A first dip into OS kernel development with xv6 and the 6.1810 labs (opens in new tab)

(jannestimm.com)

53 pointsjannesan2y ago5 comments

5 comments

xv is, without no doubt, my favourite educational OS. It provides both kernel space and userspace. You can find many people extending various aspects of it (memory management, file system, etc) on Github.

I still tinker with the x86 version (which isn't maintained anymore): https://github.com/mit-pdos/xv6-public. Doesn't need much effort to build it on macOS.

The codebase is pretty compact that it can be understood in a few days, and also rebuilding it is very quick. Can't say the same thing about Linux, but hey as real world OS, guess some complexities are simply unavoidable.

neverartful2y ago

Thanks for sharing. I may try to follow in your footsteps on this. After completing all of the lab assignments what do you feel would be the next logical step if you wanted to follow a path all the way to Linux or FreeBSD? Straight to them or with another educational OS?

jannesanOP2y ago

I still haven’t settled on what to do next, but for sure I will continue with educational material for now as I don’t have concrete goals to contribute to “real world” projects (yet). I also like having some structured path layed out for me, it makes it easier work on it every other day and not get stuck wondering what best to do next.

As for more serious projects I am interested in and could be a potential follow up to contribute to a bigger kernel, there are SerenityOS and RedoxOS.

chrsw2y ago

How did you find working on this outside of a class context? What did you do when you got stuck or had questions?

jannesanOP2y ago

I found the instructions for the labs clear and at the right level of detail for me that I did not have questions about what was required for the solution. They have a hints section that really get you started enough in my opinion, sometimes I looked at those a bit too early in retrospect. Then for understanding the part of the codebase that the lab was extending the book was sufficient as extra material for me. There are even lectures online for the 2019 version, but the theoretical side was something I had at least familiarity with before, so I did not watch those.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

5 comments

anta402y ago

I still tinker with the x86 version (which isn't maintained anymore): https://github.com/mit-pdos/xv6-public. Doesn't need much effort to build it on macOS.

neverartful2y ago

jannesanOP2y ago

As for more serious projects I am interested in and could be a potential follow up to contribute to a bigger kernel, there are SerenityOS and RedoxOS.

chrsw2y ago

How did you find working on this outside of a class context? What did you do when you got stuck or had questions?

jannesanOP2y ago

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse