kernel VS format

You might find the source code for FreeDOS of interest for learning more about how the low-level access to the interrupt services worked. Specifically, console.asm installs a character write routine (which calls BIOS INT 10h under the hood).

Looking at https://github.com/FDOS/kernel/blob/master/boot/boot.asm, I see %define statements for this type of information, but I'm not sure how these memory locations are normally populated with proper values. Is this something that Sys does when preparing the CF card? Or should the BIOS populate this information when loading the boot loader?

That's where I'm coming from. FreeDOS still gets occasional commits once per few months but is not really developed anymore. Watcom C still seems like it's actively developed, but it's not clear what they are trying to achieve if they are not even interested in what's happening in C/C++ world!

Here's the code for the kernel https://github.com/FDOS/kernel/ You will have to entirely rewrite the Assembly code since it is x86 assembly (Netwide Assembler is great, but not for ARM). Namely boot code is assembly. The kernel does compile under multiple compilers. I'm not too sure if ARM platforms handle this, but I would look at the Linux kernel for boot code on ARM.

"DOS" is a little bit of a general term. Microsoft's product, MS-DOS, is not Free Software. But there are other implementations, including FreeDOS, which is compatible with MS-DOS.

YouTube user '@pvc' mentioned that this information is populated as part of the format utility. I am currently reviewing the source code for FreeDOS format. I am also reading through the Microsoft Extensible Firmware Initiative File System Specification (fatgen103).