VoidFrameX

Version: v1.0.1 License: GPL-2.0

VoidFrameX is a monolithic, higher-half, 64-bit x86_64 kernel (a KERNEL!, NOT AN OS!) built for modern systems. It is designed with a focus on a clean architecture and draws inspiration from the Linux kernel for many of its subsystems.

Contributors

• All contributors are listed here!

Status

Platform	Status	Performance
VMware Workstation Pro 25H2		High
QEMU 10.1.2		High
Bochs 3.0.devel		Low
Oracle VirtualBox 7.2.4r170995		High
Intel Alder Lake-based computer		High

Features

• x86-64 Monolithic Kernel: A full-featured 64-bit kernel.
• Higher-Half Kernel: The kernel is located in the higher half of the virtual address space.
• Preemptive Multitasking: Allows multiple tasks to run concurrently, with the kernel able to preempt tasks.
• Completely Fair Scheduler (CFS): A modern scheduler implementation inspired by the Linux kernel, ensuring fair CPU time allocation among tasks.
• Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP): Can utilize multiple CPU cores.
• Advanced Memory Management:
  • Physical Memory Manager (PMM)
  • Virtual Memory Manager (VMM) with 4-level paging
  • Slab Allocator for efficient object caching
  • Virtual Memory Area (VMA) manager
• Virtual File System (VFS): A Linux-inspired VFS layer that provides a unified interface for file systems. Includes a USTAR (initrd) parser.
• Graphical Console: A framebuffer console provided by the linearfb library.
• Interrupt Handling: Supports both modern APIC (x2APIC) and legacy PIC interrupt controllers.
• Timers: Supports HPET and PIT timers.
• FKX: Fused Kernel eXtension for modularity.

Architecture

VoidFrameX follows a monolithic design, where all core services run in kernel space. The kernel initialization process (start_kernel) provides a clear overview of the architecture:

1. Bootloader: The kernel is loaded by the Limine bootloader.
2. Core Initialization: Basic subsystems like the GDT and IDT are initialized.
3. Memory Management: The PMM, VMM, Slab allocator, and VMA manager are brought online.
4. Scheduling: The Completely Fair Scheduler is initialized.
5. Filesystems: The VFS is initialized, ready to mount filesystems.
6. Driver Initialization: ACPI is parsed via uACPI, and essential hardware like interrupt controllers and timers are configured.

The design is heavily influenced by the Linux kernel, adopting concepts like the VFS interface and the CFS scheduler's use of red-black trees.

Third-Party Projects

VoidFrameX leverages several excellent open-source projects:

• Limine: A modern, robust bootloader.
• uACPI: A lightweight, portable ACPI implementation.
• linearfb: A simple linear framebuffer library.
• Linux: Serves as a major architectural inspiration, with some data structures (like rbtree.h and list.h) adapted from it.

Prerequisites

To build VoidFrameX, you will need the following tools:

• CMake: Version 3.30 or newer
• clang The LLVM C compiler frontend

⚠️ VoidFrameX ONLY supports LLVM-based compiler (eg. clang, icx), compiling with GCC may break the kernel image!

• NASM: The Netwide Assembler
• xorriso: A tool to create and manipulate ISO 9660 images
• lld: The LLVM linker

⚠️ LLD is required for LTO builds

• Limine: The Limine bootloader resources must be available on the host system.

or you can grab limine from its binary branch, make sure to edit CMakeLists.txt for it to use the desired resources

Building and Running

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/assembler-0/VoidFrameX.git
   cd VoidFrameX

2. Configure and build with CMake:

   cmake -B build
   cmake --build build

3. Run with QEMU: The build process generates a (hybrid) bootable ISO image named voidframex.hybrid.iso in the build/ directory. You can run it with QEMU:

   qemu-system-x86_64 -cdrom build/voidframex.hybrid.iso

License

VoidFrameX is licensed under the GNU General Public License v2.0. See the LICENSE file for more details.