microkernel

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Yet another (micro?)kernel

Licensed under the terms of the MIT Licence: see LICENSE file for details.

This is not a true, functional kernel or OS. This is a toy to play with: I was trying to learn something interesting about kernels and how they work and I came up with this. The... thing is currently designed for x86 cpu only, gets started by GRUB (or any other multiboot compliant bootloader), and works in Protected Mode. It's in a very early state of development and, of course, it is absolutely not useful.

Dependencies (tools it is known to work with)

GNU gcc	4.7.2-2
Nasm	2.10.01
GNU ld	2.22.90
GNU Make	3.81

Optional:
Qemu	1.2.0
Bochs	2.4.6

Build Instructions

make kernel		(compile and glue together source files)

make cdrom		(create a cdrom bootable image)
make floppy		(create a floppy bootable image; will need 'genisoimage')

make run-cdrom	(boot and test the cdrom image; will need 'qemu' or 'bochs')
make run-floppy	(boot and test the floppy image; will need 'qemu' or 'bochs')

vim common.mk	(edit configuration and options; will need 'vim')

TODO

General - Urgent

* REWRITE kernel code: mmu, multitasking and descr. tables code
* cleanups
* vfs functions & file editing improvements
* improve syscall system
* separate x86 code from C common code
* how to implement a decent stdio?

VFS Layer

* think about a good design
* API for underlying filesystems
* mounting, unmounting, mount lists
* caches (vnode, etc.)
* task-related things

Multitasking

* ELF executable & relocatable loading
* process synchronization (mutexes, semaphores)
* priority based scheduling (timeslices?)
* tickless kernel?

Newlib - libc port

* Basic syscalls
* UNIX syscalls
* POSIX syscalls

Drivers

* driver manager?
* drivers & modules registration
* IRQ registration
* DMA registration
* I/O request layer (independent of VFS)
* I/O request queue

Disk

* CD-ROM drive support (ATAPI devices)
* ATA
* Floppy
* Block cache system
* Disk DMA support

PCI bus

* PCI configuration
* PCI bus layer

Networking

* TCP/IP stack (Ethernet, ARP, IP, ICMP, UDP, TCP)
* Card drivers

Other

* port binutils, gcc
* port bash shell
* vesa driver, graphical interface

Documents/links

There is no documentation for this project yet.

If you're trying to understand the code or thinking about developing your own OS, you may find very useful documentation/tutorials at OSdev.org.