Actually nothing more than xMach kernel (Mach4+Lites+NetBSD-1.0 userland)
I've been able to cross compile xMach + Lites from Linux using gcc 2.7.2.3 and binutils from OSKIT or 2.12.1 works as well.
I can provide a tarball with the compiler and so on.
Make sure you have i586-linux-gcc in your path!
general instructions are;
mkdir kernel-build
cd kernel-build
../kernel/configure --host=i586-linux --target=i586-linux --build=i586-linux --enable-elf --enable-libmach --enable-linuxdev --prefix=/usr/local/xmachyou will have to alter the Makeconf, or copy the one from 'updated-conf' for now, i will fix this as soon as possible.
building Lites is very similar:
mkdir lites-build
cd lites-build
../lites/configure --host=i586-linux --target=i586-linux --build=i586-linux --enable-mach4 --prefix=/usr/local/xmach --with-mach4=../kernellikewise you will need to use an updated config file from 'updated-conf'. If you try to run make before this it will not only fail, but a make clean will not actually clean the source correctly you will have to destroy the directory to try agin.
A NetBSD 1.0 virtual machine (qemu) is needed. You can find NetBSD qemu images around the net, i can provide this too, when a proper website or similar is on.
qemu-system-x86_64 -L pc-bios -hda netbsd-1.0.vmdk -cdrom ..\super_grub2_disk_i386_pc_2.04s1.iso -boot d -net none -device ne2k_isa,iobase=0x300,irq=5,netdev=ne -netdev user,id=ne,hostfwd=tcp::42323-:23 -serial none -parallel none -boot d
hit escape on grub
kfreebsd (hd0,bsd1)/Mach
boot
tell mach it's root is:
/dev/hd0a/mach_servers
I use Super Grub 2 iso image to boot the system as shown above. However the NetBSD bootloader is able to boot the Mach kernel without any proble, i booted it from NetBSD-9.3 without any problem, just tell it the kernel path.
As i said actually is nothing more than xMach, with some libc new stuff that are going on. Acutally libc is called libmach_c, the name will be changed to the usual libc.
- The lites server will be dropped
- The system will be a multiserver implementation
- Porting as much as possible some existent libc, coming from the BSDs world, probably the NetBSD one.
- Keeping a really simple but efficient and 'secure' design.
- Developing it keeping in mind the Arcan Engine as Display Server. Because Arcan is nice and working for more infos about Arcan:
https://github.com/letoram/arcan
- Porting Mach4 to x86_64 and if possible to RISC-V (why not?)
- Mach4 needs clustered paging to gain a good amount of performances in the VM (virtual memory). OSF Mach has it and it is possible to port the features from there to Mach4 or switch to use osfmach?
- Actually Mach4 uses traps to enter the kernel. Drop the support for old processors ( i don't care for now about them) and switch to sysenter/sysexit will give another performance up! You want support of old CPUs, then we can talk about vDSO.
Points 5, 6, 7 and 8 are really far. The road is long, features will come :P
Some socials will come, like Discord and others.
Neozeed, helping me with historical things and other stuffs. https://github.com/neozeed/