install/boot question

Hey folks,

I wanted to create a VMware image that would boot into OpenBios, and simply present the user with
a Forth command line.  Is this feasible.  In fact, taking the question up a level, how would you
"install" OpenBIOS on any x86 machine?

I have done Linux installs where you go through this process of formatting the disks, setting a
swap, then placing a bootloader on the boot partition.

I would assume that some sort of openbios "machine code" needs to be installed to the boot sector
of the x86 machine in order for it to work.  Is this correct, or am I missing something.

Thanks for your help, as you can probably tell I am new to the list, and still trying to wrap my
head around the OpenBIOS concepts.

Geoff

[Torsten Duwe]

[Is the list server working? I did not receive _any_ OB mail after this one.]

On Wednesday 20 June 2007, [e-mail] wrote:
> I would assume that some sort of openbios "machine code" needs to be
> installed to the boot sector of the x86 machine in order for it to work. 
> Is this correct, or am I missing something.

Well OpenBIOS is obviously some sort of ... BIOS. Ideally, you put it into a 
flash ROM, or into a ROM image file for the emulator in your case. OpenBIOS 
basically does not do any platform initialisation (yet), thus it's a good 
companion for LinuxBIOS. You build LinuxBIOS for your (virtual) hardware and 
specify OpenBIOS as payload. For testing and development, you can build an 
ELF binary to be loaded directly by e.g. grub.

HTH,
    Torsten