zig-kernel

zig-kernel is the hyperion kernel rewritten as a microkernel in pure Zig

the name is very temporary

Running in QEMU

zig build run # thats it

Building an ISO

zig build # generates the os.iso in zig-out/os.iso

Stuff included here

Despite the name, this repo holds more than just the kernel

• kernel: src/kernel
• bootstrap process: src/bootstrap
• kernel/user interface: src/abi

TODOs and roadmap

NOTE: /path/to/something is a short form for fs:///path/to/something

The plan is to have the kernel be just a scheduler, IPC relay, vfs protocol "loadbalancer" and a virtual memory manager.

Every path is a URI, where the protocol part (proto://) tells the kernel, which service handles that path. This is kind of like how Redox os does things.

• kernel

  • PMM
  • VMM
  • GDT, TSS, IDT
  • ACPI, APIC
  • user space
  • HPET
  • scheduler
  • binary loader
  • message IPC, shared memory IPC
  • figure out userland interrupts (ps2 keyboard, ..)
  • syscalls:
    • syscall to exec a binary (based on a provided mem map)
    • syscall to create a vfs proto
    • syscall to accept a vfs proto cmd
    • syscall to return a vfs proto cmd result
    • syscalls for unix sockets

• bootstrap/initfsd process

  • decompress initfs.tar.gz
  • create initfs:// vfs proto
  • exec initfs:///sbin/initd
  • rename to initfsd
  • start processing vfs proto cmds

• initfs:///sbin/initd process

  • launch initfs:///sbin/rngd
  • launch initfs:///sbin/vfsd
  • launch services from initfs://

• initfs:///sbin/rngd process

  • create rng:// vfs proto
  • start processing vfs proto cmds

• /sbin/inputd process

• /sbin/outputd process

• /sbin/kbd process

• /sbin/moused process

• /sbin/timed process

• /sbin/fbd process

• /sbin/pcid process

• /sbin/usbd process

• initfs:///sbin/vfsd process

  • create fs:// vfs proto
  • get the root device with syscall (either device or fstab for initfs:///etc/fstab)
  • exec required root filesystem drivers
  • mount root (root= kernel cli arg) to /
  • remount root using /etc/fstab
  • exec other filesystem drivers lazily
  • mount everything according to /etc/fstab
  • start processing vfs proto cmds

• initfs:///sbin/fsd.fat32

  • connect to the /sbin/vfsd process using a unix socket
  • register a fat32 filesystem
  • start processing cmds