Expanded Main Page

Introduction

Basic Information

• Introduction
• Avoid beginner mistakes
• Getting started
• How to ask questions
• What order should I make things in?
• What is a kernel--shell--GUI--etc.

Environment

• How kernel, compiler, and C library work together
• Things you can not do with C (See also Interrupt Service Routines!)
• Can I use some language other than C?
• Doing a kernel in C++
• Doing a kernel in Pascal
• Doing a kernel in Basic
• Sample inline functions
• Using the Bios or not using the Bios ? ...
• Using inline assembly

Booting and Setup

• Boot Sequence
• Diskless booting
• The BabyStep tutorial
• GDT For Dummies
• Interrupts For Dummies
• Getting Keyboard Input

Testing and debuging

• Help! My kernel crashed! (guru meditation in a nutshell)
• How do I test (and avoid crashing my disk while doing so)
• How do I use a debugger with my OS
• Is it possible to use Unit Testing with my OS

Design Considerations

Kernel Models

• Monolithic Kernel
• Microkernel
• Exokernels and their kind
• Modular Kernel

Task Models

• Monotasking Systems
• Multitasking Systems
• Real-Time Systems

Memory and Resource Management

• Physical, Virtual, Paging, help?!?
• What segments are About?
• Managing address spaces
• Allocating and freeing memory
• File management
• Algorithms and tips for memory management

Scheduling

• Tasks, processes and threads
• Context switching
• Scheduling algorithms
• Multiprocessor scheduling
• Sleeping and waiting processes

Process Sychronization

• Semaphores, mutexes, spinlocks et al.
• Signals

Inter-Process Communication

• Message passing
• Shared memory
• Remote procedure calls

Resources

• Books on OS Development
• Assembler language
• Some small kernels with source
• BareBones - a minimalistic example of how to get from GRUB into C space.
• BareBonesC++ - well, guess. :-)
• Disk Image with preinstalled GRUB
• Chip Numbers, Acronyms and Things
• Links

Reference Information

Executable File Types

• ELF
• PE

Filesystems

• FAT Details
• Ext2 Details
• AmigaFFS Details

Hardware

CPU

• AMD K6 writeback optimisations
• How can I tell CPU speed ?
• Model-specific register
• Sample inline functions
• Tell me about x86 64 bits CPU ...
• Processors of the IA32 architecture family
• What is v8086 mode?
• CPU Bugs

Memory

• How do I determine the amount of RAM?
• Why cant I access all my memory?

IRQ's and Exceptions, PIC, NMI, APIC, OPIC

• Can I remap the PIC?
• Getting Keyboard Input
• Help!? I can't get interrupts working
• How do I know if an IRQ or exception is firing?
• Interrupt service routines
• Interrupts for dummies
• So whats the NMI then?
• Tell me about the APIC
• Tell me about the OPIC
• What is the PIC?

Video

• Accelerated graphic cards
• How do I detect if I have a colour or monochrome monitor?
• How do I draw things in protected mode?
• How do I move the cursor when I print?
• How do I output text to the screen in protected mode?
• VGA Links and Documentation

Storage devices

• Harddisks
• ATAPI CDRom
• DMA
• Floppy driver

Plug and Play

• I heard you can do PNP calls with the BIOS in Protected Mode?
• Where can I find programming info on PNP?

PCI, USB and things like this ...

• AGP information
• And what about USB ?
• I heard you can do PCI calls with the BIOS in Protected Mode?
• PCI Section of Pentium VME
• USB Information
• Where can I find programming info on PCI?

Network cards and communicating devices

• 3c90x
• Serial ports
• Ne2000
• RTL8139
• RTL8169

Non-ix86 Development

• PowerPC
• MIPS
• Sparc

Tools

Bootloaders

• GRUB
• LILO
• XOSL - Extended Operating System Loader
• System Commander
• Boot Magic
• Rolling your own Bootloader and the necessary theory

Compilers

• Watcom C/C++
• Visual C/C++
• GCC
  • Using GCC Under Unix and Linux
  • Using GCC Under Windows
  • DJGPP
  • Cygwin
  • MinGW and Dev-C++
  • Building a GCC Cross-Compiler
  • Porting GCC to Your OS
  • Calling conventions of GCC for x86 Systems
• Other compilers

Assemblers

• GNU as
• FASM
• NASM
• Differences Between AT&T and Intel assembler formats

Linkers

• GNU ld
• ar

Emulators

• VMWare PC Emulator
• Bochs (i386) PC emulator
• SimICS
• QEMU
• Microsoft Virtual PC
• Virtual Box

Working with Disk Images

• Useful tools
• ...under Linux, *BSDs and other unices
• ...under MacOS X
• ...under Windows