(Very basic) OS development using Parallels Desktop

Discussion in 'Other Virtual machines' started by HeribertoD, Aug 18, 2015.

  1. HeribertoD

    HeribertoD Bit poster

    Messages:
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    Hello everyone!

    I´ve been toying recently with the idea of doing some OS dev research, to create a (very minimal) OS that can run on a PC in x86 Real mode. You know, the bare minimum PC configuration with 640KB RAM, INT **H interruptions to call basic BIOS functions, and so on.

    No, I´m not insane, I have myself checked for that, why do you ask? :)

    Since I already have a Mac with Parallels Desktop 10 in it, I was thinking about doing my research there. I´m worried, however, that some of the expected BIOS functionality that one expects from a non-virtual PC might not be present in a Parallels VM. So, these are my questions:

    1) Will a Parallels VM be able to boot with BIOS (read 512 bytes from sector 0 / JMP 0x7C00) instead of EFI?
    2) If so, should I be aware of any missing functionality in the BIOS functions present in the VM?
    3) Is it actually possible to use the virtual devices that Parallels exposes to the VM in x86 Real mode?
    4) If so, is there any documentation explaining how to use these virtual devices, or at least how are they exposed to the guest OS?

    Thanks in advance for your help!
     

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