minios

minios

A minimal UNIX-like x86 operating system with a graphical window manager, filesystem, networking stack, and onboard applications — all running in 32-bit protected mode.

Features

Core OS

• Multiboot-compliant — boots via GRUB or directly with qemu -kernel
• Protected mode (32-bit x86) with custom linker script
• VGA text mode (80×25) and VESA framebuffer (800×600×32)
• PS/2 keyboard with Shift/CapsLock, E0-prefix arrow keys (Home, End, Delete)
• PS/2 mouse driver with three cursor styles
• Serial port output for debug logging
• RTC driver for system clock

Graphical Shell (GUI)

• Multi-window manager — drag, resize, minimize, raise, close
• Taskbar with window list and live clock
• Apps menu with 9 built-in applications
• File drag & drop between File Manager, Terminal, and Notepad
• Terminal emulator with 100-row scrollback buffer
• Desktop settings — background color, pattern, cursor style, boot animation
• Pixel DE — full-screen screensaver with 3D rotating cube, starfield, and gradient background

Built-in Applications

App	Description
Terminal	Shell with command history, tab completion, arrow key navigation
Paint	Drawing canvas (C to clear)
Snake	Classic game with live score in title bar
Browser	Basic web browser
Settings	GUI system settings (persisted to /settings.cfg)
Files	File manager with drag initiation
Calculator	GUI RPN calculator with keyboard input
Notepad	Text editor with line numbers, syntax highlighting, auto-save on ESC
Winver	About screen

Shell & Commands

Over 40 built-in commands: ls, cat, echo, clear, date, ps, help, shutdown, reboot, neofetch, meminfo, calc, edit, rm, mv, head, hexdump, wc, cal, seq, expr, which, touch, basename, dirname, rev, uniq, sort, hostname, and more.

Features command history (16 entries, up/down arrows), mid-line editing (left/right, Home, End, Delete), and tab completion.

File System

• In-memory filesystem — up to 64 files, 32-char names, 4 KB per file, 64 KB pool
• Persistent settings — /settings.cfg writes to FS image
• Commands: create, ls, cat, rm, mv, touch, edit

Networking

• RTL8139 NIC driver with PCI discovery and ring-buffer DMA
• TCP/IP stack — ARP, IP, TCP (SYN/ACK with io_wait polling), DNS, HTTP GET
• Static IP 10.0.2.15 on QEMU user-mode slirp network

Language Runtimes

• Python interpreter — run .py scripts with python command
• C compiler (TinyCC) — compile and run .c source with tcc command
• Two-pass assembler — asm command for x86 assembly
• Package manager — apt command

Graphics Stack

• GLES software renderer — points, Bresenham lines, scanline triangles
• Window compositing with z-ordering, shadows, drag indicators
• Syntax highlighting in Notepad for C, Python, and shell files

Some Screenshots

Build Requirements

• i686-elf-gcc (cross-compiler targeting i686-elf)
• i686-elf-ld
• nasm
• make
• qemu-system-i386 (for testing)

On macOS:

brew install i686-elf-gcc nasm qemu

On Debian/Ubuntu:

apt install build-essential nasm qemu-system-i386
# Install i686-elf-gcc from your distro or build from source

Building

git clone https://github.com/Distendo/minios
cd minios
make run

This produces minios.bin — a Multiboot-compliant kernel image.

Running

Direct boot (QEMU)

qemu-system-i386 -kernel minios.bin -m 64 -vga std -nic user

With a filesystem image

qemu-system-i386 -kernel minios.bin -m 64 -vga std \
  -nic user \
  -drive file=disk.img,format=raw,if=ide

With GRUB (ISO)

mkdir -p iso/boot/grub
cp minios.bin iso/boot/
cat > iso/boot/grub/grub.cfg << 'EOF'
menuentry "minios" {
    multiboot /boot/minios.bin
}
EOF
grub-mkrescue -o minios.iso iso
qemu-system-i386 -cdrom minios.iso -m 64 -vga std

Project Structure

├── boot.asm           # Multiboot header + entry point (NASM)
├── link.ld            # Linker script
├── Makefile           # Build system
├── kernel.c           # Main kernel: shell, commands, main loop
├── vga.c / vga.h      # VGA text-mode driver (80×25)
├── keyboard.c / .h    # PS/2 keyboard driver
├── mouse.c / .h       # PS/2 mouse driver
├── serial.c / .h      # Serial port (COM1) driver
├── ports.h            # x86 I/O port utilities
├── framebuffer.c / .h # VESA framebuffer (800×600×32)
├── rtc.c / .h         # CMOS RTC driver
├── gui.c / gui.h      # Window manager + terminal emulator
├── gles.c / gles.h    # Software GLES renderer
├── de_pixel.c / .h    # Pixel Desktop Environment
├── fs.c / fs.h        # In-memory filesystem
├── rtl8139.c / .h     # RTL8139 NIC driver
├── net.c / net.h      # TCP/IP stack
├── settings_store.c   # Persistent settings
├── calcapp.c / .h     # GUI calculator
├── notepad.c / .h     # GUI text editor
├── paint.c / .h       # Drawing application
├── snake.c / .h       # Snake game
├── browser.c / .h     # Web browser
├── files.c / .h       # File manager
├── settings.c / .h    # Settings panel
├── winver.c / .h      # About screen
├── pylang.c / .h      # Python interpreter
├── tinycc.c / .h      # C compiler
├── asm.c / .h         # Assembler
├── apt.c / .h         # Package manager
└── ...

Architecture

                    ┌─────────────────────────┐
                    │   GUI Window Manager     │
                    │  (gui.c, 9 apps, taskbar)│
                    ├─────────────────────────┤
                    │      Shell (kernel.c)     │
                    │   ~40 commands, history   │
                    ├─────────────────────────┤
                    │   Language Runtimes       │
                    │  (Python, C, Asm, APT)    │
                    ├─────────────────────────┤
                    │   TCP/IP Stack (net.c)    │
                    │  ARP/IP/TCP/DNS/HTTP      │
                    ├─────────────────────────┤
                    │   RTL8139 NIC Driver      │
                    ├─────────────────────────┤
                    │   In-Memory Filesystem    │
                    │  (fs.c, 64 files, 64KB)   │
                    ├─────────────────────────┤
                    │   Hardware Drivers        │
                    │  VGA/FB, Keyboard, Mouse, │
                    │  RTC, Serial, PCI         │
                    ├─────────────────────────┤
                    │   x86 Protected Mode     │
                    │  Multiboot, IDT, Port I/O │
                    └─────────────────────────┘

QEMU Test Helper

The OS auto-detects the RTL8139 NIC on QEMU's -nic user,model=rtl8139 and performs an HTTP GET test against the host on 10.0.2.2:8080 during the GUI main loop.

Configuration

Settings are persisted to /settings.cfg in the filesystem:

• mouse_icon — 0=Crosshair, 1=Arrow, 2=Hand
• bg_color — desktop background color (hex RGB)
• bg_pattern — 0=Checkerboard, 1=Solid, 2=Stripes
• boot_anim — 0=skip, 1=show boot animation
• anim_speed — 1=slow, 2=medium, 3=fast
• desktop_env — 0=Default DE, 1=Pixel DE

EVERYTHING MAKED BY DISTENDO Thanks to Cambodia Tech for testing and finding bugs in system!