The release of the Sculpt project 25.04 has been presented, which develops an operating system based on Genode OS Framework technologies that can be used by ordinary users for everyday tasks. The project's source code is distributed under the AGPLv3 license. A system image of 32 MB is available for download, which can be used on PCs, PinePhone smartphones, and MNT Reform laptops. It supports operation on systems with Intel processors and graphics subsystems with VT-d and VT-x extensions enabled, as well as on ARM systems with VMM extensions.
Key innovations:
- Compatibility with Intel processors based on the Meteor Lake microarchitecture has been ensured.
- Window management has been implemented for multi-monitor configurations and support has been added for fixing virtual desktops to specific screens.
- Screen rotation support has been added.
- A new directory browser has been proposed, allowing the use of arbitrary directories as virtual file systems that can be linked to system components to simplify their sandbox isolation.
- The Chromium 112 engine and the Qt 6.6.2 library have been updated.
- Graphics performance has been accelerated by utilizing optimizations that leverage SIMD instructions on ARM and x86 systems.
- Support for the F&S MX8MP armStone board has been added.
The system comes with the Leitzentrale graphical interface, allowing typical system administration tasks to be performed. In the top left corner of the graphical interface, a menu with tools for managing users, connecting storage devices, and configuring network connections is displayed. In the center, there is a configurator for assembling the system's components, providing a graph-like interface that defines the relationships between system components. Users can interactively remove or add components to define the system environment's composition. of virtual machines.
At any moment, users can switch to console management mode, which provides greater flexibility in management. The traditional desktop can be accessed by running the TinyCore Linux distribution in a Linux virtual machine. In this environment, Firefox and Aurora browsers, a Qt-based text editor, and various applications are available. Command-line utilities can be launched in a noux environment.
Genode provides a unified infrastructure for creating custom applications that run on top of the Linux kernel (32 and 64 bit) or the NOVA microkernel (x86 with virtualization), seL4 (x86_32, x86_64, ARM), Muen (x86_64), Fiasco.OC (x86_32, x86_64, ARM), L4ka::Pistachio (IA32, PowerPC), OKL4, L4/Fiasco (IA32, AMD64, ARM), and a direct-running kernel for ARM and RISC-V platforms. The paravirtualized Linux kernel L4Linux, running on top of the Fiasco.OC microkernel, enables the execution of standard Linux programs within Genode. The L4Linux kernel does not interact directly with hardware but uses Genode services via a set of virtual drivers.
Various Linux and BSD components have been ported to Genode, ensuring support for Gallium3D, integrating Qt, GCC, and WebKit, and enabling the organization of hybrid Linux/Genode software environments. A port of VirtualBox has been prepared, which operates on top of the NOVA microkernel. A large number of applications have been adapted to run directly atop the microkernel and the Noux environment, which provides OS-level virtualization. For unported programs, there is a mechanism for creating application-level virtual environments that allows programs to run in a virtual Linux environment using paravirtualization.
Source: opennet.ru
