Re: Using bhyve to develop and OS -- tips on how?

It was/is off topic to discuss the motivations on the design I have in mind
but after thinking for it over 10 years (and using FreeBSD to build a IaaS
around bhyve) I have come to the conclusion that *NO* existing OS can meet
the design requirements I have in mind.

On Sun, Jan 16, 2022 at 11:13 AM Mehmet Erol Sanliturk <
m.e.sanliturk@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Jan 15, 2022 at 1:54 PM Bakul Shah <bakul@iitbombay.org> wrote:
>
>> You may be better off using qemu, at least initially as “legacy” booting
>> requires jumping through a few more hoops. Another suggestion is to check
>> out wiki.osdev.org. There are a lot of useful resources on this site.
>>
>> On Jan 15, 2022, at 1:29 AM, Aryeh Friedman <aryeh.friedman@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> 
>> I want to develop a OS completely from scratch, i.e. starting with the
>> first instruction encountered after POST and everything above it (mostly
>> for fun).
>>
>> I want to use bhyve to do this any tips on how to get started (I have
>> found a few tutorials on how to do the asm part of a MBR but that's about
>> as far as I have gotten).
>>
>> --
>> Aryeh M. Friedman, Lead Developer, http://www.PetiteCloud.org
>>
>>
>
> Dear Aryeh ,
>
>
> https://wiki.osdev.org/Required_Knowledge
>
> From the beginning of above page :
>
> "
> Required Knowledge
>
> If you think you can skip this, it's probably just for you.
>
> Writing an OS is not a beginner's task.
> In fact, writing an OS is usually considered the most difficult
> programming task.
> You will need above-average programming skills before even considering
> a project like this. .....
> "
>
> If you want to take such a difficult road to pursue , you may do the
> following :
>
> Study the bug reports , or GSOC projects , or projects to be handled by the
> FreeBSD Foundation
> ( or if you want more difficult problems , please search my mailing list
> messages
> to see "crazy" ideas , or please ask me "Do you have more crazy ideas ?" .
> You may be sure that I can find much "more crazy" ideas for you based on
> my goal to write
> a NEW operating system mainly based on FreeBSD , but from SCRATCH for
> ( not "Very" but ) "Large scale software stacks (  distributed , expert
> system based
> meaning learning  , etc ... . ) )
>
>
> If you confine your works on FreeBSD , if you want to be able to solve its
> current problems ,
> this will mean that you are knowing how to write an OS because you are
> knowing
> the FreeBSD very well and are able to modify it toward a more mature state
> .
> At the end you will gain and FreeBSD will gain .
>
>
> A few suggestions :
>
> (1) Make a list of "panic" points .
>      Eliminate as many of them as possible to protect the OS from crashing
> by determining
>      whether the next application step will cause a panic or not ( check
> panic conditions
>      before entering the next step ) and do not enter into it but return
> safely back by taking
>      necessary actions other than "panic" .
>
> (2) At present many device behaviors are encoded into kernel related
> routines
>      such as internal tables , constants , etc. .
>      Design a device definition  *.XML file format and move these internal
> definitions
>      into these files with file names generated from device
> characteristics .
>      For the detected existing devices and newly attached devices ,
> generate the file
>      name and search that file . If it exists , load it , else give a
> suitable error message .
>      This allows to add new devices by the users by using device producing
> company
>      supplied    device definitions  , or device definitions without
> requirement of
>      modifications of kernel related sources  .
>      One more step would be to allow user supplied ( not "root" supplied )
> device definitions
>      and its associated device drivers loaded from userland .
>
>       Such a system will be a very easy structure for the device producing
> companies
>       because already they have device driver software , it is very easy
> to generate a
>       device definition . The users will be able to use these devices
> easily by only
>       attaching the device , storing its device driver and definition file
> into her / his space .
>
>       This will attract the companies to be interested in FreeBSD , and
> produce more
>       such drivers , definitions .
>       This will increase number of possible FreeBSD users now repelled
> back due to difficulty of
>       use of the devices or complete lack of their associated software
> parts , by solving
>       their problems .
>
>
> It is possible to define many more improvement points .
>
> If present problems are handled , they will inspire many new improvement
> points
> which means you may continue to contribute to FreeBSD as much as possible .
>
> This will supply what you want to do and its very pleasing happiness (
> with respect to my
> understanding of your intentions ) .
>
>
>
> With my best wishes for all ,
>
> Mehmet Erol Sanliturk
>
>
>
>
>
>


-- 
Aryeh M. Friedman, Lead Developer, http://www.PetiteCloud.org