This project is a 64-bit experimental kernel intended to be run on ARMv8 and RISC-V targets.

Prerequisites

ARM64 Prerequisites

Note: On some distributions of Linux, aarch64-none-elf (or equivalent) may not be available. It is NOT guaranteed that the aarch64-linux-gnu-* toolchain is compatible, so you may need to compile the toolchain yourself from https://developer.arm.com/downloads/-/arm-gnu-toolchain-downloads.

The linux versions are listed because as of writing this, they do work, but that could change.

Ubuntu (22.04 or later)

sudo apt update
sudo apt install \
    gcc-aarch64-linux-gnu \
    binutils-aarch64-linux-gnu \
    qemu-system-arm \
    make \
    gdb-multiarch \
    git

Arch Linux

Install the required packages (note: some are AUR packages):

yay -S \
    qemu-full \
    make \
    git \
    arm-gnu-toolchain-aarch64-none-elf-bin

RISC-V Prerequisites

The dependencies for RISC-V builds are different, namely the toolchain and QEMU packages.

Note: Similarly to ARM's toolchain availability on some distributions, there is no guarantee that the riscv64-linux-gnu version of the toolchains will be compatible with this kernel.

Ubuntu (22.04 or later)

sudo apt update
sudo apt install \
    gcc-riscv64-linux-gnu \
    binutils-riscv64-linux-gnu \
    qemu-system-misc \
    make \
    git

Arch Linux

yay -S \
    riscv64-elf-gcc \
    riscv64-elf-binutils \
    qemu-full \
    make \
    git

Building and Running

Source the environment script:

source env.sh

Building for ARM64:

build_arm64 

Building for RISC-V:

build_riscv

Running the ARM kernel:

run_emu_arm64

Running the RISC-V kernel:

run_emu_riscv

Documentation

Details of kernel development, scripts for using the kernel and other relevant information can be found in the docs/ folder.

Patch note for 2025-09-07

added a simple "hello" driver as a test and for future support.

• Location: kernel/drivers/hello/
• Header: kernel/include/drivers/hello/hello.h
• Purpose: Demonstrates how to register a basic driver with the kernel subsystem
• Usage: Automatically initialized in kernel_main.c
• Notes: This driver prints a message or can be used as a template for future miscellaneous drivers. (Made by nirotheowl)

Last Updated: 2025-09-7