duckOS

Yet another hobby x86 UNIX-like operating system written in C and C++. Features a dynamically linked userspace, an in-house c standard library, and more! And yes, it runs DOOM.

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C++

duckOS

duckOS

A hobby UNIX-like OS with a graphical window manager and applications for x86-based computers.

Try duckOS

A disk image of duckOS can be downloaded from the artifacts of the duckOS GitHub workflow. This can then be virtualized or emulated using QEMU or your software of choice.

Alternatively, thanks to the v86 project by copy, you can try a version of duckOS in your browser. This is a lot slower running it locally, and the build will usually be a bit out-of-date. You can try it here!

Screenshots

Screenshot

What’s working

  • Booting off of the primary master IDE (PATA) hard drive on both emulators and real hardware (tested on a Dell Optiplex 320 with a Pentium D)
  • PATA DMA or PIO access (force PIO by using the use_pio grub kernel argument)
  • A virtual filesystem with device files (/dev/hda, /dev/zero, /dev/random, /dev/fb, /dev/tty, etc)
    • The root filesystem is ext2, and is writeable
  • Disk caching
  • Dynamic linking with shared libraries
  • A Bochs/Qemu/VirtualBox/Multiboot video driver (640x480x32bpp)
  • A window manager / compositor called pond
  • Various GUI applications
  • Ports of binutils and gcc
  • More!

Future plans

Stuff that may happen soon™.

  • Revamp virtual memory system so it’s not as error-prone and easier to debug (named regions, fix race conditions, faster allocation, etc.) Done!
  • Revamp kernel IPC system to be more efficient (Replace SocketFS with something like Mach or MINIX’s grant-based IPC)
  • Better font rendering (Vector fonts, different sizes, etc.)
  • Finish porting GCC, self-host
  • More s t a b i l i t y and s p e e d
  • A better filesystem cache implementation that can free memory when needed and periodically flushes writes
  • More kernel & userspace unit tests
  • Better documentation of kernel, libraries, and applications
  • Some more kernel & userspace debugging tools so I don’t have to spend hours knee-deep in the qemu debugger whenever a segfault happens due to a simple bug that could’ve been avoided with some extra coffee in my system

Lofty goals

Maybe someday.

  • Multiprocessor (multicore) support
  • x64 / ARM support (?)
  • Slowly transition various modules from the kernel to userspace (ie microkernel)
  • Add Rust into the mix (?)
  • Network support

Services

The code for these can be found in services.

  • Init (/bin/init): The init system for duckOS.
  • Pond (/bin/pond): The window manager / compositor for duckOS.
  • Quack (/bin/quack): The sound server for duckOS.

GUI Programs

The code for these can be found in programs

  • Calculator (/apps/calculator.app): A basic calculator.
  • Terminal (/apps/terminal.app): A libui-based terminal application.
  • System Monitor (/apps/monitor.app): A basic system monitor showing memory and CPU utilization.
  • 4 In a Row (/apps/4inarow.app): A basic four-in-a-row game. Play with two players or against the computer.
  • Sandbar (/bin/sandbar): A basic “taskbar” that displays a row of buttons at the bottom of the screen to launch applications.
  • Files (/apps/files.app): A rudimentary file explorer application.
  • Viewer (apps/viewer.app): A basic image viewer.
  • Lib3d Demo (apps/3demo.app): A demo for the lib3d library. Displays a cube by default; can be used to view obj files.
  • Editor (/apps/editor.app): A basic app to edit text files.

CLI Programs

The code for these can be found in programs.

  • ls (/bin/ls): Lists the entries in the current or given directory.
  • cat (/bin/cat): Writes the contents of a file to stdout.
  • cp (/bin/cp): Copies a file.
  • mv (/bin/mv): Moves a file.
  • pwd (/bin/pwd): Prints the current working directory.
  • mkdir (/bin/mkdir): Creates a new directory.
  • echo (/bin/echo): Prints the arguments given to it separated by spaces to stdout.
  • rm (/bin/rm): Removes a file.
  • ln (/bin/ln): Creates a hard or symbolic link to a file or directory.
  • rmdir (/bin/rmdir): Removes a directory.
  • touch (/bin/touch): Updates the access/modification times of a file or creates it if it doesn’t exist.
  • truncate (/bin/truncate): Resizes a file.
  • chmod (/bin/chmod): Changes the mode of a file.
  • chown (/bin/chown): Changes the owner of a file.
  • free (/bin/free): Shows the amount of total, used, and free memory (use the -h flag for human-readable numbers).
  • ps (/bin/ps): Shows the currently running processes.
  • dsh (/bin/dsh): A basic userspace shell with support for pipes (|) and redirections (>/>>).
    • There is only support for one redirection at a time right now.
  • open (/bin/open): A utility to open files and applications from the command line.
  • play (/bin/play): Plays audio files.
  • profile (/bin/profile): Profiles a running application and outputs a FlameGraph / SpeedScope compatible file.

Programs that take arguments will provide you with the correct usage when you run them without arguments.

Libraries

  • libc: The standard C library.
  • libm: The math portion of the standard C library.
  • libpond: The library used for interfacing with the pond window manager / compositor.
  • libgraphics: A library which provides a few utilities for working with graphics such as image format loading.
  • libui: A UI framework for applications.
  • libterm: A framework for handling terminals.
  • libduck: A library containing commonly used classes and utilities, such as argument and configuration file parsing.
  • libriver: An IPC library not dissimilar to D-Bus, which provides a framework for remote function calls and data passing.
  • libapp: A library providing methods to retrieve information about installed and running applications.
  • libsys: Provides higher-level C++ abstractions for retrieving system information, namely from procFS.
  • libsound: Provides a framework for audio applications and interfacing with the sound server, Quack.
  • lib3d: Provides basic software 3D rendering functionality.
  • libmatrix: Provides matrix math utilities.
  • libexec: Provides ELF support.
  • libdebug: Provides debugging functionality.

Ports

Ports can be installed by running ports.sh supplied with the desired port as an argument. The required dependencies will also be built and installed.

Building / Running

Contributing

Credits

License