error A2008: syntax error :

Question

I'm trying to write a bootloader for an OS I'm developing.

I'm getting a syntax error on the first line.

Here is my assembly code:

.286 ; CPU Type
.model TINY  ; memory of model
;---------------------- EXTERNS -----------------------------
extrn               _BootMain:near     ; prototype of C func
;------------------------------------------------------------
;------------------------------------------------------------   
.code 
org             07c00h         ; for BootSector
_main:
                jmp short _start       ; go to main
                nop

;----------------------- CODE SEGMENT -----------------------
_start: 
        cli
        mov ax,cs               ; Setup segment registers
        mov ds,ax               ; Make DS correct
        mov es,ax               ; Make ES correct
        mov ss,ax               ; Make SS correct        
        mov bp,7c00h
        mov sp,7c00h           ; Setup a stack
        sti
                                ; start the program 
        call           _BootMain
        ret
        END _start
        END _main ; End of program

Here's my compile line:

"*location*\14.10.25017\bin\HostX86\x86\ML.EXE"  /c StartPoint.asm

The error I'm getting:

StartPoint.asm(1): error A2008: syntax error : .

As far as I know, this line shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks for the help :)

Solution

As @Michael Petch suggested in the comments, using an older version of MASM (6.15 in my case), and it worked.

Note that if you are using C/CPP code in your project and intend on linking them with the assembly files (as I was doing), you will need to downgrade your C compiler as well. In my case, I changed it from CL (Microsoft C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 19.10.25017) to dmc.

Comments

[Jester]

.286 is not a valid directive according to msdn. Just delete it.

[Michael Petch]

You may wish to consider an older version of MASM or TASM the assembles 16-bit code and 16-bit linker. I also hope you aren't trying to call into 32-bit code.

[Peter Cordes]

Or use NASM, it still assembles 16-bit code just fine, AFAIK. (But uses a different variant of intel-syntax, see stackoverflow.com/tags/intel-syntax/info.

[ofir dubi]

deleting the line led to another error: /assembly-fatal-error-lnk1190-invalid-fixup-found-type-0x000‌​1. i ended up using @Michael Petch solution, downloading an older version of MASM, and it worked. Thanks for the quick responce.

[Peter Cordes]

Or you need your OS to switch to 32 or 64-bit mode. Or you could use gcc -m16 to make similar code to -m32 but assemble it for 16-bit mode, so most instructions have operand-size and address-size prefixes. (And thus will only run on a 386 or later.)