Difference in Kernel Source

[empyreal96]

*Disclaimer: No links to file will  be provided, this is for discussion only*

Not sure if anyone has yet, but I have been running a diff between Barnabus Kernel Repack and the 4400 leak Kernel Tree..
I've only just started looking through, and I have next to no C++, C and C# coding skills so bear with me lol

 

They seem somewhat the same, but there are quite a few files with parts of code removed or added, on both branches. But Barnabus is reliant on precompiled objects (obviously as it's a smaller, almost stripped down and made 'easy' release of the full tree)

There are some comments in Barnabus code that isn't in the full tree + CPXXUPD code, and some are recorded more 'formally'
(i.e private\ntos\init\init.c line 244 - 254 in both branches)

One other thing is the 4400 tree is set to have 'complex's' edits definable where possible, which there are a lot..

 

 

One thing that really interests me, is Barnabus uses BIOSPack to pack: 2bl, remainder and kernel into a 'Working' rom (I use that word loosely).

The 4400 tree uses rombld, which requires: preloaded, init table, bootloader, kernel and a rom decode file(I think).. this is a drastic difference to BIOSPack.. But the main issue with Rombld is it will not produce a full rom.. by default it will error on the 'preloader' being to big (9008 bytes not 1664 bytes)..

To get around that, we can either build for XDK Systems.. 
Or as I discovered today: modify 'private\sdktools\rombld\rombld.cpp' Line 879 from (2 * 1024) to (21 * 512), to allow rombld to accept the 9kb preloader file.. (I haven't tested a bios rom built with this edit yet)

 

I will post here anything else I discover! 

[empyreal96]

Edit: Bioses built for XDK targets aren't bootable either.. I personally think the Bios files need 'signing'.. there is a tool called 'RomSign' but it fails to find Keys