andymc wrote:
Hello, yes you've got all the factors correct. The current, released version (0.7) doesn't boot from USB because it relies on the OS loader to tell it which device it was booted from, but the OS loader has no way to know that it's a USB device.
The current development version (0.71) does not rely on the OS loader; instead, after all the disks are detected, the kernel searches for the boot sector with the correct signature (passed to the kernel by the OS loader).
The explanation is clear.
Just one more question:
The signature in question is the "signature" created by a partition/formatting program? If so, how to prevent an error if there are multiple signatures that match the one that was booted from? If so, would it be possible to use the disk signature itself of IDENTIFY command instead (for ATA devices), recording it somehow at boot time?
andymc wrote:
So, 0.71 will boot from USB when it's released. I can give you a preview version if you're interested in playing with it.
Andy
That will be very good if possible. The fact is that I'm still in the process of really understanding kernel stuff (I don't figure out enough of Visopsys code yet, just a tiny fraction of it, but I'm working on it; and you can see what programming level I have in
(URL) this web site which is a site made completely by me, even its design, and shows the best I'm capable of doing and understanding currently).
Anyway I will ask for help from time to time when I run short of knowledge on a particular element, specifically of Visopsys and the used algorithms.