Cosmares 1.2.0

Cosmares

A library that allows Cosmos Kernels to be installed in a GPT HDD plus a few more disk related tools

Inspired by the original Cosmares by @PratyushKing

Installation

Download it to your Cosmos project trough Nuget

Then add this line of code to the start of your Kernel.cs: using Cosmares;

Commands

Cosmares comes with 11 commands:

Setup.Install, Setup.PartialInstall, Setup.GetFS, Setup.CreateGPTpartition, Setup.DeleteGPTpartition, Setup.StoreInformation, Setup.GetInformation, Setup.GPT2MBR, Setup.CreateGPT, Setup.MBR2GPT and Setup.UsesGPT

• Setup.Install(ReadOnlySpan<byte> system, Disk/BlockDevice disk, uint partition, bool useHeapCollect = true, bool useExtraInfo = false);

  Installs a Cosmos system in the specified Disk at the specified Partition.

  Optional arguments include the use of Heap.Collect while installing (true by default) and the option to include OS Info specified with Setup.StoreInformation (false by default)

• Setup.PartialInstall(ReadOnlySpan<byte> system, Disk/BlockDevice disk, uint partition, bool useHeapCollect = false, bool useExtraInfo = false);

  Does the same as Setup.Install only that this one allows making "pauses" between each write of 128 blocks. On each pause it returns a decimal with the percentage of the installation process. Returns -1 if the installation is done.

  (Both extra arguments are set to false)

• Setup.GetFS(Disk/BlockDevice disk, uint partition);

  Identifies the filesystem in a partition (if available).

  Cosmares can currently find these:

  • FAT (FAT12 and FAT16 are seen as the same)
  • FAT32
  • ISO9660
  • Linux EXT (EXT2, EXT3 and EXT4 are seen the same)
  • ExFAT
  • NTFS
  • PlutonFS

• Setup.CreateGPTpartition(Disk/BlockDevice disk, ulong startingBlock, ulong sizeInMB);

  Creates a GPT partition.

  Be careful when choosing the starting block and the size, an exception will be thrown if it overlaps an already existing partition.

  This command will use the first available entry rather than the last one, an uint will be returned with the used entry.

• Setup.DeleteGPTpartition(Disk/BlockDevice disk, uint partitionEntry);

  Removes a GPT partition. (Note: Removing a partition does NOT erase its contents)

• Setup.StoreInformation(OSinfo/ReadOnlySpan<byte> extraInfo);

  Stores extra OS information (like the author's name, OS name, version, etc) for the next OS that will be installed

  (In case a byte array is being used, the length must be 300 bytes)

• Setup.GetInformation(Disk/BlockDevice disk, uint partition);

  Gets extra information (if available) of a installed OS

• Setup.GPT2MBR(Disk/BlockDevice disk);

  Converts a GPT disk into MBR format.

  Note: This requires having no more than 4 partitions.

• Setup.CreateGPT(Disk/BlockDevice disk);

  Creates GPT into a disk.

  Note: This command does NOT convert MBR to GPT, the partition table will be erased, for MBR to GPT please use Setup.MBR2GPT

• Setup.MBR2GPT(Disk/BlockDevice disk);

  Converts a MBR disk into GPT format.

  Note: This commands requires having enough space for the primary and secondary GPT (16KiB + 512 bytes on both start and end of the disk) and no extended partitions.

• Setup.UsesMBR(Disk/BlockDevice disk);

  Checks if MBR is present on the disk.

Usage

First, you should have two kernels, Your OS and Your OS Installer.

Get the byte array of your OS ISO into your Installer using VFS or ManifestResourceStream.

You will also need a Disk variable, you can get one using VFS (for example: fs.Disks[0]) (Cosmares is also compatible with Disk variables generated with COR-ET's AHCI/SATA library) Note: if for some reason you cannot use a 'Disk' variable, 'BlockDevice' works as well

Now that we have all that set, we can start using Cosmares' commands like Setup.Install with the variables we made earlier, like this:

Setup.Install(yourISObytes, yourDisk, thePartitionYouWantToUse);

So, for some of you, Setup.Install would be enough, but what about Setup.PartialInstall? What are those "pauses"? I'll explain them here:

Let's say you have an Installer with GUI, you would probably have code that moves the cursor and keeps the graphics running, when you use Setup.Install the system freezes until the installation finishes, which is not good if you want to display a progress bar or have other stuff that must be running, that's when Setup.PartialInstall comes into place, unlike Setup.Install, when you run it, it only stores 128 data blocks, and then the function ends, in that state you can run any code you want, to finish the installation you just have to place Setup.PartialInstall in a loop and exit it once the command returns -1. This is also useful when making progress bars, as each time you run it, a decimal with the percentage will be returned.

Cosmares 1.1.0 and higher supports filesystem identification, removal and creation for GPT partitions.

Since Cosmares 1.2 its possible to add GPT in blank disks + converting MBR to GPT and viceversa

Notes

Here are some stuff you should know before using Cosmares:

• Cosmares ONLY works on GPT harddrives with UEFI (applied only to OS installation)
• Kernels made with the Userkit will NOT work, use the latest Devkit instead
• Because of using UEFI, your kernel cannot use Console.* commands (like Console.WriteLine, Console.Clear, Console.ReadKey, etc)
• Cosmares is in a Really early version, it may contain bugs, if you find any please report them here
• If possible, please enable gzip compression in your system's ISO or else it might use too much RAM in your Installer
• On installed systems is recommended to not access the partition where its located, as it becomes read-only and might cause issues.

If you have come this far, thx for reading, it means a lot, pls leave a star if you found this useful 😃

Made by @Gabolate 2024