The release of the Sculpt 23.04 project is presented, within the framework of 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 with VT-d and VT-x extensions enabled, as well as on ARM systems with VMM extensions.
Main innovations:
- Support for the PinePhone smartphone has been implemented and an interface version optimized for mobile devices has been proposed. Improved support for ARM architecture.
- Added the ability to update the boot image in live mode. The user interface implements a switch between Sculpt OS versions, which causes the required system image to be loaded, the image installed on bootable media, and the device restarted.
- Support for presets has been added to the menu, allowing you to change application launch scripts with a single mouse click. For example, a preset has been added to run a simple nano3d desktop with the Falkon browser.
- Extended support for switching to sleep mode.
The system comes with the Leitzentrale graphical interface, which allows for performing common system administration tasks. The upper left corner of the graphical interface displays a menu with tools for managing users, connecting drives, and configuring the network connection. In the center is a configurator for configuring the system components, which provides a graph-based interface defining the relationships between system components. The user can interactively remove or add components, defining the composition of the system environment or virtual machines.
At any time, the user can switch to console mode, which provides greater flexibility. A traditional desktop can be obtained by running the TinyCore Linux distribution in virtual machine with Linux. This environment provides access to the Firefox and Aurora browsers, a Qt-based text editor, and various applications. The noux environment is recommended for running 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
