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title = "Redox OS 0.9.0"
author = "Ribbon, Ron Williams and Jeremy Soller"
date = "2024-09-9"
author = "Ron Williams, Ribbon and Jeremy Soller"
date = "2024-09-09"
+++
![Programs running in Redox 0.9.0](/img/screenshot/programs1.png)
@@ -17,20 +17,14 @@ We would like to thank all maintainers and contributors whose hard work has made
Here are just a few of the highlights!
- Much improved process/thread lifecycle and signaling, thanks to funding from [NLnet](https://nlnet.nl/project/RedoxOS-Signals/)
- Massive performance improvements and stability
- Massive performance and stability improvements
- Now featuring COSMIC Files, Editor and Terminal from the [COSMIC Desktop](https://system76.com/cosmic/)!
- Huge improvements to the portability of Linux/BSD programs
- USB Mouse and Keyboard support (with caveats)
- Userspace ABI improvements, towards the long-term goal of a stable ABI
- Improved paging and memory management
- Faster system calls and context switching
- Wide-ranging clean-up and debugging of the kernel, drivers and PCIe support
- Improved filesystem performance
- Self-hosting improvements
## Donations and Funding
In the past 12 months, we have received moderate grants from [NLnet's NGI Zero Core Fund](https://nlnet.nl/core/)
In the past 12 months, we have received generous grants from [NLnet's NGI Zero Core Fund](https://nlnet.nl/core/)
and [Radworks](https://radworks.org/), allowing us to support a community manager and a student developer.
We are seeking community donations to support one or more full-time developers.
@@ -42,13 +36,64 @@ You can also buy Redox merch (t-shirts, hoodies and mugs!) at our [Redox store](
If you know an organization or foundation that may be interested in supporting Redox, please contact us at [donate@redox-os.org](donate@redox-os.org)
## Images
It is recommended to try Redox OS in a virtual machine before trying on real hardware. See
the [supported hardware](https://www.redox-os.org/faq/#which-devices-does-redox-support) section for details on what
hardware to select for the best experience.
- Read [this](https://doc.redox-os.org/book/ch02-01-running-vm.html) page to learn how to run the Redox images in a virtual machine
- Read [this](https://doc.redox-os.org/book/ch02-02-real-hardware.html) page to learn how to run the Redox images on real hardware
- Read [this](https://doc.redox-os.org/book/ch02-03-installing.html) page to learn how to install Redox
### Demo
A 1536 MiB image containing the Orbital desktop environment as well as pre-installed demonstration programs.
- [Real Hardware Image](https://static.redox-os.org/releases/0.9.0/x86_64/redox_demo_x86_64_2024-09-07_1225_livedisk.iso.zst)
- [Virtual Machine Image](https://static.redox-os.org/releases/0.9.0/x86_64/redox_demo_x86_64_2024-09-07_1225_harddrive.img.zst)
The demo image includes these additional packages:
- [DOSBox](https://www.dosbox.com/) - A DOS emulator
- Games using PrBoom:
- DOOM (Shareware)
- [FreeDOOM](https://freedoom.github.io/)
- [Neverball and Neverputt](https://neverball.org/) - OpenGL games using LLVMPipe (performance may vary!)
- [orbclient](https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/orbclient) - An Orbital client demo
- [Periodic Table](https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/periodictable) - A program for viewing information about chemical elements
- [Terminal games](https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/games) - Command-line games
- [rodioplay](https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/rodioplay) - A FLAC/WAV music player
- [Sodium](https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/sodium): A vi-like text editor
- [sopwith](http://www.sopwith.org/): A classic PC air combat game
- syobonaction - A freeware platforming game
### Desktop
A 512 MiB image containing the Orbital desktop environment and some programs for common tasks. Use this if you want to download a smaller image.
- [Real Hardware](https://static.redox-os.org/releases/0.9.0/x86_64/redox_desktop_x86_64_2024-09-07_1225_livedisk.iso.zst)
- [Virtual Machine Image](https://static.redox-os.org/releases/0.9.0/x86_64/redox_desktop_x86_64_2024-09-07_1225_harddrive.img.zst)
### Server
A 512 MiB image containing only the command-line environment. Use this if the desktop image is not working well for you.
- [Real Hardware](https://static.redox-os.org/releases/0.9.0/x86_64/redox_server_x86_64_2024-09-07_1225_livedisk.iso.zst)
- [Virtual Machine Image](https://static.redox-os.org/releases/0.9.0/x86_64/redox_server_x86_64_2024-09-07_1225_harddrive.img.zst)
## Key Improvements for Release 0.9.0
- Faster system calls and context switching
- Improved virtual and physical memory management, including the significantly faster `p2buddy` memory allocator
- Improved filesystem performance
- Self-hosting improvements
- Userspace ABI improvements, towards the long-term goal of a stable ABI
- VirtIO drivers for better performance in virtual machines
- Virtualized [TSC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Stamp_Counter) gives a massive boost to context switching speed in virtual machines
- The [Unix path format](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_(computing)#Unix_style) replaced the previous [URI format](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Resource_Identifier) used in our system interfaces,
improving compatibility with POSIX/Linux libraries and programs.
- Relibc (our C library implementation) is now almost 100% Rust and much more complete
improving compatibility with POSIX/Linux libraries and programs
- Relibc (our C library implementation) is almost 100% Rust (excluding `libm`) and much more complete
- Improvements to the bootloader for more hardware compatibility
- Significant progress on the ARM64 (Aarch64) support, including partial support for Raspberry Pi 3B+
- Contain (Redox's sandbox driver) has been expanded and is available as a demo (`desktop-contain.toml`)
@@ -59,92 +104,74 @@ improving compatibility with POSIX/Linux libraries and programs.
- New build system options and improvements
- Lots of new documentation, lots of updates to reflect recent changes
- A [FAQ](https://www.redox-os.org/faq/) was added to the website
- A [developer FAQ](https://doc.redox-os.org/book/ch09-07-developer-faq.html) was added to the book
- The Redox software ports (recipes) system was almost completely documented
- The [Libraries and APIs](https://doc.redox-os.org/book/ch09-06-libraries-apis.html) page documented our system APIs and libraries
- The [Performance](https://doc.redox-os.org/book/ch09-10-performance.html) page documented how to profile Redox to improve the performance
- Some sections of the website FAQ were copied to the book for better reading and easy to find information
- [Feature comparison](https://doc.redox-os.org/book/ch04-11-features.html) tables were added to the book
- The [References](https://doc.redox-os.org/book/ch09-08-references.html) page documents the best references to learn Rust, OS development and computer science
- Our [porting strategy](https://www.redox-os.org/news/porting-strategy/) was explained
- Lots of content was added to the [Redox Book](https://doc.redox-os.org/book/) for developers that want to help with porting,
including a [Developer FAQ](https://doc.redox-os.org/book/ch09-07-developer-faq.html), [Libraries and APIs](https://doc.redox-os.org/book/ch09-06-libraries-apis.html), [educational content](https://doc.redox-os.org/book/ch09-08-references.html) and many other topics
- Our [development priorities](https://www.redox-os.org/news/development-priorities-2023-09/) and [porting strategy](https://www.redox-os.org/news/porting-strategy/) were explained
## Stability and Performance Improvements
Jeremy Soller and 4lDO2 have made massive improvements to stability and security, fixed many bugs, from easy to very hard, and added several new crates and components to encapsulate common elements.
Jeremy Soller and 4lDO2 have made huge improvements to stability and security, fixed many bugs, from easy to very hard, and added several new crates and components to encapsulate common elements.
We would like to thank 4lDO2 a lot for his massive work to improve the kernel and user-space daemons.
Some of his work includes:
- paging and memory management
- scheme deamon API encapsulation and refactoring
- process lifecycle and signal management (our NLnet project)
- context switching performance improvements
- implementing the "Stable ABI" strategy (phase I - kernel ABI versioning)
- and being a key resource for the Redox community
- Paging and memory management
- Scheme deamon API encapsulation and refactoring
- Process lifecycle and signal management (our NLnet project)
- Context switching performance improvements
- Implementing the "Stable ABI" strategy (phase I - kernel ABI versioning)
- Being a key resource for the Redox community
You can read about parts of 4lDO2's journey to improve the kernel in the following posts:
- [RSoC: on-demand paging](https://www.redox-os.org/news/kernel-8/)
- [RSoC: on-demand paging II](https://www.redox-os.org/news/kernel-9/)
- [Significant performance and correctness improvements to the kernel](https://www.redox-os.org/news/kernel-10/)
Jeremy rarely write posts and prefer to contribute in silence and report the progress later in the Matrix community.
- [Towards userspaceification of POSIX - part I: signal handling and IO](https://www.redox-os.org/news/kernel-11/)
## Drivers and Boot
Jeremy, 4lDO2 and bjorn3 all worked on improving drivers and boot, and several other people made important contributions.
Some of bjorn3's contributions include:
- Improved boot correctness for UEFI
- Improvements and bug fixes for many PCI/PCIe drivers
- Removing all the old format paths and replacing them with the new format
- General code cleanup and update of drivers
- Move the driver folders to categories
Many thanks to bjorn3 and all our driver contributors!
## Software Updates
Our toolchains received some updates and currently our Rust, C and C++ toolchains are all recent versions,
which significantly improves compatibility when porting other Linux/POSIX and Rust software.
We also updated important cross-platform libraries and improved the build process for programs that depend on those libraries,
greatly simplifying the job of porting applications.
## Rust-first Program Porting!
We focus on Rust programs as they are easier to port.
Ribbon created WIP ports for hundreds of emerging Rust programs in 2023,
and many are working with no modification.
## C/C++ Programs
Ribbon also created WIP ports for classic and widely-used C/C++ programs and libraries, he focused to package the most used (and best) programs of the Linux/BSD world.
Currently there are around 1,700 work-in-progress software ports, we need to write cross-compilation scripts and port/update some libraries to make them work.
## Relibc Improvements
The Redox contributors improved relibc a lot, from new functions to important bug fixes.
This increased our software compatibility and fixed many programs, from Rust to C/C++
## Better ARM Support
## Better ARM64 Support
uvnn cleaned and improved our ARM support a lot, we would like to thank his massive work in 2023.
The contributor uvnn cleaned and improved our ARM64 support a lot, we would like to thank his massive work in 2023.
Ivan Tan got Redox to boot on the Raspberry Pi 3 B+,
and helped us improve the build tools to support multiple Raspberry Pi devices and other ARM platforms.
ARM is a different challenge than x86_64, because there is little standardization of hardware platforms.
We hope to get Redox running on more ARM hardware in the future.
We hope to get Redox running on more ARM64 hardware in the future.
Jeremy also improved the ARM support to the level where we can start the Orbital session on the QEMU emulation.
## Better USB Support!
## A Note about USB Support
USB support is under heavy development and is a key feature for us, but it did not quite make the cut for this release.
We hope to have an update for USB HID in the near future,
which will provide support for USB mouse and keyboard, as well as game controllers.
This will be followed by USB hub support, which is mandatory, as many motherboards route some or all USB ports through
an internal hub.
Then we will start work on USB storage.
Jeremy and 4lDO2 improved our USB support to the level where most USB HID devices will work!
Mouse and keyboard support, game controllers and similar devices are now supported.
And special thanks to new contributor Tim Finnegan for key emergency improvements just before the release,
including hot-plugging support, port numbering fixes and USB 2 vs USB 3 protocol differences.
Thanks to Jeremy and 4lDO2 for their work on this, and special thanks to new contributor Tim Finnegan for his emergency work
to try to squeeze this in under the wire.
Note that many computers route their ports through an internal hub, so some ports (maybe all of them) may not work for you.
Hub support is next on the agenda, so hopefully we will support your computer soon, if we don't already!
Watch for [News](https://redox-os.org/news/) about USB!
## VirtIO Support
@@ -162,11 +189,44 @@ many software tools.
The Rust and GCC toolchains are able to build basic programs, but with some limitations.
Self-hosting the build is high on our agenda, and these improvements have helped take a huge leap forward.
## Software Updates
Our toolchains received some updates and currently our Rust, C and C++ toolchains are all recent versions,
which significantly improves compatibility when porting other Linux/POSIX and Rust software.
We also updated important cross-platform libraries and improved the build process for programs that depend on those libraries,
greatly simplifying the job of porting applications.
## Rust-first Program Porting!
We focus on Rust programs as they are easier to port.
Ribbon created WIP ports for hundreds of emerging Rust programs in 2023,
and many are working with no modification.
## C/C++ Programs
Ribbon also created WIP ports for classic and widely-used C/C++ programs and libraries, he focused to package the most used (and best) programs of the Linux/BSD world.
Currently there are around 1,700 work-in-progress software ports, we need to write cross-compilation scripts and port/update some libraries to make them work.
## First HTTP Web Server
We ported our first HTTP web server, [Simple HTTP Server](https://github.com/TheWaWaR/simple-http-server), and served a website from Redox.
Thanks very much to contributor bpisch for his work on porting many difficult programs, and for this one in particular.
## Notable Programs
- Apache HTTP Server was ported and currently can serve a website on `localhost`
- RustPython was ported and is our first working Python interpreter implementation
- GNU Make was updated to a recent version
- The Lua interpreter was ported
- Perl 5 was ported
## Debugging Improvements
The process to debug the recipes of Rust programs was implemented and the debugging documentation was improved.
It's possible to enable the Rust debug symbols and get the backtrace from the build system.
## Build System Improvements
We would like to thank Ron Williams, bjorn3, Jeremy and 4lDO2 for their massive improvements to our build system configuration and tooling.
@@ -176,9 +236,9 @@ bjorn3 simplified our filesystem configuration system, reducing duplication and
## Documentation
Our documentation was improved massively thanks to Ron Williams and Ribbon. In 2024 we covered many missing things in the website and book, removed most of the obsolete information and documented almost all build system commands.
Our documentation was improved massively thanks to Ron Williams and Ribbon. In 2023-2024 we covered many missing things in the website and book, removed most of the obsolete information and documented almost all build system commands.
Ron Williams and Ribbon did a hard work to make our website and book extremely rich in information for end-users, Rust programming newbies and veterans, and operating system development newbies and veterans.
Ron Williams and Ribbon worked hard to make our website and book extremely rich in information for end-users, Rust programming newbies and veterans, and operating system development newbies and veterans.
Many other contributors offered help with corrections and clarity for both the book and the website.
We are glad to say that our website and book answer most of the end-user and developer questions about Redox.
@@ -209,11 +269,14 @@ We created the first in (hopefully) a series of videos showing many programs run
In 2023 we migrated from Mattermost to Matrix to fix some management problems, this big change helped us to improve many aspects of our community interaction.
The most important thing that Matrix fixed was the account creation approval for the chat and GitLab. Before Matrix you would need to wait the Mattermost approval of your account, but if the Mattermost email server went offline your account would never be approved, thus it was flooded with emails asking why their account was not approved, while Jeremy Soller didn't receive any emails.
In Matrix we fixed the account approval using the "Join Requests" room, where each new user request to join the Matrix space. The same applies for new GitLab accounts where each new contributor send its GitLab nickname on the "GitLab Approvals" room for approval.
The most important thing that Matrix fixed was the account creation approval for the chat and GitLab. In Matrix we are able to quickly do account approval using the "Join Requests" room, where each new user needs to request an invite to the Matrix space.
The same applies for new GitLab accounts where each new contributor sends their GitLab nickname on the "GitLab Approvals" room for approval.
This lets us minimize the number of spam accounts while still allowing everyone who wants to contribute to join easily.
You can read more about it on our [community announcements](https://www.redox-os.org/news/community-announcements-1/) post.
If you had problems to create an account on Mattermost in the past please try again in our Matrix chat.
## Discord
A Discord server has been an important request from the community because it's more convenient for many members.
@@ -225,72 +288,9 @@ Ribbon took the task and created the official Discord server. The Discord messag
This is our first release since the creation of the Redox Nonprofit!
The purpose of the Nonprofit is to help raise and manage funds for Redox development,
to support the community, and to support the Redox brand.
to support the community, and to support the Redox OS name.
We have board meetings every quarter, which are recorded, and our minutes and notes are available in the [Nonprofit repo](https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/nonprofit).
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## Images
It is recommended to try Redox OS in a virtual machine before trying on real hardware. See
the [supported hardware](https://www.redox-os.org/faq/#which-devices-does-redox-support) section for details on what
hardware to select for the best experience.
- Read [this](https://doc.redox-os.org/book/ch02-01-running-vm.html) page to learn how to run the Redox images in a virtual machine
- Read [this](https://doc.redox-os.org/book/ch02-02-real-hardware.html) page to learn how to run the Redox images on real hardware
- Read [this](https://doc.redox-os.org/book/ch02-03-installing.html) page to learn how to install Redox
### Demo
A 1536 MiB image containing the Orbital desktop environment as well as pre-installed demonstration programs.
- [Real Hardware Image](https://static.redox-os.org/releases/0.9.0/x86_64/redox_demo_x86_64_2024-09-06_1221_livedisk.iso.zst)
- [Virtual Machine Image](https://static.redox-os.org/releases/0.9.0/x86_64/redox_demo_x86_64_2024-09-06_1221_harddrive.img.zst)
The demo image includes these additional packages:
- [DOSBox](https://www.dosbox.com/) - A DOS emulator
- Games using PrBoom:
- DOOM (Shareware)
- [FreeDOOM](https://freedoom.github.io/)
- [Neverball and Neverputt](https://neverball.org/) - OpenGL games using LLVMPipe (performance may vary!)
- [orbclient](https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/orbclient) - An Orbital client demo
- [Periodic Table](https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/periodictable) - A program for viewing information about chemical elements
- [Terminal games](https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/games) - Command-line games
- [rodioplay](https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/rodioplay) - A FLAC/WAV music player
- [Sodium](https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/sodium): A vi-like text editor
- [sopwith](http://www.sopwith.org/): A classic PC air combat game
- syobonaction - A freeware platforming game
### Desktop
A 512 MiB image containing the Orbital desktop environment and some programs for common tasks. Use this if you want to download a smaller image.
- [Real Hardware](https://static.redox-os.org/releases/0.9.0/x86_64/redox_desktop_x86_64_2024-09-06_1221_livedisk.iso.zst)
- [Virtual Machine Image](https://static.redox-os.org/releases/0.9.0/x86_64/redox_desktop_x86_64_2024-09-06_1221_harddrive.img.zst)
### Server
A 512 MiB image containing only the command-line environment. Use this if the desktop image is not working well for you.
- [Real Hardware](https://static.redox-os.org/releases/0.9.0/x86_64/redox_server_x86_64_2024-09-06_1221_livedisk.iso.zst)
- [Virtual Machine Image](https://static.redox-os.org/releases/0.9.0/x86_64/redox_server_x86_64_2024-09-06_1221_harddrive.img.zst)
## Changes
There have been quite a lot of changes since 0.8.0. We have manually enumerated
@@ -305,6 +305,9 @@ The most important changes are shown below.
- The memory performance was improved a lot by the introduction of a buddy memory allocator (p2buddy)
- The CPU cost of many system calls was reduced a lot, improving the overral performance
- The `futex` implementation was improved
- The i686 and x86_64 code was cleaned and deduplicated
- The debugging code received fixes
- The kernel image became bootloader-agnostic
### RedoxFS
@@ -317,9 +320,24 @@ The most important changes are shown below.
- Virtually all system components migrated from `redox_syscall` to `libredox`, to allow an optimal unstable syscall ABI and eventually a stable userspace ABI
- The scheme path format is now converted at runtime (relibc/kernel) to avoid the patching of many libraries and programs, the Redox system interfaces are treated like the Linux target now
- The scheme cancellation was implemented to allow the file descriptors to be closed
- New user-space schemes were introduced
- Many improvements to the scheme interface
### Networking
- The MAC addresses handling was improved
### Orbital
- The winit support for client side decorations, hidden windows, maximization, and updating flags after window creation was implemented
- Videos and music can be played from GUI programs by a mouse double-click
- The Orbital visual was improved
### Ion Shell
- A LSP language server for the Ion's scripting language was implemented
### Programs
- A lot of new functions were added to relibc, improving the software compatibility
@@ -327,12 +345,29 @@ The most important changes are shown below.
- Many programs started to work
- More than 1700 programs and libraries were packaged (work-in-progress)
### Cookbook
- More recipes were converted to TOML
- All recipes were moved to categories
- ABI separation was added for some libraries
- Package policies were added to improve the quality of program packages
- A recipe for the Redox website was added
### Build System
- New recipe options
- The `disk=` option was implemented to select the storage interface
- An option to boot Redox from a NVMe interface was implemented
- A command to run multiple recipe operations was implemented
- New cleanup options
- New QEMU options
- New scripts
- A script to run multiple recipe operations on Cookbook categories was added
- A script to get the Rust backtrace was added
- A script to show the recipe location was added
- A script to show the recipe configuration file was added
- A script to show all recipe executables was added
- A script to show the recipe package size was added
- A script to automatically update Rust programs was added
- A script to show the current commit hash of the submodules and recipes was added
- A script to install Redox on `systemd-boot` as dual-boot was added
- A new filesystem configuration design was implemented, it helped us to deduplicate files and improved the flexbility a lot
- The `rust` submodule fetch was disabled, reducing the download time a lot
@@ -347,6 +382,8 @@ The most important changes are shown below.
- The RedoxFS features were documented
- The current security system was documented
- The "Quick Workflow" page for advanced testers and developers was added
- The instructions to run Redox on VirtualBox were documented
- Huge improvements and cleanup in almost all pages of the book
### Community
@@ -354,6 +391,22 @@ The most important changes are shown below.
- A moderation system was implemented
- A nonprofit organization was created to help the donation management
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## Changelog
As many changes happened it's not possible to write everything on this post, this section contains all commits since the 0.8.0 version generated by the [changelog](https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/redox/-/blob/master/changelog.sh) script:
@@ -366,10 +419,10 @@ As many changes happened it's not possible to write everything on this post, thi
- [ca-certificates](https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/ca-certificates/-/compare/b42b9c5...4df67f2)
- [contain](https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/contain/-/compare/42b381b...e6b8856)
- [coreutils](https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/coreutils/-/compare/690460d...b52a1b2)
- [cosmic-edit](https://github.com/pop-os/cosmic-edit) - new project
- [cosmic-files](https://github.com/pop-os/cosmic-files) - new project
- [cosmic-icons](https://github.com/pop-os/cosmic-icons) - new project
- [cosmic-term](https://github.com/pop-os/cosmic-term) - new project
- [cosmic-edit](https://github.com/pop-os/cosmic-edit) - New project
- [cosmic-files](https://github.com/pop-os/cosmic-files) - New project
- [cosmic-icons](https://github.com/pop-os/cosmic-icons) - New project
- [cosmic-term](https://github.com/pop-os/cosmic-term) - New project
- [curl](https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/curl/-/compare/8b9c5bef9...f50c28394)
- [drivers](https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/drivers/-/compare/fc4a69c...897866d)
- [escalated](https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/escalated/-/compare/7e02fe4...06fe299)