New OS

s_k

Hi, I have an idea to make my own OS. I know C++ and I will learn to assembly (suppose I manage it...). But I dont know where to start (and with, how..) at all...Can you give me some info,links,tutors...any ??? Celebrate Mr. Cesilko!

Nemanja Trifunovic

Start with: this link . But I think you're gonna quit. ;P I vote pro drink :beer:

Daniel Turini

It remembers me a post on usenet, some years ago... I think the guy was named Linus... Furor fit laesa saepius patientia

Rassman

Nothing wrong with wanting to write an OS. Excellent programming practice. Remember though that the OS is an interface between bios and the applications. So, the starting point would be the ability to control hardware directly by calling BIOS. In DOS days an MSDOS Bible would give you a list of the calls etc. You could always get yourself an old 2nd hand PC and have a go on that. The reason for wanting the old machine is because a lot of the chips were individual and therefore much easier to work on. These days the hardware is very much integrated, though the addresses of standard hardware is much the same, examining the results from your code is much more difficult. If you can get hold of a copy of MS C6 or MASM (I think it was version 4 or 5 I used for this kind of thing) you could then write your software on your main PC and download it onto your test machine. When I developed for PC (usually direct hardware stuff for real time processing. I was mainly electronic design then) in the early 80s I had a folder that had the datasheets of every component, with lots of libraries of code. Unfortunately my briefcase was stolen and I never got the chance to rebuild the folder otherwise I would have let you have copies of key sheets. But these components are still available and well documented. A good place to start, for information, would be with IBM. They used to put out a hardware manual with their PCs which was practically a full circuit. If you can't get an old PC to use there is another way. Obviously you don'e want to experiment at OS level with the PC you work on now. But you could write an OS within an OS. I used to get my apprentices to write an OS within the DOS environment. That is, It would make use of DOS calls for hardware access but would be the user interface/view in all other respects. The same can still be done within the Windows OS. Although it isn't the full project that you are after, it is a good way to get a 'feel' for it. Normally I wouldn't want direct emails from lists of this kind, but if you are serious about this project then I am willing to help (on an information/advisory level) so feel free to write to me. Why am I being helpfull? Because you are not satisfied with working on a safe cushion of Windows OS, you want to get inside and know how it all really works. If you can keep this level of interest then your going into the bigtime developement, rather than 'production' stuff most programmers end up doing. We do it for the joy of seeing the users struggle.

Steven Hicks n 1

Here is a link: Ltpb.8m.com: Links I believe its a tutorial Visit Ltpb.8m.com Surf the web faster than ever: http://www.404Browser.com

Migs

Long, long time ago (when Win 3.11 was a toddler) .. I wrote (in assembly) a graphical O/S as my varsity project. It included disk, mouse, scanner, VGA and sound drivers and virtual memmory handling... I had the best time ever back then (well, maybe because I was in university so no worries back then mon)

So, with that humble varsity experience as my presentation card and if you allow, I'd LOVVVVE to help you with your project.. I don't have much time but I do have some little.. and lots of ideas and tips I learnt back then.
Given that you're going to re-invent the wheel, I'd suggest you REALLY re-invent it (why bother otherwise?) and take a looooong look and nano-kernels: The O/S is as small as it can be.. and I really mean small and all components (even the memory swapper, file system, etc..) are "mortal" processes (like VMS used to have). Furthermore.. these "components" have COM-like communication which means that you could be using memory located on ... another PC!
If someone had invented such an O/S (I think NeXT was trying to).. TCP/IP.. sockets and all that crap would've never been necesary! "Amoeba" was on such attempt. Anyway.. I could go on and on and on.. but I'll stop here with my help offer and a litte suggestion to get started: Read "Operating System Concepts" by A. Silberschatz, J.Peterson and P.Galvin (I think it is used in varsity) Sonork ID: 0.2

Peter Liddle

Hey i also thought about writing my own O/S and have done a bit but got stopped due to other reasons it's great fun. Maybe a load of us should start to write a proper O/S anyway have alook at this site. I found this the best site for O/S stuff and initial ideas. http://www.nondot.org/sabre/os/articles Anyway i wish you the best of luck.

Migs

Amigo, This is a mucho excelente site!!! GREAT RESOURCE! Sonork ID: 0.2

Nish Nishant

You might be interested in Linux kernel module development. and particularly in HURD. Chk out the FSF web sites Nish Sonork ID 100.9786 voidmain www.busterboy.org Nish is a BIG fan of Goran Ivanisevic

Lucky the code machine

Hi, I was thinking just the same thing. Im quite new to C++ but have done assembler and have a good knowlege of the O/S structure. I am a very fast learner and wanted to try to build an O/S to realy strech myself. Have you gained any knowlege yet that could be of help to me? I am just gettin a few ideas at the mo, i am not ready to start this project for anouther month or so as i am just finishing my degree but perhaps then we could exchange problems and ideas? An Expert is somone who has previously made ALL the Mistakes, I dream of this day. - Lucky