BIOS Boot Loader Limitations (Windows Embedded CE 6.0)
1/5/2010
The following limitations of the BIOS boot loader will be the focus of future boot loader enhancements:
- FAT32 is only supported in Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R2
- The boot loader assumes a VESA BIOS is available and the resolution is set to 640x480x16 by default. Display initialization code in the BIOS boot loader can be removed or modified to suit the hardware platform.
- By default, the BIOS boot loader tries to use the VESA BIOS to initialize the video.
Startup.asm and Main.c, in %_WINCEROOT%\Platform\CEPC\Src\Bootloader\Biosloader\Loader, must be modified if a resolution other than the default is required.
If you do not want the boot loader to initialize the video, edit the sources file and uncomment the lines that define NOVIDEO as described in the comment header. - A flexible user configuration file (Boot.ini) is supported. Such a file allows the user to specify the image name to load, set video resolutions, and pass Ethernet debug NIC parameters.
- The BIOS boot loader does not contain decompression code to decompress a .bin file to save storage space.
- The boot loader does not provide a mechanism for a failsafe image boot in case the primary BIN file is corrupted.
- The storage device preparation utilities are MS-DOS utilities. Eventually, these will be Windows Embedded CE or Windows XP utilities.
- Floppy disk reads are single sector reads, but other storage devices are multiple sector reads. Some BIOSs do not allow multiple sector reads for floppy disks, but the boot loader should dynamically detect this.