:
$ dd if=/dev/zero of=disk.img bs=1k count=16k
$ mke2fs disk.img
ext2util can be used to write files (such as a kernel) to the ext2 image.