What's the best operating system to study in order to write your own x86 operating system from scratch?
+1
A:
Honestly, you should probably not start with an x86 architecture, or even operating systems but maybe something like an 8-bit starter kit, like a basic Fox11 development kit. In college, I wrote my first (and only) OS in Assembly for an M68HC11 processor (the one in the kit).
If you really want to build your own OS from scratch, you've got a long road ahead of you.
Cory Larson
2010-03-27 01:08:16
I know what I'm getting into. I'm already in it. Thanks for your input.
mudge
2010-03-27 01:30:48
+6
A:
It might be difficult to comprehend the source for an entire OS all at once. The tutorials over at osdev.org have a few "bare bones" code samples to get you started.
Martin
2010-03-27 01:24:35
+1
A:
For my OS class in college we used the Nachos OS Project and implemented that. I did the C++ version, however I think there is also a Java port of this as well. I remember it being very interesting and learning a great deal, even though it was a lot of work.
cpalmer
2010-03-27 01:34:24
Nuts! I was going to say NachOS - we used it at UWaterloo for our OS class. Lemme just say - any system where kernel space is little-endian and user space is big-endian is a bit of a mindfsck.
MikeyB
2010-03-27 02:13:56
+4
A:
I think Minix was created for pretty much that exact purpose.
Have fun!
Ken
2010-03-27 01:39:01
Don't forget Tannenbaum's book which has the theory and the practice and was the reason Minix was written: http://www.amazon.com/Operating-Systems-Design-Implementation-Second/dp/0136386776
msw
2010-03-27 02:21:17
A:
I read this article a while back. You might find it interesting. This guy wrote MINIX back in the day for the very purpose of teaching OS concepts. So it would probably be a good simple OS to study. http://www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/brown/
However, as Martin and Cory mentioned, it's a big chunk to chew.
sonrael
2010-03-27 01:39:01
A:
There is not much point in studying obsolete OS's which is pretty much all current OS's as they tend to have long lives. Have a look at some fresh ideas (although based on tried and true) like Singularity
TFD
2010-03-27 02:02:45
A:
It all depends on how you want your Operating System to function, if you want a microkernel you should probably study Minix 3, or if you want a monolithic kernel the current linux kernel is a good place to start from (HINT: look in arch/x86/boot, there is some very interesting code in there). However I personally think that you should read through the Intel and AMD manuals, and then do a bit of reading on the osdev.org forums and wiki. They have plenty of code to study, and are generally helpful towards newbies.
Joe D
2010-03-27 17:29:53
A:
I think best way to read many different operating system sources, definitely osdev barebone tutorials, whitepapers on OS research and documentation on your target hardware.
I personally would recommend looking at l4-ka pistachio kernel, written in pretty darn good C++. There are also multiple smaller projects definitely worth checking out, like jimix or pedigree.
Best to stick around osdev forums and wiki - there is a lot of information there already answered - see http://forum.osdev.org and http://wiki.osdev.org
Berkus
2010-05-15 11:19:17
+1
A:
I just wrote my version of x86 kernel from scratch! (for my OS class project) and that was experience I couldn't probably describe. You can find valuable resources at above link.
Chintan
2010-05-17 05:19:44