OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical > Programming

UEFI and GPT not developed by ArcaNoae - by whom else?

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Rich Walsh:

--- Quote from: Sigurd Fastenrath on November 08, 2022, 11:17:41 am ---I have no clue who is doing the work.

--- End quote ---

The primary developer for UEFI and GPT is Dmitry Zavalskov (Dixie), the author of QSINIT and one of the best low-level coders OS/2 has ever seen. Roderick Klein tested countless DOS games to help Dixie get the video right, while I worked with him on designing GPT and some of the boot-up "plumbing"; others at AN rearranged the deck chairs and the like. AFAIK, all of the work is proprietary to AN.

While the implementation of UEFI and GPT is really phenomonal on a functional level (I'm posting this from a UEFI-only machine with a GPT-formatted NVME disk running an AOS 5.1 beta and it all "just works"), a little perspective is needed to avoid getting too, too impressed with this accomplishment.

I'd estimate it took the equivalent of one full-time employee 2 years to implement almost everything needed. In the grand scheme of IT projects, that's small potatoes. And, out of all the subsystems that comprise OS/2, only two were changed: loader and video. Stuff like networking, DASD/LVM, PM, etc. are all unchanged.

Strangely enough, it's the fact that these changes are so limited that allows AOS to do things that I don't think are possible with any other OS. Before my old BIOS/UEFI machine died last week, I was able to boot eCS v2.2rc2 under UEFI with absolutely NO changes to the eCS installation. After it died, I xcopied my primary BIOS-based installation from the old machine to this UEFI-only machine, changed 2 lines in my config.sys, and then booted up the fully UEFI-compliant installation that I'm using now.

I missed Lewis' AOS 5.1 upgrade presentation at last weekend's Warpstock. Did he mention these as upgrade options?

Sigurd Fastenrath:
Thank you very much, the QSINIT Developer was my best guess  :) I wonder why these informations have not been included in the Presentation.

If I understand you correct: if it is possible to boot eCs on UEFI only it should be possible to boot an with AN Drivers updated MCP 4.52 (what is my main system) as well, shouldn't it?

Would you share these two lines wich have to be changed in config.sys? My guess is that one may be able to use an updated QSINIT and need the filter driver.

Again: Thank you very much!

Rich Walsh:

--- Quote from: Sigurd Fastenrath on November 08, 2022, 01:17:27 pm ---If I understand you correct: if it is possible to boot eCs on UEFI only it should be possible to boot an with AN Drivers updated MCP 4.52 (what is my main system) as well, shouldn't it?

--- End quote ---

If - and only if - you own a license for AOS 5.1 because you need AN's proprietary UEFI bootloader files installed in your EFI System Partition (ESP). Don't expect to use QSINIT - as I said, I believe that UEFI is AN-only.


--- Quote ---Would you share these two lines wich have to be changed in config.sys? My guess is that one may be able to use an updated QSINIT and need the filter driver.

--- End quote ---

I described 2 very different scenarios. The one that you want to emulate requires NO changes to eCS _at all_. The other one that required config.sys changes involved a licensed 5.1 beta BIOS/MBR install that I converted to UEFI/GPT using files already part of that system (i.e. no license violations).


--- Quote ---I wonder why these informations have not been included in the Presentation.

--- End quote ---

Either they don't want to have to deal with it (possible) or they simply don't know about it (probable).

FYI... I worked for AN for 5 years before quitting last February.

Tom:

--- Quote from: Sigurd Fastenrath on November 08, 2022, 11:17:41 am ---Hi Tom,

thank you very much for the explanation, my comment before was a bit misleading, sorry.

I mean I have no clue who is doing the work.

I do know what UEFI, Secure Boot and GPT means.

Thanks again!!!

--- End quote ---

To avoid possible misunderstanding: my only relation with AN is being a customer. I have never worked for them.
I have only given my impressions based on what I have seen and read. Rich knows much more than I do.

Dave Yeo:

--- Quote from: Tom on November 08, 2022, 10:59:13 am ---And UEFI and GPT are not connected at all: there are systems with a classical BIOS (so non-UEFI) and a GPT disk. Both GPT and UEFI just happen to be introduced into OS/2 at the same time, namely in version 5.1 of ArcaOS.

--- End quote ---

They are loosely coupled. I understand that newer Windows (8+?) require GPT to use UEFI and my old Dell (Win 7 era) works much better with both UEFI and GPT, without GPT it doesn't see the ESP partition to boot from, though you can put the /boot files on a regular FAT32 disk and it works, along with USB boot.

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