Osdev-Notes

Useful Resources

This appendix is a collection of links we found useful developing our own kernels and these notes.

Build Process

• Grub and grub.cfg documentation: https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub/grub.html
• Multiboot 2 Specification: https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/multiboot2/multiboot.html
• Limine documentation:https://github.com/limine-bootloader/limine
• Stivale 2 Specification: https://github.com/stivale/stivale/blob/master/STIVALE2.md
• Stivale 2 Barebones: https://github.com/stivale/stivale2-barebones/
• Sabaton - ARM Stivale 2 Bootloader: https://github.com/FlorenceOS/Sabaton
• Xorriso Documentation: https://linux.die.net/man/1/xorriso
• GNU Make Documenation: https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/make.html
• Linker Scripts Documentation : https://sourceware.org/binutils/docs/ld/Scripts.html#Scripts
• Bootlin Toolchains : https://toolchains.bootlin.com/
• OS Dev Wiki - Building A Cross Compiler: https://wiki.osdev.org/GCC_Cross-Compiler

Architecture

• Intel Software developer’s manual Vol 3A APIC Chapter
• IOAPIC Datasheet: https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.828/2016/readings/ia32/ioapic.pdf
• Broken Thorn Osdev Book Series, The PIC: http://www.brokenthorn.com/Resources/OSDevPic.html
• Osdev wiki page for RSDP: https://wiki.osdev.org/RSDP
• Osdev wiki page for RSDThttps://wiki.osdev.org/RSDT
• OSdev Wiki - Pit page: https://wiki.osdev.org/Programmable_Interval_Timer
• Broken Thron Osdev Book Series Chapter 16 PIC, PIT and Exceptions: http://www.brokenthorn.com/Resources/OSDev16.htm
• Osdev Wiki Ps2 Keyboard page: https://wiki.osdev.org/PS/2_Keyboard
• Osdev Wiki Interrupts page: https://wiki.osdev.org/IRQ#From_the_keyboard.27s_perspective
• Osdev Wiki 8042 Controller pagepage: https://wiki.osdev.org/8042_PS/2_Controller#Translation
• Scancode sets page: https://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/linux/kbd/scancodes-10.html#scancodesets
• Brokenthorn Book Series Chapter 19 Keyboard programming: http://www.brokenthorn.com/Resources/OSDev19.html

Video Output

• JMNL.xyz blog post about creating a ui: [https://jmnl.xyz/window-manager/](https://jmnl.xyz/window-manager/]
• Osdev wiki page for PSF format: https://wiki.osdev.org/PC_Screen_Font
• gbdfed - Tool to inspect PSF files: https://github.com/andrewshadura/gbdfed
• PSF Formats: https://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/linux/kbd/font-formats-1.html
• Osdev Forum PSF problem post: https://forum.osdev.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=41549

Memory Management

• Intel Software developer’s manual Vol 3A Paging Chapter
• Osdev Wiki page for Page Frame Allocation: https://wiki.osdev.org/Page_Frame_Allocation
• Writing an Os in Rust by Philipp Oppermann Memory management: https://os.phil-opp.com/paging-introduction/
• Broken Thorn Osdev Book Series, Chapter 18: The VMM http://www.brokenthorn.com/Resources/OSDev18.html

Scheduling

• Osdev Wiki page for Scheduling Algorithm: https://wiki.osdev.org/Scheduling_Algorithms
• Operating System Three Easy Pieces (Book): https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/
• Broken Thorn Osdev Book Series: http://www.brokenthorn.com/Resources/OSDev25.html
• Writing an Os in Rust by Philip Opperman Multitasking: https://os.phil-opp.com/async-await/

Userspace

• Intel Software developer’s manual Vol 3A Protection Chapter
• Wiki Osdev Page for Ring 3: https://wiki.osdev.org/Getting_to_Ring_3
• Default calling conventions for different compilers: https://www.agner.org/optimize/#manuals

IPC

• Wiki Osdev Page for IPC Data Copying: https://wiki.osdev.org/IPC_Data_Copying_methods
• Wiki Osdev Page Message Passing Tutorial: https://wiki.osdev.org/Message_Passing_Tutorial
• Wikipedia IPC page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter-process_communication
• InterProcess communication by GeeksForGeeks: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/inter-process-communication-ipc/

Virtual File System

• Wiki Osdev page for USTAR: https://wiki.osdev.org/USTAR
• Tar (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tar_(computing)
• Osdev Wiki page for VFS: https://wiki.osdev.org/VFS
• Vnodes: An Architecture for Multiple File System Types in Sun Unix: https://www.cs.fsu.edu/~awang/courses/cop5611_s2004/vnode.pd

Loading Elfs

• The ELF Specification: https://refspecs.linuxbase.org/LSB_3.0.0/LSB-PDA/LSB-PDA/generic-elf.html
• Osdev Wiki Page for ELF: https://wiki.osdev.org/ELF
• Osdev Wiki Page ELF Tutorial: https://wiki.osdev.org/ELF_Tutorial
• x86-64 psABI: https://gitlab.com/x86-psABIs/x86-64-ABI

C Language Infos

• IBM inline assembly guide This is not gcc related, but the syntax is identical, and it contains useful and concise info on the constraintsa
• Fedora Inline assembly list of constraints

Nasm

• Nasm Struct Section: https://www.nasm.us/xdoc/2.15/html/nasmdoc5.html#section-5.9.1
• Nasm String section: https://www.nasm.us/xdoc/2.15/html/nasmdoc3.html#section-3.4.2

Debugging

• Osdev Wiki Page for kernel debugging: https://wiki.osdev.org/Kernel_Debugging
• Osdev Wiki Page for Serial ports: https://wiki.osdev.org/Serial_Ports
• Debugging with Qemu at Wikibooks: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/QEMU/Debugging_with_QEMU

Communities

• Osdev Forum: https://forum.osdev.org/
• Operating System Development on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/osdev/
• OSdev Discord server: https://discord.gg/osdev
• Friendly Operating System Devs: https://discord.gg/Vwudfxx8Sp

Books and Manuals

• Gnu.org TAR manual page: https://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual/html_node/Standard.html
• Broken Thorne Osdev Book Series Chapter 22 VFS: http://www.brokenthorn.com/Resources/OSDev22.html
• Operating System Three Easy Pieces (Book): https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/
• Operating Systems Design And Implementation by Andres S. Tanenbaum. Difficult to find as of today, but if you can it’s an excellent resource on the minix kernel.
• Think Os By Allen B. Downey: https://greenteapress.com/thinkos/
• Xv6 is a modern rewrite of v6 unix, for teaching purposes. It comes with an accompanying book which walks through each part of the source code. It was later ported to risc-v, but the x86 version is still available (but no longer actively maintained): https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.S081/2020/xv6/book-riscv-rev1.pdf

An interesting github repository with a lot of resources about operating systems like guides, tutorials, hobby kernels, is the awesome-os project by @jubalh available here: https://github.com/jubalh/awesome-os

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