/os4

Fourth attempt at writing a tiny x86 kernel.

Primary LanguageCMIT LicenseMIT

OS4

Minimal hobby operating system written for the x86 architecture.

Prerequisites

GNU Compiler Collection - The GNU Compiler Collection C (cross) compiler is used for building the software. The GNU Binary Utilities (binutils) from GCC is also requiered for linking the software and archiving libraries. The compiler ouput arcitecture used for developing the software is i686 but the i386 build architecture should work aswell. This OSdev.org tutorial will help you install a cross-compiler on your system.

NASM - The Netwide Assembler is used to to assemble parts of the software. NASM or equivalent assembler is requiered to build the software although nasm is recommended. You can install NASM through your local maching package manager or build from source via the NASM web page.

GRUB - The GNU Grand Unified Bootloader is used to bootstrap the software. You can install GRUB through your package manager or build it yourself via source code from the GRUB web page.

Installing

  1. Install the necessary prerequisites for building the software.
  2. Download the files from the repository.
  3. Change the CROSSCOMPILERPATH field in src/make.config to match the path of your installed cross-compiler. If you've installed another cross-compiler than the i686 cross compiler, you have to manually change the appropriate fields in this file.
  4. Whils in the src directory, build the software by running GNU make in the following manner.

    1. make headers

    2. make objfiles

    3. make libs

    4. make os

  5. To generate a bootable disk image, run the following command from the repository root directory:

    grub-mkrescue build/sysroot -o os.iso

FAQ

Q: GRUB doesn't work. I can't create a bootable diskimage.
You might need to install the software xorriso to be able to use GRUB, since GRUB is dependant on that piece of software. You can install xorriso through most package mangagers.

Q: QEMU produces an error message: 'Could not read from CD-ROM (code 0009)' when i try to emulate the software.

If your development system is booted from EFI it may be that you don't have the PC-BIOS version of the grub binaries installed anywhere. If you install them then grub-mkrescue will by default produce a hybrid ISO that will work in QEMU. On Ubuntu this can be achieved with: apt-get install grub-pc-bin. -- FAQ on 'Bare Bones' on OSDev.org (2017-06-17)

Authors

License

This project is licensed under MIT License - see the LICENSE.txt for more details.

Version: 1.3.2
Version Date: 2017-07-17