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102 lines
5.3 KiB
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Strict//EN">
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<html><head>
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<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us"><title>Booting your PC in eLua</title>
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<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../style.css"></head>
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<body style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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<h3>Booting your PC in eLua</h3>
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<p>That's right: after following this tutorial, your PC will boot
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directly into Lua! No OS there (this explains why the boot process is
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so fast), just you and Lua. You'll be able to use the regular Lua
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interpreter to write your programs and even use "dofile" to execute Lua
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code.</p>
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<h2>Details</h2>
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<p>Booting <b>eLua</b> involves using the well known <a target="_blank" href="http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/">GRUB</a> that will be used to load
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a <a target="_blank" href="http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/multiboot/">multiboot</a>
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compliant ELF file that contains our <b>eLua</b> code. The code runs in protected mode, so you
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have access to your whole memory. The code does not access any kind of
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storage device (HDD, CDROM, floppy), so if you're worried that it might
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brick your system, you can relax now :) I'm only using some very basic
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keyboard and VGA textmode "drivers", so all you're risking is a system freeze
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(even this is highly unlikely), nothing a good old RESET can't handle
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(be sure to use the hardware reset though, CTRL+ALT+DEL is not handled
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by the code). But just in case, see also the next section.</p>
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<h2>Disclaimer</h2>
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<p><strong>As already mentioned, the code won't try to access any kind
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of storage (HDD, CDROM, floppy), not even for reading, so you don't
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need to worry about that. Also it doesn't try to reprogram your video
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card registers, so it can't harm it or your monitor. It only implements
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a "protected mode keyboard driver" that can't physically damage
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anything in your system. In short, I made every effort to make the code
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as harmless as possible. I tested it on 5 different computers and in 2 <a target="_blank" href="http://www.virtualbox.org/">VirtualBox</a>
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emulators, and nothing bad happened. That said, there are no warranties
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of any kind. In the very unlikely event that something bad does happen
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to your system, you have my sincere sympathy, but I can't be held
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responsible for that.</strong></p>
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<h2>Prerequisites</h2>
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<p>To boot your computer in Lua you'll need:
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<ul>
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<li>a 386 or better computer running Linux. I actually tested
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this only on Pentium class computers, but it should run on a 386
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without problems.</li>
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<li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/">GRUB</a>.
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Since you're running Linux, chances are you're already using GRUB as
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your bootloader. If not, you must install it. You don't need to install
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it on your HDD; a floppy, an USB stick or even a CDROM will work as
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well. I won't cover the GRUB installation procedure here, just google
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for "install grub on floppy/usb/cdrom" and you'll sure find what you're
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looking for. You can try for example <a target="_blank" href="http://orgs.man.ac.uk/documentation/grub/grub_3.html">here</a>,
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<a target="_blank" href="http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/grub_intro/">here</a> or
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<a target="_blank" href="http://www.mayrhofer.eu.org/Default.aspx?pageindex=6&pageid=45">here</a>.</li>
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<li>The <b>eLua</b> i386 ELF file, see <a href="downloads.html">here</a> for instructions on how to obtain it. OR <a href="downloads.html">download the eLua source distribution</a> and compile it
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for the i386 architecture using a toolchain that you can build by following <a href="tc_386.html">this tutorial</a>.</li>
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<li>a text editor to edit your GRUB configuration file.</li>
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</ul></p>
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<p>The rest of this tutorial assumes that you're using Linux with GRUB,
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and that GRUB is located in <i>/boot/grub</i>, which is true for many Linux
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distributions.</p>
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<h2>Let's do this</h2>
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<p>First, copy the eLua ELF file to your "/boot" directory:</p>
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<p><pre><code>$ sudo cp surprise /boot<br></code></pre></p>
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<p>Next you need to add another entry to your GRUB menu file (<i>/boot/grub/menu.lst</i>). Edit it and add this entry:</p>
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<p><pre><code> title eLua
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root (hd0,0)
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kernel /boot/elua_lua_i386.elf <b>(change this if the eLua file name is different)</b>
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boot</code></pre></p>
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<p>You may need to modify the <i>root (hd0,0)</i> line above to match your
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boot device. The best way to do this is to look in the <i>menu.lst</i> file
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for the entry that boots your Linux kernel. It should look similar to
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this:</p>
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<p><pre><code> title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-16-generic
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<b>root (hd0,2)</b>
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kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic
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initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-16-generic
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savedefault</code></pre></p>
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<p>After you find it, simply use the <i>root (hdx,y)</i> line from that entry
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(<i>root (hd0,2)</i> in the example above) in your newly created entry instead
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of root (hd0,0).<br>
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That's it! Now reboot your computer, and when the GRUB boot menu
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appears, choose "eLua" from it. See <a href="using.html">using eLua</a> for
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instructions on how to use your newly installed self-booting programming language :)</p>
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<p>As usual, if you need more details, you can <a href="overview.html#contacts">contact us</a>.
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Also, if you want to go one step ahead and have you own USB stick that boots <b>eLua</b>, check <a href="tut_bootstick.html">this tutorial</a>.</p>
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</body></html>
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