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How to get confident in OSDev

Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2023 4:03 am
by Prostyle44
Hello. I'd tried to make an operating system in 10th grade but due to lack of knowledge on OSDev and a strict mom who deleted all my work at the time. Should I try Nand2Tetris before starting OSDev. Any advice is appreciated. :D

Re: How to get confident in OSDev

Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2023 8:16 am
by nullplan
You seem to be lacking a question there. I will assume you mean the title as a question. The answer for me was: Reading. Reading everything you can. Read the CPU manuals until you actually understand how interrupt handling, the GDT, the possible other stuff, the TSS, the IOPL, the IOPB work. Continue reading until you actually understand how paging works with its various modes.

Read the multiboot spec. Or if you dislike GRUB and Syslinux, read the Limine or BOOTBOOT specs. Read the UEFI docs until you know how to draw something on screen (having you OS boot is very impressive, but only if you can actually visibly make it do something). Read the ACPI specs, they are on the same homepage.

Read the Wiki. It has a variety of topics. Try to find out what interests you.

Read the various hardware specs. USB, AHCI, ATA, and SD are all open to anyone interested.

Read POSIX. Sure, you may want to deviate from it, but POSIX compatible operating systems are everywhere, so they must be doing something right.

That should about do it. Read all that and then you can be kind of confident in your abilities. Now the advanced step: Putting all of that stuff into practice and building something.

Re: How to get confident in OSDev

Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2023 8:34 am
by Prostyle44
Thank you so much!