Bolt

Bolt is a simple 64bit kernel.
Image showcasing Bolt running in QEMU.
(The media above may not be up to date)

Setting up a development environment

The following dependencies are required to build this project:

• gcc (build-essential)
• nasm
• ld
• grub-mkrescue (part of grub or grub2)
• xorriso (dependency of grub-mkrescue)
• (optional) qemu

This project targets x86_64 architectures, so you likely need a cross-compilation toolchain.

MacOS

Install Homebrew, then run the following commands:

$ brew install nasm
$ brew install xorriso
$ brew install qemu

You need to tap hawkw/x86_64-pc-elf to install the cross-compilation toolchain:

$ brew tap hawkw/x86_64-pc-elf
$ brew install x86_64-pc-elf-gcc

You need to tap hawkw/grub to install the GRUB utility:

$ brew tap hawkw/grub
$ brew install grub --with-x86_64-pc-elf --HEAD

Linux

Install the packages.

Grab the toolchain by running make toolchain.

Building Bolt

To compile the kernel (ELF 64-bit), run:

$ make kernel

To build the ISO (this is the default target), run:

$ make iso

To compile the OS in DEBUG mode, run:

$ make debug

Note: in DEBUG mode, logging uses the serial port COM1 to write various debugging information. qemu is configured to write the output of this serial port to /tmp/serial.log and stdout.

To compile the OS in normal mode, and run it in qemu, run:

$ make run

License

Bolt is released under the MIT License. See the bundled LICENSE file for details.