What should be done

Add Stack Smashing Protector (SSP) compiler feature support.

Motivation

This serves a dual purpose in making the occurrence of such bugs visible and as exploit mitigation against return-oriented programming.

More can be read on OSDEV

** What should be done

Add multiboot 2 header. Adhere to reference manual.

** Motivation

To obtain memory map, framebuffer info and meta info of kernel ELF.

What should be done

Map kernel to 0xC.

Motivation

After migrating to the higher half kernel we can:

• It's easier to set up VM86 processes since the region below 1 MB is userspace.
• More generally, user applications are not dependent on how much memory is kernel space (your application can be linked to 0x400000 regardless of whether the kernel is at 0xC0000000, 0x80000000, or 0xE0000000 ...), which makes the ABI nicer.
• If your OS is 64-bit, then 32-bit applications will be able to use the full 32-bit address space.
• 'Mnemonic' invalid pointers such as 0xCAFEBABE, 0xDEADBEEF, 0xDEADC0DE, etc. can be used.

What should be done

Migrate functionality of shell scripts and Makefiles for building libc/libk and kernel to CMake.
CMake shall generate makefiles for compiling, linking, and producing kernel images.

Motivation

We need a robust and easy-to-use build system. CMake looks like a viable choice.

What should be done

The Interrupt Descriptor Table (IDT) is a binary data structure specific to the IA-32 and x86-64 architectures. It is the Protected Mode and Long Mode counterpart to the Real Mode Interrupt Vector Table (IVT) telling the CPU where the Interrupt Service Routines (ISR) are located (one per interrupt vector). It is similar to the Global Descriptor Table in structure.

Motivation

IDT is a prerequisite for writing interrupt handlers for handling exceptions and working with devices.
Make sure that GDT has been set up correctly!

What should be done

Implement GDT.

Motivation

GDT is an essential step before implementing interrupts and working on memory management.

What should be done

When terminal caret reached the last line and last row - remove the first line and move the other lines one line before and leave the last line empty.

Motivation

It is hard to operate on a terminal that overwrites the first lines on new entries.

What should be done

Implement valid printf() for kernel purposes.

Motivation

It will be hard to debug the kernel without printing anything.

What should be done

Setup Paging mechanism for x86

Motivation

We need paging to support virtual memory management and begin working on the memory management subsystem.

More details about paging on osdev.