README
1
2Welcome to the OpenBIOS forth core "begin again".
3
4Find more information about OpenBIOS at http://www.openbios.org/
5
6This program was written by Patrick Mauritz and Stefan Reinauer in 2003
7For license details on this piece of software, check Documentation/COPYING.
8
9How OpenBIOS works
10------------------
11
12 The OpenBIOS forth core is split into a forth kernel written in C
13 and a forth dictionary which operated on by the kernel.
14
15 When building the forth core, you get different versions of
16 the forth kernel:
17
18 * a "hosted" unix binary. This binary can be used on a unix system
19
20 - to execute a forth dictionary from a file. This can be used for
21 testing openbios code in a development environment on a unix host.
22
23 - to create a dictionary file. Such a dictionary file sets up
24 all of the forth language. Primitives are indexed to save relocations.
25
26 The default is to create a forth dictionary forth.dict from
27 forth/start.fs. This file includes all of the basic forth language
28 constructs from forth/bootstrap.fs and starts the interpreter.
29
30 To achieve this, the hosted unix version contains a basic set of
31 forth words coded in C that allow creating a full dictionary.
32
33 * a varying number of target specific binaries. On x86 you can start
34 openbios for example from GRUB or LinuxBIOS. They are all based on
35 the same forth engine consisting of a dictionary scheduler, primitive
36 words needed to build the forth environment, 2 stacks and a simple
37 set of console functions. These binaries can not be started directly
38 in the unix host environment.
39
40Requirements
41------------
42 * gcc
43 * grub or any other multiboot loader to run the standalone
44 binary "openbios.multiboot"
45
46Building & Usage
47----------------
48
49 * make
50
51 this builds "openbios.multiboot", the standalone image and "unix",
52 the hosted image. Additionally it creates a forth dictionary
53 file from forth/start.fs. All generated files are written to
54 the absolute directory held by the variable BUILDDIR, which defaults
55 to obj-[platform]. Some compile time parameters can be tweaked in
56 include/config.h
57
58 * use "unix" to create a forth dictionary on your own:
59 $ ./unix -Iforth start.fs
60 creates the file forth.dict from forth source forth/start.fs.
61
62 * use "unix" to run a created dictionary:
63 $ ./unix forth.dict
64 This is useful for testing
65
66 * booting openbios
67 You can boot openbios i.e. in grub. Add the following lines to
68 your menu.lst:
69
70 title openbios
71 kernel (hd0,2)/boot/openbios.multiboot
72 module (hd0,2)/boot/openfirmware.dict
73
74 Note: change (hd0,2) to the partition you copied openbios and
75 forth.dict to.
76
77 To boot OpenBIOS from LinuxBIOS/etherboot, you can either use
78 "openbios" or "openbios.full":
79
80 - openbios is the pure kernel that loads the dictionary from a
81 hardcoded address in flash memory (0xfffe0000)
82
83 - openbios.full also includes the dictionary directly so that it
84 can be easily used from etherboot or the LinuxBIOS builtin ELF
85 loader without taking care of the dictionary
86
87
88Comments are welcome.
89
90 OpenBIOS team
91
92------------------------------------------------------------------------
93tag: README for openbios forth core
94