Genode Archive
Within in the last release cycle we worked on adding and extending the support for the i.MX8MP SoC as also found in one of the SoM options for the MNT Pocket Reform and are happy to show-case a first preview version of Sculpt running on this handy computing device. ↫ Josef Söntgen If you have a Pocket Reform – I reviewed its bigger sibling earlier this year – you can now run Genode on it. Not everything is working flawlessly yet – most notably audio and NVMe need work – but networking is operational, so you can actually browse the web. I’m not sure how much overlap there is between Genode users and Pocket Reform owners, but at least both groups now know it’s an option.
Genode’s rapid development carries on apace. Whilst Genode itself is a so-called OS Framework – the computing version of a rolling chassis that can accept various engines (microkernels) and coachwork of the customer’s choice – they also have an in-house PC desktop system. This flagship product, Sculpt OS, comes out on a bi-annual schedule and Autumn brings us the second for the year, with what has become an almost a customary big advance: Among the many usability-related topics on our road map, multi-monitor support is certainly the most anticipated feature. It motivated a holistic modernization of Genode’s GUI stack over several months, encompassing drivers, the GUI multiplexer, inter-component interfaces, up to widget toolkits. Sculpt OS 24.10 combines these new foundations with a convenient user interface for controlling monitor modes, making brightness adjustments, and setting up mirrored and panoramic monitor configurations. ↫ Genode website Sculpt OS 24.10 is available as ready-to-use system image for PC hardware, the PinePhone, and the MNT Reform laptop.
The Genode project has released Sculpt OS 24.04, the general purpose desktop operating system based on the Genode OS Framework. This release is absolutely jam-packed with new features, improvements, and changes, and it’s hard to know where to begin. One of the biggest new features is support for suspend/resume, an experimental feature for now, for which the developers also made starting and stopping drivers and related components easier straight from the user interface. In addition, NVMe, AHCI, and Intel GPU drivers will resume automatically after a resume. Sculpt OS 24.04 also ships with a brand new audio framework, which brings support for “pluggable drivers, arbitrary sample rates, and the flexible routing and mixing of audio signals”, but the audio driver does need to be manually restarted after a resume. This release also adds support for 4K displays and I2C touchpads, underlining that yes, Sculpt and Genode developers dogfood their operating system on real hardware. Do note that at least for now, the I2C touchpad driver needs to be started manually, so an external mouse will initially be needed. Various images are available for download from the download page.
Without hesitation, our developer community quickly rallied behind the topic “Sculpt OS usability”, desiring to boost the user experience with respect to multi-monitor usage, convenient interactive UIs for common tasks, profound support for touchpads and touchscreens, tearing-free graphics, low-latency audio, casual on-target debugging, and suspend/resume. The focus on usability notwithstanding, we will steadily continue with the gardening of Genode’s driver landscape, fostering the consistent use of drivers ported from up-to-date Linux kernels, clear-cut ACPI support, and making drivers pluggable. In 2024, we will also promote Genode’s custom (base-hw) microkernel to become the default kernel for Sculpt OS, which is the culmination of a multi-year effort. ↫ Official Genode news post The updated roadmap for 2024 details the goals of the project for the coming current year.
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