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https://github.com/dom96/nimkernel
A small kernel written in Nim
https://github.com/dom96/nimkernel
example kernel nim sample simple
Last synced: 19 days ago
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A small kernel written in Nim
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/dom96/nimkernel
- Owner: dom96
- License: other
- Created: 2013-06-30T22:52:36.000Z (over 11 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2021-11-04T21:56:42.000Z (about 3 years ago)
- Last Synced: 2023-11-07T15:17:07.108Z (about 1 year ago)
- Topics: example, kernel, nim, sample, simple
- Language: Nim
- Homepage:
- Size: 12.7 KB
- Stars: 597
- Watchers: 28
- Forks: 38
- Open Issues: 1
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: readme.markdown
- License: license.txt
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
# nimkernel
This is a small 32bit (i686) kernel written using the Nim programming language.
I have been wanting to do this for a while but it wasn't until people in the #nim IRC
channel inquired about Nim OS dev and the
[rustboot](https://github.com/charliesome/rustboot) kernel inspired me that I finally did it.
It doesn't do much, but it doesn't need to. Its purpose is to provide a starting
point for anyone wishing to write an OS in Nim.
It still manages to do a little more than fill a screen with a certain color.
Nimkernel implements:
* A ``writeString`` function which shows a string on screen in a specified
position.
* A ``rainbow`` function which shows a string with a rainbow-like text
foreground color differentiation in a specified position.
* Some simple error handling by implementing Nim system.nim's ``panic``
function.
* Support for 16 colors with a brilliant type safe API!
**Note**: The error at the bottom is intentional, it is used to show that
the error handling works properly.
## Setup
You are required to have:
* QEMU
* a C and asm cross-compiler for i686
* Nim 1.6.0 or higher
* nimble (*)
\* You can always grab the nake library manually from [here](https://github.com/fowlmouth/nake).
### Linux
I have performed this setup on a Arch Linux machine, but all other distros
should work too.
#### Building a cross compiler
For more information take a look at the [OSDev article](http://wiki.osdev.org/GCC_Cross-Compiler).
You will need to download the source of binutils and gcc.
First ``cd`` into a suitable directory in which you would like to download, unzip
and build the cross compiler. Then perform the following actions:
```bash
$ wget https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/binutils/binutils-2.37.tar.xz
$ tar -xJf binutils-2.37.tar.xz
$ cd binutils-2.37
$ mkdir build && cd build
$ ../configure --target=i686-elf --prefix=$HOME/cross-tools/ --with-sysroot --disable-nls --disable-werror
$ make -j$(nproc)
$ make install
```
You may then grab the GCC source and build it:
```bash
$ wget https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/gcc-11.2.0/gcc-11.2.0.tar.xz
$ tar -xJf gcc-11.2.0.tar.xz
$ cd gcc-11.2.0
$ mkdir build && cd build
$ ../configure --target=i686-elf --prefix=$HOME/cross-tools/ --disable-nls --enable-languages=c --without-headers
$ make all-gcc -j$(nproc)
$ make all-target-libgcc -j$(nproc)
$ make install-gcc
$ make install-target-libgcc
```
You should then have a i686-elf-gcc and i686-elf-as executable in $HOME/cross-tools/bin/ or somewhere thereabouts.
You should then add it to your PATH permanently or temporarily by doing:
```bash
export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/cross-tools/bin
```
#### Downloading cross compiler binaries
If for some reason you either can't or don't want to build your own toolchain you can grab binaries from [https://github.com/lordmilko/i686-elf-tools/releases](https://github.com/lordmilko/i686-elf-tools/releases)
Please note that these are a bit outdated but they are confirmed to work.
#### Nim setup
Follow the instructions in the [Nim repo](https://github.com/Araq/nim) to bootstrap Nim and put it in your PATH.
Do the same for [nimble](https://github.com/nim-lang/nimble) and install
``nake`` by executing ``nimble install nake`` or
alternatively just save [nake](https://github.com/fowlmouth/nake/raw/master/nake.nim)
into the root dir of this repo.
You can then compile the nakefile and therefore compile nimkernel:
```bash
$ nim c nakefile
$ ./nakefile run
```
This will automatically build and run the kernel using QEMU.
## License
Nimkernel is licensed under the MIT license.