_Start code information

[Nigel Murphy <murphyn at microsense dot co dot uk>]

Dear GNUs,
 I'm looking for some information on what code should be used before 
calling main. My problem is as follows, I'm trying to write code for a i486 
system, that boots from a ROM. I've got code to boot the main system board 
and get the processor running. The boot code copies a section of executable 
code from the rom to 10000h in memory and then calls it.

 This boot code works lovely! I've tried a bit of low level to output post 
codes to port 80h with great success. Then I installed a cross compiler, 
'i486-coff', and wrote a bit of C.

 I've compiled code using the command

 i486-coff-gcc -nostdlib -Tmemoryscript.ld flashGPIO.c

 This compiles but gives an error about not finding _start and relocates 
the start of the code to 10000h. This seems OK, but the code dosen't work 
on the target system, so I had a look at the dissembly of the code to find 
this :-

a.out:     file format coff-i386
Disassembly of section .text:
00010000 <main>:
   10000:	55                   		push   %ebp
   10001:	89 e5                	mov    %esp,%ebp
   10003:	83 ec 08             	sub    $0x8,%esp
   10006:	83 e4 f0             	and    $0xfffffff0,%esp
   10009:	b8 00 00 00 00       	mov    $0x0,%eax
   1000e:	29 c4                	sub    %eax,%esp
   10010:	e8 47 00 00 00       	call   1005c <__main>
   10015:	a0 aa 00 00 00       	mov    0xaa,%al
   1001a:	e6 80                	out    %al,$0x80
   1001c:	c7 45 fc 00 00 00 00 	movl   $0x0,0xfffffffc(%ebp)
   10023:	81 7d fc fd ff ff 7f 	cmpl   $0x7ffffffd,0xfffffffc(%ebp)
   1002a:	7e 02                	jle    1002e <main+0x2e>
   1002c:	eb 0e                	jmp    1003c <main+0x3c>
   1002e:	a0 11 00 00 00       	mov    0x11,%al
   10033:	e6 80                	out    %al,$0x80
   10035:	8d 45 fc             	lea    0xfffffffc(%ebp),%eax
   10038:	ff 00                	incl   (%eax)
   1003a:	eb e7                	jmp    10023 <main+0x23>
   1003c:	c7 45 fc 00 00 00 00 	movl   $0x0,0xfffffffc(%ebp)
   10043:	81 7d fc fd ff ff 7f 	cmpl   $0x7ffffffd,0xfffffffc(%ebp)
   1004a:	7e 02                	jle    1004e <main+0x4e>
   1004c:	eb ce                	jmp    1001c <main+0x1c>
   1004e:	a0 22 00 00 00       	mov    0x22,%al
   10053:	e6 80                	out    %al,$0x80
   10055:	8d 45 fc             	lea    0xfffffffc(%ebp),%eax
   10058:	ff 00                	incl   (%eax)
   1005a:	eb e7                	jmp    10043 <main+0x43>
0001005c <__main>:
   1005c:	55                   	push   %ebp
   1005d:	89 e5                	mov    %esp,%ebp
   1005f:	5d                   	pop    %ebp
   10060:	c3                   	ret
   10061:	8d 76 00             	lea    0x0(%esi),%esi
Disassembly of section .data:

 My feeling is that the code is not working because :-

 1) the code/data/other segments aren't set
 2) The stack pointer gets changed at the start of the code above, but 
before 'Main'

 Is there some 'Special' code I require before 'Main' and after '_start' to 
setup the enviroment for 'main'?

 Why does the compiled code play wih ESP/EBP registers?

 Ta. Thanks for your time. Nigel.



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