I'm trying to write a bootstrap loader for the fun of it, I've been using guides such as:
http://www.omninerd.com/articles/PC_Bootstrap_Loader_Programming_Tutorial_in_ASM
http://hem.passagen.se/danma/nboot.htm
http://en.skelix.org/skelixos/tutorial01.php
I'm able to successfully copy over sectors from a floppy disk but when I try to access a harddisk I'm returned an error code from all int 13 functions other than reset. reset disk doesn't return an error.
Is there something special I have to do before int 13 works for hard disks?
Not that I'm aware of. Have you seen http://gaztek.sourceforge.net/osdev/boot/index.html ? That has a list of examples, at least one of which claims to be reading a file from "C:\" (presumably a DOS-formatted harddisk)
Related
I have an old .BAS file that I'm trying to view and for which I'm running into some problems. Searching online seems to indicate that I should be able to just open it in NOTEPAD.EXE or similar, but doing so gives me gibberish, like this:
þ*©¿TÜ…7[/C̸yõ»€¹Ù<Ñ~Æ-$Ì™}³nFuJ,ÖYòÎg)ʇŒ~Š¯DËðïþSnhœJN
‰=É™2+df”c).vX»[šû'Û9¹8%ñx5m#8úV4ÊBº)Eª;Iú¹ó‹|àÆ„72#Ž§i§Ë #îÑ?
í‘ú™ÞMÖæÕjYе‘_¢y<…7i$°Ò.ÃÅR×ÒTÒç_yÄÐ
}+d&jQ *YòÎg)ʇŒ~Š¯DË?úŽ©Ž5\šm€S{ÔÍo—#ìôÔ”ÜÍѱ]ʵ¬0wêÂLª¡öm#Å„Ws雦 X
Ô¶æ¯÷¦É®jÛ ¼§
”n ŸëÆf¿´ó½4ÂäÌ3§Œ®
I know the file is sound, because I can open it in GW-BASIC. However, list does not seem to work to view the file, and trying to save the file in ASCII format from within GW-BASIC, didn't work either. Both just gave me an "Illegal function call" error:
GW-BASIC 3.22
(C) Copyright Microsoft 1983,1984,1986,1987
60300 Bytes free
Ok
LOAD"Pwrharm
Ok
LIST
Illegal function call
Ok
SAVE "Pwrharm2",A
Illegal function call
Ok
RUN
[Program runs successfully]
Then again, the run command works just fine. What am I doing wrong?
You're not doing anything wrong; the file was originally saved in GWBASIC with the ,P option. There is a 'hack' to unprotect it, described at https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.os.msdos.misc/PA9sve0eKAk - basically, you create a file (call it UNPROT.BAS) containing only the characters 0xff 0x1a, then load the protected file, then load UNPROT.BAS, and you should then be able to list and save the program.
If you can't LIST or EDIT a GW-BASIC .BAS file that you LOADed from disk, it means that the file was originally SAVEd in protected format via SAVE filespec, P.
The 1988 "Handbook of BASIC - third edition" by David I. Schneider describes it as follows:
A program that has been SAVEd in protected format can be unprotected with the following technique.
(a) Create a file called RECOVER.BAS with the following program.
10 OPEN "RECOVER.BAS" FOR OUTPUT AS #1
20 PRINT #1, CHR$(255);
30 CLOSE #1
(b) LOAD the protected program into memory.
(c) Enter LOAD "RECOVER.BAS"
The formerly protected program will now be in memory and can be LISTed or EDITed, and reSAVEd in an unprotected format. This technique appears to work with most versions of BASIC. I have used it successfully with IBM PC BASIC, Compaq BASIC, and several versions of GW-BASIC. LOADing the file RECOVER.BAS will also restore a program after a NEW command has been executed.
In a mozille extension I run:
SecSess.Logger.info("ctypes test");
Components.utils.import("resource://gre/modules/ctypes.jsm");
SecSess.Logger.info("1");
this.lib = ctypes.open("libcrypto.so");
SecSess.Logger.info("2");
var a = new Uint8Array(1<<10);
SecSess.Logger.info("3");
var ptr = new ctypes.uint8_t.ptr(a.buffer);
SecSess.Logger.info("4");
Why this ugly logging after each step you might ask? Well this code fails without showing me an error. (or at least I can't find the error message)
This is printed:
ctypes test
1
2
3
So the 5th log message is never printed which means the following statement never completes:
var ptr = new ctypes.uint8_t.ptr(a.buffer);
This is a simplified version of some old code I have to work with and which I also found online as being valid. However it doesn't work. This add-on wasn't developped using the new SDK with jpm. Quite frankly I don't know how and when it was developped but I need to run some tests on it. It comes with a few source files ordered in a components and a modules directory and a chrome.manifest and install.rdf in the root. I copied these files to the extension directory of Mozilla in order for it to work. The extension executes but there seems to be a problem with ctypes. Aren't ctypes fully supported anymore or are these old style add-on no longer valid for the modern Firefox?
Regards,
Roel
I think they landed a a patch to disallow making a pointer from buffers. I'll double check.
Edit:
Ah per this: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/js-ctypes/Using_js-ctypes/Working_with_ArrayBuffers, you don't have to wrap it with a ctypes.uint8_t.ptr just pass it like a.buffer to wherever you need it. :)
Hi I am using LabView 2012, Delphi XE7 and GPIB (I think 488.2), Win7 SP1 and Agilent 53131A.
I used the given NI examples.
NI Labview example - Found in LabVIEW's help - GPIB.vi.
I tried writing and reading to query frequencies from 2 channels and they are successful.
They are are sent and read in succession.
*IDN?
:FUNC 'FREQ 1'
:READ:FREQ?
If they are successful, that meant GPIB for Agilent and NI MAX and driver are successfully installed and configured.
I am also able to use KeySight Connection Expert's to write and read, Again it is also successful.
However, When I used the given NI example in Delphi. Orginally it was saved as Delphi 3 or 4.
I used the Scope Simple example for universal counter. I used it mostly for writing and reading in the simple way. All it needs initialization, read/write and cleanup
I changed the following codes as shown below, in SimpleForm.pas
The detected device is at GPIB0::3::INSTR so, at line 32,
PRIMARY_ADDR_OF_COUNTER = 3;
String to write and read so, at line 132,
CommandBox.Text := '*IDN?';
then it was compiled with no error and run.
String to write was successfully
But upon reading, it was not successfully.
The string output is supposed to be ' HEWLETT-PACKARD,53131A,0,4806'.
The error at the end of the program is as follows below:-
Unable to read from device
ibsta = SC000 <ERR TMO>
iberr = 6 <EABO>
ibcntl = 0
From these readings, I figured out as :-
EABO means abort
I am not familiar with working of GPIB. Kindly advise.
You are correct that EABO is the identifier for an abort. In addition, we can see from ibsta = SC000 <ERR TMO> that the cause of the abort was a GPIB timeout error. I am not familiar with Keysight Connection Expert or your instrument, but since the error was from GPIB timeout, the most likely causes are:
The query was improperly formatted and the instrument thought it was just a write statement with no response needed. (That's probably why the write function had no error, but the read function timed out.)
The query was improperly formatted and the instrument returned an error.
Instrument needs to have 'Talker' capability enabled to send data. (Most instruments do this automatically with queries.)
For more information on generic GPIB commands, see this reference from the folks at National Instruments.
I have a Delphi5 application which exports a file (.pdf) and a very small metadata file to a network location. The intention is that these 2 files should be processed, and then removed, by a polling .NET application.
My approach is to
Write the metadata file with the extension '.part'
Generate the .pdf
Rename the .part file to .dat
The .NET process is looking for files with the extension '.dat' only, so I would expect there to be no conflict between the 2 reader/writers. However, the .NET process is occasionally logging the following error ...
System.IO.IOException: The process cannot access the file '\\server\Path\FileName.dat' because it is being used by another process.
(I say occasionally - we are currently testing, so when volumes increase this may become much more of an issue)
The Delphi code looks like this :
AssignFile(FTextFile, Format('%s\%s.part', [DMSPath, FullFileName]));
try
try
ReWrite(FTextFile);
Writeln(FTextFile, MetaDataString);
finally
CloseFile(FTextFile);
end;
except
raise ELogFileException.Create( LOGFILEWRITEFAILURE );
end;
Then there is a separate method which performs the following lines of code
if FindFirst(Format('%s\*.part',[DMSPath]), faAnyFile, SearchRec) = 0 then begin
repeat
OldName := Format('%s\%s',[DMSPath, SearchRec.Name]);
NewName := Format('%s\%s',[DMSPath, ChangeFileExt(SearchRec.Name, '.dat')]);
RenameFile(OldName, NewName);
until FindNext(SearchRec) <> 0;
FindClose(SearchRec);
end;
I cannot see anything inherently wrong with this code and we have a couple of remedies in mind, but I have 2 questions
Should I try a different technique to more reliably protect the '.dat' file until it is fully ready
What circumstances could be causing this?
So far there has been one suggested cause - Antivirus software.
Any suggestions as to how the file might be produced differently? Note that my application is Delphi5; I wondered if there was a newer, more 'atomic' version of the 'MoveFileA' WinApi call I could use.
In the past, we had a problem with file being locked like that. Investigation pointed to Windows' Prefetch. The file being affected were not on a network directory though.
As far as I know, Prefetch only work on process startup and/or while booting (Controlled by a registry key), so it might not apply to your current situation.
You can check the "C:\"Windows"\Prefetch\" directory. If prefetch is active, it should contains multiple *.pf files. If there is one with your executable filename, it might be worth investigating.
Personally speaking, because there are multiple files involved, I'd create a separate lock file (eg, myfile.lck) that you write first. If the polling app sees it in the folder, then it stops looking for other files. Once that file is gone, then it dives deeper. I don't know if this would solve the problem you're encountering or not, but I'd give it a try. (Files with .dat extensions are frequently created by malicious evildoers, so they can raise spurious issues through other sources, like AV software. A lock file with 0 bytes in it is generally harmless and disregarded.)
One of my users at a large university (with, I imagine, the aggressive security settings that university IT departments general have on their computers) is getting an empty string returned by Windows XP for CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA or CSIDL_PERSONAL. (I'm not sure which of these is returning the empty string, because I haven't yet examined his computer to see how he's installed the software, but I'm pretty sure it's the COMMON_APPDATA...)
Has anyone encountered this or have suggestions on how to deal with this?
Here's the Delphi code I'm using to retrieve the value:
Function GetSpecialFolder( FolderID: Integer):String;
var
PIDL: PItemIDList;
Path: array[0..MAX_PATH] of Char;
begin
SHGetSpecialFolderLocation(Application.Handle, FolderID, PIDL);
SHGetPathFromIDList(PIDL, Path);
Result := Path;
end; { GetSpecialFolder }
ShowMessage(GetSpecialFolder(CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA)); <--- This is an empty string
Edit:
Figuring out this API made me feel like I was chasing my tail - I went in circles trying to find the right call. This method and others similar to it are said to be deprecated by Microsoft (as well as by a earlier poster to this question (#TLama?) who subsequently deleted the post.) But, it seems like most of us, including me, regularly and safely ignore that status.
In my searches, I found a good answer here on SO from some time ago, including sample code for the non-deprecated way of doing this: what causes this error 'Unable to write to application file.ini'.
If you want to find out why an API call is failing you need to check the return values. That's what is missing in this code.
You need to treat each function on its own merits. Read the documentation on MSDN. In the case of SHGetSpecialFolderLocation, the return value is an HRESULT. For SHGetPathFromIDList you get back a BOOL. If that is FALSE then the call failed.
The likely culprit here is SHGetSpecialFolderLocation, the code that receives the CSIDL, but you must check for errors whenever you call Windows API functions.
Taking a look at the documentation for CSIDL we see this:
CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA
Version 5.0. The file system directory that contains application data for all users. A typical path is C:\Documents and Settings\All
Users\Application Data. This folder is used for application data that
is not user specific. For example, an application can store a
spell-check dictionary, a database of clip art, or a log file in the
CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA folder. This information will not roam and is
available to anyone using the computer.
If the machine has a shell version lower than 5.0, then this CSIDL value is not supported. That's the only documented failure mode for this CSIDL value. I don't think that applies to your situation, so you'll just have to see what the HRESULT status code has to say.