Genode is a new OS architecture that is able to align high security, robustness, and deterministic system behaviour with dynamic application workload. The project has now released its first ready-to-boot Live CD that demonstrates the key ideas of the architecture in an interactive fashion using a custom GUI and a number of example applications. It runs on Qemu, VirtualBox, and a range of native PC hardware.
I’ll leave it to the Genode people to describe what Genode actually is:
Genode is a novel operating-system architecture that enables dynamic workload while retaining security and robustness. The fundamental difference of Genode compared to other OS architectures is its strict organizational structure, which allows the execution of sensitive applications with a trusted computing base of a few thousand lines of code beside high-complexity workload. With its organizational approach, the architecture facilitates a clean separation of policies and mechanisms, and enables the definition and application of system policies in a natural and distributed fashion. Genode’s resource-management concept enables highly dynamic workload but still retains deterministic behaviour normally only found in statically configured systems.”
The Genode OS framework is a reference implementation of the architecture described above, in less than 10000 lines of source code. It originates from the L4 community, within the TU Dresden OS research group, and is now a GPL v2-licensed community project. Even though the current goals are more about specialised niches, the makers believe Genode will scale towards a general purpose operating system.
The demo iso works like charm in Virtualbox (for me at least). Genode is shaping up nicely!
on vMWARE is not working.
Doesn’t work on Virtual PC either – “Could not set vesa mode 1024×768@16”. Also it seems to assume a reasonable amount of memory – it wouldn’t boot with 32MB.
It’s not claimed to work on VirtualPC or VMWare:
…has been tested on Qemu and VirtualBox.
Have you tried the bootable CD? Worked great for me, and without being dependent on an emulator/simulator.
Indeed, it isn’t. Consider the parent posts public service announcements.
Now it has been tested on VMware and VirtualPC, and we know for sure the results
Edited 2008-10-22 22:41 UTC
Hi, it would be nice to know, why it cannot set the VESA mode. Don’t Vmware and VirtualPC support 16 bit graphics modes (at all/in your setup)? Unfortunately, we do not have access to these products.
Virtual PC does support 16bit modes, but it isn’t as reliable as 32bit. I often have problems with 16bit modes in Linux under Virtual PC, which are fixed in 32bit modes. However other OSs eg Syllable [www.syllable.org] work fine in 16bit modes.
Furthermore, the TU Dresden OS live cd [http://demo.tudos.org/] (also based on L4) works fine in Virtual PC for me!
we will see it on Syllable. Does anyone know if Genode provides a device driver framework?
I love that in the chalanges section they have “port it to the QNX kernel. http://www.pan.com/gukkle/showcontrol/mic/
that is a really smart idea, super fast, super stable, and incredibly scalible.
Booted up easily from a CD. But…
The running system looked nothing at all like the screenshot shown at at the Genode website: No launchpad, no colored boxes, nothing other than “Scout” filling the screen and showing a series of informational pages. There are no other menus other than the Scout browsing tools, no way to close “Scout”, and no way to end Genode or reboot.
Apparently, the “Demonstration” is simply a series of FAQs about Genode? Or it didn’t boot properly? Or I misunderstand the bootable CD entirely?
Somehow I expected something more usable, at least a functional demonstration, from a project that’s advanced to Version 8.
Yes, that’s it. It’s still in a very early state of development.
They use a Ubuntu-like naming scheme – they are not at version 8, but in year 2008.
If you follow the tutorial in scout, you’ll find an link that says something like “click this link to open launchpad”. You click it, it launches launchpad and from launchpad you can launch everything else, as described in the tutorial. Agreed, it would be nicer to have launchpad launched from the beginning.
That’s much better, thanks.
I don’t wish for the world from a 3MB download, but I had expected to see something vaguely resembling the publicity screenshot.
This looks like a very interesting project, and I look forward to seeing it’s continued development. Imagine a mature operating system with this sort of control riding on top.