im looking for a boot loader that runs from a floppy and thats open source and loads a program from the floppy disk its on or the hard disk..and im hoping it loads a 32 bit program...is there a place i can get a bootloader that takes my pc in a mode where 32 bit files can be executed...like a boot loader that could load my programs or my windows im planning to try to make and im about to create in visual c++ and vb 6...send me some links if you know where it is thanks.
The place that a 32 bit (Visual C++/VB6) file can be executed would be Windows... VC/VB programs rely on runtime libraries that, in turn, rely on the underlying operating system (Windows). I think your problem is beyond just finding a bootloader.
Just a note, Your code will have to be pure for the hardware you are planning to run it on for instance. If your VB uses a GUI which relies on windows DLLs then windows NEEDs to be running or your code will fail. You may think this is simple BUT you must remember that if your code is the first thing to run on a computer there will be NO drivers loaded/running, NO DLL's, DOS will NOT be running either so any system calls will fail! Your only options are to use lowlevel calls to hardware directly or bios calls (if available) You will also need to ensure your compiler/linker does not link any libraries which require other code loaded into memory! printf will proberbly NOT work unless you have a library which codes printf as a routine which directly talks to the Graphics Chips/Card/GPU Have fun.
Grub and Lilo are the boot loaders that come to mind. Grub is the newer of the two. I recommend going to this site to load an open source program.
