4 ms·

BareMetal: A 64-bit OS in 16kb

109 points by profquail 17y ago

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
- daeken 17y ago
  This could be interesting for people to get into OS development, or assembly development, or embedded development (although its embedded applications are likely slim to nil due to it being x64-only). I don't believe they intend for this to ever be a real OS (and they plainly say that it's not at the moment), so I don't think their time really factors into it. Personally, I think there are better ways to achieve the goals I listed previously, but if this helps get someone into low-level development, I'm all for it.
  - steveklabnik 17y ago
    Agreed. It's the same thing with my Barebones 64 bit OS project. People are so afraid of systems programming, anything that we can do to demystify systems is worthwhile.
- MHordecki 17y ago
  As stated on the website, BareMetal is meant as an educational project.
Aegean 17y ago
The problem with these approaches are that they're inflexible. Most parts are hardcoded closing the way for further development.
rman666 17y ago
When trying to download the VM (link at bottom of BareMetal page), I get a virus warning ("probably a variant of Win32/Genetik") from ESET Nod32 (my antivirus software). Anyone else get this or have any problems?
- Skriticos 17y ago
  I doubt that a 16k file with an OS in it manages to accommodate a virus too. It's probably heuristics, AV software is very picky about stuff that does booting a system or have very optimized code. You see this kind of alert in the demo scene quite often too, because AV also don't like their packing algorithms.
jbellis 17y ago
"BareMetal is ready... Current plans call for the ability to write data back to the disk." Curious definition of "ready." :)
- gaius 17y ago
  Depends what you're doing. Netboot, receive compute tasks from the network, complete them and send them back, you don't even need a disk :-)
  - chrisb 17y ago
    Good plan, but: "Future versions will call for ... network support" :)
- brianobush 17y ago
  Well, to be fair there are millions of embedded devices that read from ROM and never write to disk. So this would be an excellent study for those type of systems.
almost 17y ago
That's really cool. I can't imagine ever having any use for it as software personally but I it's small enough that I just read a large chunk of the code in not too much time. Awesome :)
ramidarigaz 17y ago
This is one of those times where I wish I had a real laptop instead of a netbook. This looks like a lot of fun (I've never taken the time to learn assembly, and I've never written a driver or compiler). Ahh well.
- profquail 17y ago
  According to Wikipedia, the Intel Atom 230, 330, and D-series support 64-bit code, so you might still be able to try this (if you really wanted to). They've got a virtual machine edition available for download on the site, but you probably need to have a 64-bit OS installed to run it, and I doubt you're running one on a netbook ;)
- nzmsv 17y ago
  Try Bochs. It will be more than fast enough for something like this.
  - losethos 17y ago
    Is it just me or doesn't that defeat the whole purpose? LoseThos rules. http://www.losethos.com http://www.losethos.com :-)
tom_pinckney 17y ago
Another great education OS is xv6 from MIT http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.828/2009/xv6-book/index.html http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.828/2009/xv6-book/index.html
profquail 17y ago
There's also MenuetOS (http://www.menuetos.net/ http://www.menuetos.net/) if you've never seen it before. It's kind of like a Live CD, except it's written in assembly and fits on a 1.44MB floppy (if you remember what those are!)
ThinkWriteMute 17y ago
I'd love to see an educational micro-kernel OS, something like L4.
- dchest 17y ago
  How about the infamous Minix? http://www.minix3.org/ http://www.minix3.org/
anigbrowl 17y ago
Well done - I love projects like this and think it has great potential both as a utility and a teaching tool: particularly impressed with the little 64-bit ASM tutorial. Great website too...but it's missing a donation button!
ghshephard 17y ago
My Favorite "Bare Bones" System - Starting with Logic Gates, then assembler, then virtual machine, a language, compiler, and finally, operating system as a very high level construct: http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=10218 http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&#38...
d0m 17y ago
out of subject.. but, do you know what is the theme used in screenshot?
jws 17y ago
Is it just me, or is a swath of source missing? The Pure64 secondary loader which does a lot of interesting tasks to do with understanding the processor appears to be binary only.
Locke1689 17y ago
Shameless plug: if you're looking for something a little more full-featured but maybe not quite as small, take a look at Kitten https://software.sandia.gov/trac/kitten https://software.sandia.gov/trac/kitten. It's still a minimal OS (LWK: lightweight kernel), but it has thinks like.. disks and networking.
todd3834 17y ago
I think I found your design inspiration for that website! http://www.discoapp.com/ http://www.discoapp.com/
- chasingsparks 17y ago
  Is that your site or was it just something you remembered? If it is your site, I have to tell you the logo/icon is stellar.

109 points by profquail 17y ago

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

daeken 17y ago
This could be interesting for people to get into OS development, or assembly development, or embedded development (although its embedded applications are likely slim to nil due to it being x64-only). I don't believe they intend for this to ever be a real OS (and they plainly say that it's not at the moment), so I don't think their time really factors into it. Personally, I think there are better ways to achieve the goals I listed previously, but if this helps get someone into low-level development, I'm all for it.
- steveklabnik 17y ago
  Agreed. It's the same thing with my Barebones 64 bit OS project. People are so afraid of systems programming, anything that we can do to demystify systems is worthwhile.
MHordecki 17y ago
As stated on the website, BareMetal is meant as an educational project.

Aegean 17y ago

The problem with these approaches are that they're inflexible. Most parts are hardcoded closing the way for further development.

rman666 17y ago

When trying to download the VM (link at bottom of BareMetal page), I get a virus warning ("probably a variant of Win32/Genetik") from ESET Nod32 (my antivirus software). Anyone else get this or have any problems?

Skriticos 17y ago
I doubt that a 16k file with an OS in it manages to accommodate a virus too. It's probably heuristics, AV software is very picky about stuff that does booting a system or have very optimized code. You see this kind of alert in the demo scene quite often too, because AV also don't like their packing algorithms.

jbellis 17y ago

"BareMetal is ready... Current plans call for the ability to write data back to the disk." Curious definition of "ready." :)

gaius 17y ago
Depends what you're doing. Netboot, receive compute tasks from the network, complete them and send them back, you don't even need a disk :-)
- chrisb 17y ago
  Good plan, but: "Future versions will call for ... network support" :)
brianobush 17y ago
Well, to be fair there are millions of embedded devices that read from ROM and never write to disk. So this would be an excellent study for those type of systems.

almost 17y ago

That's really cool. I can't imagine ever having any use for it as software personally but I it's small enough that I just read a large chunk of the code in not too much time. Awesome :)

ramidarigaz 17y ago

This is one of those times where I wish I had a real laptop instead of a netbook. This looks like a lot of fun (I've never taken the time to learn assembly, and I've never written a driver or compiler). Ahh well.

profquail 17y ago
According to Wikipedia, the Intel Atom 230, 330, and D-series support 64-bit code, so you might still be able to try this (if you really wanted to). They've got a virtual machine edition available for download on the site, but you probably need to have a 64-bit OS installed to run it, and I doubt you're running one on a netbook ;)
nzmsv 17y ago
Try Bochs. It will be more than fast enough for something like this.
- losethos 17y ago
  Is it just me or doesn't that defeat the whole purpose? LoseThos rules. http://www.losethos.com http://www.losethos.com :-)

tom_pinckney 17y ago

Another great education OS is xv6 from MIT http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.828/2009/xv6-book/index.html http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.828/2009/xv6-book/index.html

profquail 17y ago

There's also MenuetOS (http://www.menuetos.net/ http://www.menuetos.net/) if you've never seen it before. It's kind of like a Live CD, except it's written in assembly and fits on a 1.44MB floppy (if you remember what those are!)

ThinkWriteMute 17y ago

I'd love to see an educational micro-kernel OS, something like L4.

dchest 17y ago
How about the infamous Minix? http://www.minix3.org/ http://www.minix3.org/

anigbrowl 17y ago

Well done - I love projects like this and think it has great potential both as a utility and a teaching tool: particularly impressed with the little 64-bit ASM tutorial. Great website too...but it's missing a donation button!

ghshephard 17y ago

My Favorite "Bare Bones" System - Starting with Logic Gates, then assembler, then virtual machine, a language, compiler, and finally, operating system as a very high level construct: http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=10218 http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&#38...

d0m 17y ago

out of subject.. but, do you know what is the theme used in screenshot?

jws 17y ago

Is it just me, or is a swath of source missing? The Pure64 secondary loader which does a lot of interesting tasks to do with understanding the processor appears to be binary only.

Locke1689 17y ago

Shameless plug: if you're looking for something a little more full-featured but maybe not quite as small, take a look at Kitten https://software.sandia.gov/trac/kitten https://software.sandia.gov/trac/kitten. It's still a minimal OS (LWK: lightweight kernel), but it has thinks like.. disks and networking.

todd3834 17y ago

I think I found your design inspiration for that website! http://www.discoapp.com/ http://www.discoapp.com/

chasingsparks 17y ago
Is that your site or was it just something you remembered? If it is your site, I have to tell you the logo/icon is stellar.