8 ms·

Fuzix OS

115 points by DeathArrow 6mo ago

wyldfire 6mo ago
> FUZIX is a fusion of various elements from the assorted UZI forks and branches beaten together into some kind of semi-coherent platform and then extended from V7 to somewhere in the SYS3 to SYS5.x world with bits of POSIX thrown in for good measure. Various learnings and tricks from ELKS and from OMU also got blended in https://github.com/EtchedPixels/FUZIX#what-does-fuzix-have-over-uzi https://github.com/EtchedPixels/FUZIX#what-does-fuzix-have-o...
velcrovan 6mo ago
Tandy CoCo 3 reference spotted
jmmv 6mo ago
I'm sorry but the landing page at fuzix.org (the top page nonetheless) is terrible as it does not even try to explain what FUZIX even IS. I went to the GitHub project page, which contains some more details, but it still doesn't answer the question and only talks about how FUZIX differs from UZI. To be honest, I still have no idea what I'm looking at.
- ad_hockey 6mo ago
  The GitHub repo also seems to be archived.
  - lproven 6mo ago
    To quote the comment from higher on the page – https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47818363 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47818363 – « Oh, and don't be fooled by the archived status - it moved to https://codeberg.org/EtchedPixels/FUZIX https://codeberg.org/EtchedPixels/FUZIX »
- kasumispencer2 6mo ago
  [flagged]
  - tengwar2 6mo ago
    An operating system for munitions? An intelligent distribution panel? Seriously, it's not that hard for the maintainer to write one sentence describing what the project does.
    - deleted 6mo ago
      [deleted]
    - kasumispencer2 6mo ago
      "Munitions"? "Intelligent distribution panel"? Look, the UNIX part might not be obvious at all, but if you somehow didn't have enough of a rough idea after seeing that many retro CPUs and systems listed below, that might say more about you than the author.
      - lpln3452 6mo ago
        [flagged]
        kasumispencer2 6mo ago
        [flagged]
        deleted 6mo ago
        [deleted]
        lpln3452 6mo ago
        [dead]
        swiftcoder 6mo ago
        > It lists platforms so it's an OS that runs on these platforms That doesn't tell me what it is in a concrete sense. Must be hundreds of OS that run on similar hardware - what makes this one different?
- DeathArrow 6mo ago
  >it does not even try to explain what FUZIX even IS Fuzix is a very simple UNIX clone (and a for of UZI) started by Alan Cox, an ex-Linux kernel developer) as his retirement project. It aims to run on old CPUs like Z80 and on microcontrollers. I found it when searching what OS can I run on the $4 Raspberry Pi Pico.
  - homarp 6mo ago
    announce discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8548429 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8548429
marcodiego 6mo ago
Looks like the project is dead.
- tonymillion 6mo ago
  Except it’s not… https://codeberg.org/EtchedPixels/FUZIX https://codeberg.org/EtchedPixels/FUZIX
- retrac 6mo ago
  No I think Alan just moved where it's hosted: https://codeberg.org/EtchedPixels/FUZIX https://codeberg.org/EtchedPixels/FUZIX last updated 4 days ago Alan's currently putting most of his energy into the compiler. It's a C compiler in C which can compile itself, and compile FUZIX, for 8080 and Z80 targets. The goal is to make it compile itself on all the platforms it can run on eventually. :) https://codeberg.org/EtchedPixels/Fuzix-Compiler-Kit https://codeberg.org/EtchedPixels/Fuzix-Compiler-Kit
jimmoores 6mo ago
It's basically a micro Unix implementation aimed at old and resource constrained systems. I've been following it for a few years. The documentation is terrible, there are hardy any updates, but it does seem to be making slows, steady progress behind the scenes. I think it just needs to reach a critical mass of functionality and we'll see it popping up on raspberry pi picos, 8-bit micros etc. Definitely needs some TLC in the comms department though. Oh, and don/t be fooled by the archived status - it moved to https://codeberg.org/EtchedPixels/FUZIX https://codeberg.org/EtchedPixels/FUZIX
- ryukoposting 6mo ago
  > FUZIX is a fusion of various elements from the assorted UZI forks and branches beaten together into some kind of semi-coherent platform and then extended from V7 to somewhere in the SYS3 to SYS5.x world with bits of POSIX thrown in for good measure. Various learnings and tricks from ELKS and from OMU also got blended in This README reads like a blog post. Is this intended for some kind of professional purpose? Because I could see this being amusing for hobby purposes but I have no idea what I'd do with it at work.
  - tyingq 6mo ago
    > Is this intended for some kind of professional purpose? No. Retrocomputing. Fun. Learning.
nunobrito 6mo ago
I've seen cases where documentation is seriously lacking but this project is quite something. Was reading the comments, was able to learn more. So I assume it provides a command line interface. Question: Can it run binaries compiled for the platform/OS? This has been a limitation since forever on ESP microcontrollers because they basically have the power of computers and yet the flashing limitation of calculators. Would be good to finally be able to launch arbitrary binaries without flashing. (I know there are tricks right now, just looking for a proper OS-approach).
- retrac 6mo ago
  Yes. It has Unix style processes. The basic memory model is similar to ancient Unix on the PDP-11 without paging. A process gets a flat memory space. Processes are swapped out in the background as necessary. How it is implemented varies by platform. On the 8-bit micros it takes advantage of bank-switching memory hardware if there is any. On the MMUless 68K a flat single address space can be used with position-independent code for the processes. On platforms with paging or relocation hardware that is used. Most of the host platforms do not have hardware memory protection, but there's room in the design to support it. It has been ported to the Raspberry Pi Pico [1] (ARM Cortex-m0+ based) and could be ported to other microcontrollers which have enough RAM. Toolchain is the biggest problem. It's hard to get a good cross toolchain that works. FUZIX's creator has been writing a portable C compiler but it's not done yet. The code does compile with Clang and GCC but a working toolchain is a steep knowledge cliff to climb. I have got the kernel to build and link for a riscv32i target. Just need some real riscv32 hardware to test it on. And free time. [1] https://cowlark.com/2021-02-16-fuzix-pi-pico/index.html https://cowlark.com/2021-02-16-fuzix-pi-pico/index.html
  - ptspts 6mo ago
    Isn't creating a Docker image containing the right version of GCC or Clang a solution to the toolchain problem?
  - DeathArrow 6mo ago
    So it's you to thank for porting Fuzix to Raspberry Pi Pico. >Toolchain is the biggest problem. It's hard to get a good cross toolchain that works. So is it possible to compile programs for Fuzix on a PC?
anthk 6mo ago
For 8086 there's ELKS with networking support and it might run biggie stuff as Nethack/Slashem. Frotz, vi, and the rest run OFC. Networking sshot: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ghaerr/elks/master/Screenshots/ELKS_Networking.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ghaerr/elks/master/Screens... Telnetting to a BBS: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ghaerr/elks/master/Screenshots/ELKS_telnet_BBS.jpg https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ghaerr/elks/master/Screens...
- retrac 6mo ago
  Oh yes there's been some ELKS activity lately. Does it support the 286's 16-bit protected mode at all? 286 protected mode has the 8086-style 16-bit addresses and segmentation. But with virtualization and protection. Not very many operating systems made use of it. The x86 world skipped over it directly from 8086 real mode to 32-bit paging. Edit: to answer my own question it seems the recent branch dropped 286 protected mode support https://github.com/ghaerr/elks/pull/235 https://github.com/ghaerr/elks/pull/235
  - Narishma 6mo ago
    Windows 3.0 and 3.1 were very popular and made use of the 286's protected mode.

115 points by DeathArrow 6mo ago

> FUZIX is a fusion of various elements from the assorted UZI forks and branches beaten together into some kind of semi-coherent platform and then extended from V7 to somewhere in the SYS3 to SYS5.x world with bits of POSIX thrown in for good measure. Various learnings and tricks from ELKS and from OMU also got blended in https://github.com/EtchedPixels/FUZIX#what-does-fuzix-have-over-uzi https://github.com/EtchedPixels/FUZIX#what-does-fuzix-have-o...

velcrovan 6mo ago

Tandy CoCo 3 reference spotted

jmmv 6mo ago

I'm sorry but the landing page at fuzix.org (the top page nonetheless) is terrible as it does not even try to explain what FUZIX even IS. I went to the GitHub project page, which contains some more details, but it still doesn't answer the question and only talks about how FUZIX differs from UZI. To be honest, I still have no idea what I'm looking at.

ad_hockey 6mo ago
The GitHub repo also seems to be archived.
- lproven 6mo ago
  To quote the comment from higher on the page – https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47818363 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47818363 – « Oh, and don't be fooled by the archived status - it moved to https://codeberg.org/EtchedPixels/FUZIX https://codeberg.org/EtchedPixels/FUZIX »
kasumispencer2 6mo ago
[flagged]
- tengwar2 6mo ago
  An operating system for munitions? An intelligent distribution panel? Seriously, it's not that hard for the maintainer to write one sentence describing what the project does.
  - deleted 6mo ago
    [deleted]
  - kasumispencer2 6mo ago
    "Munitions"? "Intelligent distribution panel"? Look, the UNIX part might not be obvious at all, but if you somehow didn't have enough of a rough idea after seeing that many retro CPUs and systems listed below, that might say more about you than the author.
    - lpln3452 6mo ago
      [flagged]
      - kasumispencer2 6mo ago
        [flagged]
        deleted 6mo ago
        [deleted]
        lpln3452 6mo ago
        [dead]
        swiftcoder 6mo ago
        > It lists platforms so it's an OS that runs on these platforms That doesn't tell me what it is in a concrete sense. Must be hundreds of OS that run on similar hardware - what makes this one different?
DeathArrow 6mo ago
>it does not even try to explain what FUZIX even IS Fuzix is a very simple UNIX clone (and a for of UZI) started by Alan Cox, an ex-Linux kernel developer) as his retirement project. It aims to run on old CPUs like Z80 and on microcontrollers. I found it when searching what OS can I run on the $4 Raspberry Pi Pico.
- homarp 6mo ago
  announce discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8548429 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8548429

marcodiego 6mo ago

Looks like the project is dead.

tonymillion 6mo ago
Except it’s not… https://codeberg.org/EtchedPixels/FUZIX https://codeberg.org/EtchedPixels/FUZIX
retrac 6mo ago
No I think Alan just moved where it's hosted: https://codeberg.org/EtchedPixels/FUZIX https://codeberg.org/EtchedPixels/FUZIX last updated 4 days ago Alan's currently putting most of his energy into the compiler. It's a C compiler in C which can compile itself, and compile FUZIX, for 8080 and Z80 targets. The goal is to make it compile itself on all the platforms it can run on eventually. :) https://codeberg.org/EtchedPixels/Fuzix-Compiler-Kit https://codeberg.org/EtchedPixels/Fuzix-Compiler-Kit

jimmoores 6mo ago

It's basically a micro Unix implementation aimed at old and resource constrained systems. I've been following it for a few years. The documentation is terrible, there are hardy any updates, but it does seem to be making slows, steady progress behind the scenes. I think it just needs to reach a critical mass of functionality and we'll see it popping up on raspberry pi picos, 8-bit micros etc. Definitely needs some TLC in the comms department though. Oh, and don/t be fooled by the archived status - it moved to https://codeberg.org/EtchedPixels/FUZIX https://codeberg.org/EtchedPixels/FUZIX

ryukoposting 6mo ago
> FUZIX is a fusion of various elements from the assorted UZI forks and branches beaten together into some kind of semi-coherent platform and then extended from V7 to somewhere in the SYS3 to SYS5.x world with bits of POSIX thrown in for good measure. Various learnings and tricks from ELKS and from OMU also got blended in This README reads like a blog post. Is this intended for some kind of professional purpose? Because I could see this being amusing for hobby purposes but I have no idea what I'd do with it at work.
- tyingq 6mo ago
  > Is this intended for some kind of professional purpose? No. Retrocomputing. Fun. Learning.

nunobrito 6mo ago

I've seen cases where documentation is seriously lacking but this project is quite something. Was reading the comments, was able to learn more. So I assume it provides a command line interface. Question: Can it run binaries compiled for the platform/OS? This has been a limitation since forever on ESP microcontrollers because they basically have the power of computers and yet the flashing limitation of calculators. Would be good to finally be able to launch arbitrary binaries without flashing. (I know there are tricks right now, just looking for a proper OS-approach).

retrac 6mo ago
Yes. It has Unix style processes. The basic memory model is similar to ancient Unix on the PDP-11 without paging. A process gets a flat memory space. Processes are swapped out in the background as necessary. How it is implemented varies by platform. On the 8-bit micros it takes advantage of bank-switching memory hardware if there is any. On the MMUless 68K a flat single address space can be used with position-independent code for the processes. On platforms with paging or relocation hardware that is used. Most of the host platforms do not have hardware memory protection, but there's room in the design to support it. It has been ported to the Raspberry Pi Pico [1] (ARM Cortex-m0+ based) and could be ported to other microcontrollers which have enough RAM. Toolchain is the biggest problem. It's hard to get a good cross toolchain that works. FUZIX's creator has been writing a portable C compiler but it's not done yet. The code does compile with Clang and GCC but a working toolchain is a steep knowledge cliff to climb. I have got the kernel to build and link for a riscv32i target. Just need some real riscv32 hardware to test it on. And free time. [1] https://cowlark.com/2021-02-16-fuzix-pi-pico/index.html https://cowlark.com/2021-02-16-fuzix-pi-pico/index.html
- ptspts 6mo ago
  Isn't creating a Docker image containing the right version of GCC or Clang a solution to the toolchain problem?
- DeathArrow 6mo ago
  So it's you to thank for porting Fuzix to Raspberry Pi Pico. >Toolchain is the biggest problem. It's hard to get a good cross toolchain that works. So is it possible to compile programs for Fuzix on a PC?

anthk 6mo ago

For 8086 there's ELKS with networking support and it might run biggie stuff as Nethack/Slashem. Frotz, vi, and the rest run OFC. Networking sshot: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ghaerr/elks/master/Screenshots/ELKS_Networking.png https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ghaerr/elks/master/Screens... Telnetting to a BBS: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ghaerr/elks/master/Screenshots/ELKS_telnet_BBS.jpg https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ghaerr/elks/master/Screens...

retrac 6mo ago
Oh yes there's been some ELKS activity lately. Does it support the 286's 16-bit protected mode at all? 286 protected mode has the 8086-style 16-bit addresses and segmentation. But with virtualization and protection. Not very many operating systems made use of it. The x86 world skipped over it directly from 8086 real mode to 32-bit paging. Edit: to answer my own question it seems the recent branch dropped 286 protected mode support https://github.com/ghaerr/elks/pull/235 https://github.com/ghaerr/elks/pull/235
- Narishma 6mo ago
  Windows 3.0 and 3.1 were very popular and made use of the 286's protected mode.