The release of the operating system Sculpt 22.04 is presented, within which, based on the technologies of the Genode OS Framework, a general-purpose operating system is being developed that can be used by ordinary users to perform everyday tasks. The source texts of the project are distributed under the AGPLv3 license. A LiveUSB image is offered for download, 28 MB in size. Work is supported on systems with Intel processors and graphics subsystem with VT-d and VT-x extensions enabled.
Main innovations:
- Drivers for Intel wireless cards, Intel GPU and USB controller have been completely redesigned. The new driver code is ported from Linux kernel 5.14.21. Unlike Linux, each driver in Sculpt OS runs in user space in a separate sandbox environment.
- The code for hardware graphics acceleration based on Mesa and the GPU access multiplexing mechanism has been optimized and stabilized. The new version provides the ability not only to run OpenGL applications, but also to use graphics acceleration in VirtualBox-based guest systems running on top of Sculpt.
- A sandbox isolation mechanism has been implemented at the level of individual services. A βblack holeβ component has also been added, which can be used as a stub for various system resources; for example, you can isolate a service from the network by directing network traffic to the βblack holeβ. Similarly, you can block access to sound, video capture and other typical system resources.
The system comes with a Leitzentrale graphical user interface that allows you to perform common system administration tasks. The upper left corner of the GUI displays a menu with tools for managing users, connecting drives, and setting up a network connection. In the center there is a configurator for arranging the filling of the system, which provides an interface in the form of a graph that defines the relationship between system components. The user can interactively remove or add components arbitrarily, defining the composition of the system environment or virtual machines.
At any time, the user can switch to the console management mode, which provides greater flexibility in management. A traditional desktop can be obtained by running a 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. The noux environment is offered to run command line utilities.
Genode provides a unified infrastructure for building custom applications running on top of the Linux kernel (32 and 64 bits) or NOVA microkernels (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-executing kernel for ARM and RISC-V platforms. The included paravirtualized Linux kernel L4Linux, running on top of the Fiasco.OC microkernel, allows regular Linux programs to run on Genode. The L4Linux kernel does not interact directly with the hardware, but uses Genode services through a set of virtual drivers.
Various Linux and BSD components were ported for Genode, Gallium3D was supported, Qt, GCC and WebKit were integrated, and hybrid Linux/Genode environments were implemented. A VirtualBox port has been prepared that runs on top of the NOVA microkernel. A large number of applications are adapted to run directly on top of the microkernel and the Noux environment, which provides virtualization at the OS level. To run non-ported programs, it is possible to use the mechanism for creating virtual environments at the level of individual applications, allowing you to run programs in a virtual Linux environment using paravirtualization.
Source: opennet.ru