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