pepperOS: "will never be done"

Trying the kernel

First install the dependencies: sudo apt install python3 xorriso make qemu-system

Also, you have to get an x86_64 toolchain for compilation. The easiest way to do that on most systems is to install it from Homebrew:

brew install x86_64-elf-gcc

Then, to compile the kernel and make an ISO image file: make build-iso To run it with QEMU, make run

TODO

The basics that I'm targeting are:

Basic utility of what we call a "kernel"

• Implement tasks, and task switching + context switching and spinlock acquire/release
• Load an executable
• Filesystem (TAR for read-only initfs, then maybe read-write using FAT12/16/32 or easier fs) w/ VFS layer
• Getting to userspace (ring 3 switching, syscall interface)
• Porting musl libc or equivalent

Scalability/maintenance/expansion features

• Documentation
• SOME error handling in functions
• Unit tests
• Good error codes (like Linux kernel: ENOMEM, ENOENT, ...)

Optional features

In the future, maybe?

• SMP support (Limine provides functionality to make this easier)
• Parsing the ACPI tables and using them for something
• Replacing the PIT timer with APIC

Thanks

PepperOS wouldn't be possible without the following freely-licensed software:

• the Limine portable bootloader
• Marco Paland's freestanding printf implementation
• Mintuski's Flanterm terminal emulator

...and without these amazing resources:

• the OSDev wiki & forums
• Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer's Manual
• Documentation for the GNU Compiler Collection