BootTo.NET Project

Building

Open BootTo.NET.slnx in Visual Studio and build the x64 configuration. The managed project is compiled to IL, IL2LLVM produces ConsoleApp1.obj, and EfiApplication links it with the native libraries into Drive/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi.

Synopsis

When will hobby OS developers realize that we don't need to implement everything from scratch? With a clean environment providing basic network, graphics, filesystem, and USB support, there's no need to build it yourself—just load a DXE driver and go ahead with your 'OS'.

The repository includes QEMU, its Windows runtime dependencies, and EDK2 firmware; no system QEMU installation is required. After building the solution, run the RunQemu target from ConsoleApp1.csproj to create Drive.img and boot it.

QEMU mounts the bundled UEFI variable template through a temporary snapshot. Variable changes are discarded when QEMU exits, so stale physical-network settings cannot override the -netdev user DHCP configuration and no per-build .vars.fd file is created.

RunQemu detects whether the bundled QEMU supports WHPX and whether the Windows hypervisor is active. It uses WHPX only when both checks pass; otherwise it falls back to TCG.

Performance: Enable Windows Hypervisor Platform (Windows 虚拟机监控程序平台) in Turn Windows features on or off, then restart Windows. This allows QEMU to use WHPX hardware acceleration; without it, QEMU falls back to TCG and runs significantly slower.

• Running on real hardware
• Debugging with QEMU

Tested and working on real hardware

Quake generic (True 3D)

Key Mapping: W / S -> Move Forward / Backward | A / D -> Strafe Left / Right | Space -> Jump / Swim Up | Left Shift -> Sprint | Mouse Left Click -> Attack | Mouse Movement -> Look / Camera | Esc -> Menu / Back | Enter -> Confirm | 1–8 -> Switch Weapon | ` / ~ -> Toggle Console

DOOM generic

Key Mapping: W S A D -> Movement | Mouse Movement -> Look / Camera | Mouse Left Click -> Fire | E -> Use / Open Door | Left Shift -> Sprint | Enter -> Confirm | Esc -> Menu / Back

NES Emulator

Key Mapping: Q -> A | E -> B | Z -> Select | C -> Start | W S A D -> Directional Pad

Running on real hardware

Format a USB drive as FAT32, copy the contents of Drive to its root, and boot from it. To use UEFI network support on real hardware, enable it in the BIOS, as shown in the image below.

Debugging with QEMU

After building EfiApplication, invoke the RunQemu target. It packages Drive as a writable FAT disk image and boots it with the bundled EDK2 firmware.

The SDL window uses QEMU's default Left Ctrl+Left Alt+G shortcut to release mouse and keyboard input. On Windows, select the English input method for the QEMU window because an active IME can intercept this shortcut.