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The VGA text mode cursor does not move or hide

Time:08-24

I have searched far and wide but can't find the answer I'm looking for, my problem is that I use outb to try and set the position of my VGA text mode cursor in my 64-bit operating system kernel and it does not move at all. Trying to hide it does also not work. That said I've tried to enable the cursor beforehand, and it changed nothing.

My Code for the cursor is as follows:

void Terminal::SetCursor(WORD x, WORD y)
{
    WORD pos = y * VGA_WIDTH   x;

    outb(0x3D4, 0x0F);
    outb(0x3D5, (WORD)(pos & 0xFF));
    outb(0x3D4, 0x0E);
    outb(0x3D5, (WORD)((pos >> 8) & 0xFF));
}

void Terminal::HideCursor()
{
    outb(0x03D4, 0x0A);
    outb(0x03D5, 0x20);
}

And my implementations for outb and inb:

static inline void outb(BYTE value, WORD port)
{
    __asm volatile ("outb %0, %1" : : "a" (value), "Nd" (port));
}

static inline BYTE inb(WORD port)
{
    BYTE value;
    __asm volatile ("inb %1, %0" : "=a" (value) : "Nd" (port));
    return value;
}

And my kernel main looks like this:

extern "C" void kmain(void* memmap)
{
    Terminal::HideCursor(); //TODO: Look into why this is not working!
    Terminal::Clear();
}

I use a GCC cross compiler for 64-bit I mad using cygwin and these entries in the make file compile the kernel sources:


bin/kernel.bin: tmp/kernel_entry.o tmp/kernel.o tmp/Terminal.o
    i686-elf-ld -o $@ -Ttext 0x1000 $^ --oformat binary

tmp/kernel.o: src/kernel/main.cpp
    i686-elf-gcc -ffreestanding -g -c $^ -o $@

tmp/Terminal.o: src/kernel/Terminal.cpp
    i686-elf-gcc -ffreestanding -g -c $^ -o $@

Any help would be much appreciated and I can't wait for people to tell me how much of an idiot I am. Thanks in advance.

EDIT: boot.asm

[bits 16]
[org 0x7C00]

KERNEL_LOC equ 0x8FD0

_start:
    mov [_BootDisk], dl

    xor ax, ax
    mov ds, ax
    mov es, ax
    mov ss, ax

    mov bp, 0x7BFF
    mov sp, bp

    push 0x7E00         ; buffer
    push 1              ; sectors to read
    push 2              ; sector num
    call DiskRead
    jc .error

    push ebx
    pushfd
    pop eax
    mov ebx, eax
    xor eax, 0x200000
    push eax
    popfd
    pushfd
    pop eax
    cmp eax, ebx
    jnz .supported
    push _CpuErrorString
    call Print
    jmp .error
    .supported:

    mov eax, 0x80000000
    cpuid
    cmp eax, 0x80000001
    jb .no64
    mov eax, 0x80000001
    cpuid
    test edx, 1 << 29
    jnz .is64
    .no64:
    push _64ErrorString
    call Print
    jmp .error
    .is64:

    push 0x8000
    call MapMem
    
    push KERNEL_LOC     ; buffer
    push 8              ; sectors to read
    push 3              ; sector num
    call DiskRead
    jc .error

    cli
    lgdt [GDT_descriptor]
    mov eax, cr0
    or eax, 1
    mov cr0, eax
    jmp CODE_SEG:protected_mode

    .error:
    jmp $

Print:
    push bp
    mov bp, sp
    mov bx, [bp 4]
    mov ah, 0x0E
    .loop:
    mov al, [bx]
    cmp al, 0
    je .end
    int 0x10
    inc bx
    jmp .loop
    .end:
    mov sp, bp
    pop bp
    ret 2

DiskRead:
    push bp
    mov bp, sp
    mov ah, 0x02
    mov al, [bp 6]
    mov ch, 0
    mov cl, [bp 4]
    mov dh, 0
    mov dl, [_BootDisk]
    mov bx, [bp 8]
    int 0x13
    jnc .end
    push _DiskErrorString
    call Print
    .end:
    mov sp, bp
    pop bp
    ret 6

MapMem:
    push bp
    mov bp, sp
    mov si, [bp 4]
    mov di, [bp 4]
    add di, 4
    xor ebx, ebx
    mov edx, 0x0534D4150
    mov eax, 0xE820
    mov [di 20], dword 1
    mov ecx, 24
    int 0x15
    jc .failed

    mov edx, 0x0534D4150
    cmp eax, edx
    jne .failed
    test ebx, ebx
    je .failed

    .loop:
        mov eax, 0xE820
        mov [di 20], dword 1
        mov ecx, 24
        int 0x15
        jc .finish
        mov edx, 0x0534D4150

        .jmpin:
        jcxz .skip
        cmp cl, 20
        jbe .notext
        test byte [di 20], 1
        je .skip
        
        .notext:
        mov ecx, [di 8]
        or ecx, [di 12]
        jz .skip
        inc dword [si]
        add di, 24
        
        .skip:
        test ebx, ebx
        jne .loop
        
        .finish:
        clc
        jmp .end
    .failed:
    push _MemErrorString
    call Print
    stc
    jmp .end
    .end:
    mov sp, bp
    pop bp
    ret 2

_BootDisk: db 0
_DiskErrorString: db "Disk read error!", 13, 10, 0
_MemErrorString: db "Memory mapping failed!", 13, 10, 0
_CpuErrorString: db "CPUID not supported!", 13, 10, 0
_64ErrorString: db "x64 bits not supported!", 13, 10, 0

CODE_SEG equ GDT_code - GDT_start
DATA_SEG equ GDT_data - GDT_start

GDT_start:
    GDT_null:
        dd 0x0
        dd 0x0
    GDT_code:
        dw 0xffff
        dw 0x0
        db 0x0
        db 0b10011010
        db 0b11001111
        db 0x0
    GDT_data:
        dw 0xffff
        dw 0x0
        db 0x0
        db 0b10010010
        db 0b11001111
        db 0x0
GDT_end:

GDT_descriptor:
    dw GDT_end - GDT_start - 1
    dd GDT_start

times 510-($-$$) db 0
dw 0xAA55

[bits 32]
protected_mode:
    mov ax, DATA_SEG
    mov ds, ax
    mov ss, ax
    mov es, ax
    mov fs, ax
    mov gs, ax

    mov ebp, 0x90000
    mov esp, ebp

    call Clear
    
    mov ebx, VGA_MEM
    mov byte [ebx], 'P'
    inc ebx
    mov byte [ebx], 14

    mov eax, cr0
    and eax, ~(1 << 31)
    mov cr0, eax

    mov edi, 0x1000
    mov cr3, edi
    xor eax, eax
    mov ecx, 4096
    rep stosd
    mov edi, cr3

    mov dword [edi], 0x2003
    add edi, 0x1000
    mov dword [edi], 0x3003
    add edi, 0x1000
    mov dword [edi], 0x4003
    add edi, 0x1000
    mov ebx, 0x00000003
    mov ecx, 512

    .set_entry:
    mov dword [edi], ebx
    add ebx, 0x1000
    add edi, 8
    loop .set_entry

    mov eax, cr4
    or eax, 1 << 5
    mov cr4, eax

    mov ecx, 0xC0000080
    rdmsr
    or eax, 1 << 8
    wrmsr

    mov eax, cr0
    or eax, 1 << 31
    mov cr0, eax

    lgdt [GDT.Pointer]
    jmp GDT.Code:long_mode

    jmp $

Clear:
    push ebp
    mov ebp, esp
    mov ecx, VGA_SIZE
    mov eax, VGA_MEM
    .loop:
    mov byte [eax], 0
    inc eax
    loop .loop
    mov esp, ebp
    pop ebp
    ret

PRESENT         equ 1 << 7
NOT_SYS         equ 1 << 4
EXEC            equ 1 << 3
RW              equ 1 << 1
ACCESSED        equ 1 << 0

GRAN_4K         equ 1 << 7
SZ_32           equ 1 << 6
LONG_MODE       equ 1 << 5

GDT:
    .Null: equ $ - GDT
        dq 0
    .Code: equ $ - GDT
        dd 0xFFFF
        db 0
        db PRESENT | NOT_SYS | EXEC | RW
        db GRAN_4K | LONG_MODE | 0xF
        db 0
    .Data: equ $ - GDT
        dd 0xFFFF
        db 0
        db PRESENT | NOT_SYS | RW
        db GRAN_4K | SZ_32 | 0xF
        db 0
    .TSS: equ $ - GDT
        dd 0x00000068
        dd 0x00CF8900
    .Pointer:
        dw $ - GDT - 1
        dq GDT

[bits 64]
long_mode:
    cli
    mov ax, GDT.Data
    mov ds, ax
    mov es, ax
    mov fs, ax
    mov gs, ax
    mov ss, ax

    mov rbx, VGA_MEM
    mov byte [rbx], 'L'
    inc rbx
    mov byte [rbx], 2

    jmp KERNEL_LOC

VGA_MEM equ 0xB8000
VGA_WIDTH equ 80
VGA_HEIGHT equ 25
VGA_STRIDE equ 2
VGA_SIZE equ VGA_WIDTH * VGA_STRIDE * VGA_HEIGHT
VGA_LENGTH equ VGA_WIDTH * VGA_HEIGHT

times 1024-($-$$) db 0

As requested he's my boot loader. (its probably terrible)

And hers the complete makefile:

all: bin/UmbrellaOS.img

clear:
    rm -rfv bin/*
    rm -rfv tmp/*

rebuild: clear bin/UmbrellaOS.img

bin/UmbrellaOS.img: bin/boot.bin bin/kernel.bin bin/zeros.bin
    cat $^ > $@

bin/boot.bin: src/boot/boot.asm
    nasm $< -f bin -o $@

bin/zeros.bin: src/boot/zeros.asm
    nasm $< -f bin -o $@

tmp/kernel_entry.o: src/kernel/kernel_entry.asm
    nasm $< -f elf -o $@

bin/kernel.bin: tmp/kernel_entry.o tmp/kernel.o tmp/Terminal.o
    i686-elf-ld -o $@ -Ttext 0x1000 $^ --oformat binary

tmp/kernel.o: src/kernel/main.cpp
    i686-elf-gcc -ffreestanding -g -c $^ -o $@

tmp/Terminal.o: src/kernel/Terminal.cpp
    i686-elf-gcc -ffreestanding -g -c $^ -o $@

CodePudding user response:

This problem can be solved by not using the wrong kind of cross compiler. I was using an i686-elf cross compiler which still generates 32-bit code, after building an x86_64-elf cross compiler as suggested by @MichaelPetch it now works how I want it to.

Just in case anyone is curious about her are the new makefile lines that I needed to change:

tmp/kernel_entry.o: src/kernel/kernel_entry.asm
    nasm $< -f elf64 -o $@

tmp/kernel.o: src/kernel/main.cpp
    x86_64-elf-g   -ffreestanding -m64 -g -c $^ -o $@

tmp/Terminal.o: src/kernel/Terminal.cpp
    x86_64-elf-g   -ffreestanding -m64 -g -c $^ -o $@

As you can see I needed to add arguments like elf64 and -m64 to tell both NASM and g that I wanted to have 64-bit code. This works with GCC too you don't have to use g .

Thank you again to @MichaelPetch for helping out! I had no idea that i686-elf cross compilers still generated 32-bit code.

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