The release of Sculpt 23.10 has been presented, during which a general-purpose operating system is being developed based on the Genode OS Framework technologies, which can be used by ordinary users for everyday tasks. The project's source texts are distributed under the AGPLv3 license. A LiveUSB image is available for download, sized at 28 MB. It supports operation on systems with Intel CPUs and graphics subsystems with VT-d and VT-x extensions enabled, as well as on ARM systems with VMM extensions.
Key innovations:
- CPU parameter management tools have been expanded. The interactive user interface has added features for switching between power consumption profiles (energy saving or performance), viewing the temperature of each CPU core, monitoring changes in CPU frequency, and detailing information about power consumption.
- Support for modern laptops has been improved; for example, on the Framework Gen 12 laptop, battery charge tracking, keyboard backlight control, and the ability to connect an external monitor have been implemented.
- The interface for the PinePhone smartphone build has been optimized, supporting hardware buttons and introducing a new screen saver that reduces power consumption by up to 40% by unloading drivers for the touch panel.
- The build process has been ensured using GCC 12.3.
- The driver for network cards has been replaced with a version ported from the Linux kernel 6.1.20.
- The engine for encrypting block devices has been redesigned.
- Debugging capabilities have been expanded.
- Development has transitioned to using the C++20 standard (previously C++17 was used).
- The ability to use existing SDKs for developing applications for Genode, such as Lomiri and Rust Cargo, has been provided.
- A driver for USB controllers used in RaspberryPi and i.MX6 boards has been added.
- The performance of drivers for Intel GPUs, sound cards, and WiFi has been improved.
- The DDE (device-driver environment) layer, allowing the use of drivers from Linux, has been updated to the Linux kernel 6.1.20.
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 time, the user can switch to the console management mode, which offers greater flexibility in management. A traditional desktop can be obtained by launching the TinyCore Linux distribution. virtual machine with Linux. In this environment, the Firefox and Aurora browsers, a Qt-based text editor, and various applications are available. Command line utilities are provided 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
