x86-64 Port about toaruos

[Je06jm]

Since I'm going to do a rewrite, I'm going to make it easier for other people to contribute to it. The rewrite will also allow for the opportunity to add new features. What features do you want to see implemented?

[gil0mendes]

For the build system we could use some thing like jam or scons, personally I like more of scons. Make is slow, old and it is hard to make something more complex.

What is your idea?

[klange]

I have no interest in actually replacing the build system; the required work to support ports in the existing makefile is minimal.

[io12]

To make ports to other architectures easier, there should be a clear separation between hardware dependent and hardware independent code. NetBSD does this.

[Je06jm]

I'm new to the project, but I am going to working on the x86_64 port. For right now, I'm just going to be working on the kernel. It's going to allow the operating system to run in a legacy 32 bit mode while the kernel runs in 64 bit mode. This will allow the operating system to be transitioned bit by bit.

[klange]

As rebuilding the userspace is a fairly simple matter (and it should be mostly architecture independent, beyond some bits of the crt libs), it may be worthwhile to try to take the opposite approach, like OS X did during its 64-bit transition, and set up the kernel so it can run a 64-bit userspace while the kernel mode remains 32-bit.

[Je06jm]

That's probably not a bad idea...

[Je06jm]

Is there any documentation anywhere? I'm finding myself digging through tons of code in order to understand the flow of the kernel.

[Je06jm]

Would it be acceptable for me to rebuild large parts of the kernel so that it will more portable and support SMP. Software compatibility will be kept as much as possible.

[maxdev1]

rebuild large parts of the kernel

Quite adventurous.

[Je06jm]

I believe that it's necessary. As it is written now, it will not scale or port very well. It is also written without SMP in mind and it's most likely to be unsafe for SMP. Most of the pointers are also explicitly set to 32 bits instead of a generic pointer type. I believe that a rewrite is the only way to achieve some of the long term goals for this project.