Tomasz Gajewski
Johannes Kliemann
Guido Witmond
Valery Sedletski
Cedric Degea
Daniel Collins-
Bringing Rust back to Genode
Initial support for the Rust programming language was contributed to Genode release 16.05 by Waylon Cude, but it failed to get traction and was removed again with release 20.05. With the 23.05 release, we bring back Rust support from a different angle. Continue...
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Sneak peak: dynamic CPU frequency steering with Sculpt 23.04
With the Sculpt 23.04 release an proof-of-concept extension is available for managing frequency, power and performance features of your Intel and AMD CPUs on Sculpt. Continue...
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What's new in Sculpt OS 23.04
With Sculpt OS 23.04 being in the wild since almost two weeks, it's time to put the spotlight on the most prominent changes. Continue...
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Firefox & Thunderbird VM for Sculpt 23.04
With the Sculpt 23.04 release several ready-to-use VMs powered by Seoul VMM got updated to the latest version. Continue...
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Pine fun - App development or the quest for an SDK
In this article we will describe our approach and reasoning of how we want to support app development on the PinePhone for Genode enthusiasts. Continue...
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Audio pkgs with a twist for Sculpt
Managing the audio driver and mixer is somewhat involved as the generic pkgs require the use of a launcher for run-time changes. The “pkgs with config” mend this by storing the config in a file-system. Continue...
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Goa tool under the umbrella of Genode Labs
The Goa project was started in 2019 with the ambition to streamline the workflows of application developers targeting Genode, and Sculpt OS in particular. I maintained and improved the tool off-and-on as a personal project over the years. Now, coordinated with the release of Sculpt OS 23.04, Goa has become an official Genode-Labs project. Continue...
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First system image of mobile Sculpt OS
At FOSDEM 2023, I'm going to introduce the mobile version of Sculpt OS at the "FOSS on mobile" developer room - the perfect opportunity to kick off a first public field test. Continue...
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Genode and RISC OS continued
I am a RISC OS user and I love RISC OS. Continue...
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Mobile user interface, not in the face!
When approaching the user interface for a Genode-based phone, we started with the vague idea to mirror time-tested user-interface paradigms established in the worlds of Android and iOS, but we ultimately diverged from this beaten track. Instead, we took the opportunity to reflect the unique security architecture of our operating system at the user-interface level, giving the user an extremely strong sense of control over the device. This article presents our rationale and the initial scope of functionality. Continue...
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Getting Fujitsu U7411 up and running: Network Boot
Earlier this year, the Genode team met the challenge to bring our OS to recent Intel Gen11 hardware, more precisely we faced the task to fully enable the Fujitsu LIFEBOOK U7411. But first things first: How to prepare the notebook for remote booting without sufficient legacy BIOS support? Continue...
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How to install a fresh VM on Sculpt
I recently needed to set up a new Linux VM on top of Sculpt. Since I encountered a few pitfalls along the way, I'd like to share my experiences and provide up-to-date instructions. Continue...
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Zynq guide #2 - enabling the programmable logic
After the basic board-enablement covered by the first article of this series, it’s eventually time to focus on the distinct feature of the Zynq-SoC - the FPGA aka programmable logic (PL). Continue...
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Pine fun - How low can we go...
One of the most pressing practical concerns of mobile phones is battery lifetime. We wondered, what can we expect from a Genode-based PinePhone? To find out, we took our custom SCP firmware as instrument to poke all the dials and knobs and we could find deep in the device. Continue...
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Creating a captive portal VM for Sculpt
Some 3 years ago, I worked on a minimal and disposable VM for Sculpt that is capable of viewing the landing page of a local network. In many networks, this is necessary in order to gain internet access and therefore even before being able to deploy third-party packages in Sculpt. This article is a briefly polished version of the tutorial I created back then. But it should still apply to newer Sculpt versions. It uses VirtualBox 5 and with TinyCore guest running Firefox. Continue...
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Identifying network-throughput bottlenecks with trace recording
I recently launched an investigation in order to identify bottlenecks in Genode’s network packet throughput. This endeavour sparked off a new tool, the trace recorder, for recording component traces in Genode that I want to present to you in this article. Continue...
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USB smart cards via PKCS#11
With the 22.08 release, Genode gains support for accessing USB smart-card devices like typical authentication and HSM keys via PKCS#11. Continue...
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Pine fun - Darling I bricked my internal storage
I somehow managed to brick my Manjaro distribution running on internal storage (eMMC) on my PinePhone. So, how do I re-install or install Genode in the future? Continue...
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Bringing WireGuard to Genode
WireGuard is a protocol that implements encrypted, virtual private networks (VPNs) with focus on ease-of-use, a very small attack surface, and high performance. For quite some time now, we were keen to support WireGuard also in Genode as a native standard solution for peer-to-peer encryption. With Genode 22.05, we could finally accomplish that goal. Continue...
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Pine fun - Telephony (Roger, Roger?)
In this article we will describe how we enabled basic telephony support on the PinePhone. Continue...
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Pine fun - Cutting Linux-driver competencies
The previous episodes of the article series covered the challenges of transplanting complex driver code from the Linux kernel into Genode components. Once running happily in its new habitat, however, the driver code needs a heavy dose of domestication. This article shows how to curb the driver code from the overarching access of power, reset, pin, and clock controls. Continue...
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VirtualBox6 3D acceleration (experimental)
With Sculpt release 22.04 we enabled experimental 3D acceleration support within Genode's VirtualBox6 port. This short guide describes how to try it out. Continue...
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Darling, I FORTHified my PinePhone!
This is my experience story behind Genode's forthcoming custom firmware for the PinePhone's AR100 system-control processor (SCP). It makes a case for using Forth for implementing SCP functionality and describes the process of bringing Forth to the OpenRISC instruction-set architecture. Continue...
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Pine fun - Touchscreen
On our mission to enable the PinePhone hardware for Genode piece by piece, let's turn our attention to the touchscreen device, which is the gateway to interactive system scenarios. Continue...
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Writing a VFS plugin for network-packet access
Despite Genode already providing a socket API that is backed by two different Virtual File System (VFS) plugins, we have no mechanism for sending/receiving raw Ethernet frames via the libc yet. In Linux and FreeBSD, the kernel provides virtual TAP devices as an interface for this purpose. We can easily emulate this interface by implementing a new VFS plugin. In this article, I will share my experiences with this particular plugin and provide some insights in the internals of the VFS. Continue...
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Setting Up Genode developing environment for Hyperbola OS
Hyperbola OS is an OS where all softwares are critically checked for freedom compatibility. It is based on Arch Linux and is moving towards OpenBSD's kernel. I have created a package for Hyperbola OS which should work for all Arch based OSes. Basically, you can install all dependencies and build a Genode toolchain automatically with the following command with root permissions: Continue...
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Genode's Browser Odyssey
This article tells the twisted story behind Genode's native web browser, which is one of the most prominent achievements of the project during the past year. It is going to cover our motivation behind this undertaking, the rationale behind the choice of the browser engine, and many technical tidbits. Continue...
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Definitely, maybe finished support for iMX8MQ Vivante GPU
In this series of posts I am going to elaborate on porting the etnaviv driver to Genode and what this effort did entail. The fourth and for now last entry is about wrapping the project up and along the lines mending one or the other dent - namely increasing the performance. Continue...
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Pine fun - Display
Having switched the development workflow from the Pine-A64-LTS board to the real deal - the PinePhone - in the previous article, it is time to turn our attention to the arguably most challenging parts of the hardware, namely the display subsystem. Continue...
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Let's make -Wconversion our new friend!
Ten years ago, Christian Helmuth opened a Genode issue with the suggestion to enable warnings about implicit type conversions by default. Now that this issue has almost finished primary school, the time is ripe to attend it. Continue...
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Zynq guide #1 - getting started
This is the first article of a series about the Zynq-7000 SoC from Xilinx. Though not a particularly new SoC, it is still quite unique as it features an FPGA in conjunction with a Cortex-A9 CPU. This opens a bunch of interesting application scenarios since the FPGA can act as a customisable co-processor or hardware accelerator. In this article, I will guide you through the very basic board bring-up to get a first sign of life from this hardware with Genode. Continue...
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An Attempt to avoid C++ exceptions
Genode employs C++ exceptions for propagating errors, which is true to the language. However, the use and the mechanics of C++ exceptions comes with its own bag of problems. The upcoming Genode version 21.11 introduces a new error-handling pattern that will hopefully give us relief. Continue...
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Sculpt OS 21.10 on ARM
Beside the x86 architecture, the new Sculpt OS 21.10 can also be used on top of the MNT Reform 2 and i.MX 8MQ EVK board. Although those ARMv8-based boards are not yet officially supported, you can give it a first try. Continue...
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Test driving Sculpt's 3D support
With Sculpt release 21.10 we revived Genode's Intel GPU multiplexer which we demonstrated at FOSDEM 2018. At the time we supported only the Broadwell platform and after many bugfixes, the enablement of further Intel Graphics Devices (Skylake, Kaby Lake, ...), the update of the Mesa 3D library to version 21.0.0, and many new features, we are happy to announce that 3D acceleration support on Sculpt OS has been dramatically enhanced. Continue...
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Genode's VFS #3: Networking
Over the past years, the Virtual File System (VFS) has played an ever more important role in Genode-based systems. Its applications cover not only access to conventional file systems but also font servers, network stacks, cryptographic devices, debugging facilities, and more. Yet documentation about the VFS is quite scattered and context-specific. In this article series I'd like to gather simple examples that explain how to use most of the plugins and utilities around Genode's VFS. Continue...
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Genode and RISC OS integration.
This is the story of running two full systems at the same time on different cpu cores. Continue...
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Pine fun - Booting Genode on the PinePhone
Until now, my exploration of the Allwinner A64 SoC was mainly concerned with the Pine-A64-LTS board, which offers developer conveniences like booting over the network, or easily accessible reset and GPIO pins. Now, it's time to switch gears by moving the development workflow over to the PinePhone. Continue...
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Spunky #6: CPU device driver
In this article series I illustrate the development of an Ada kernel for Genode named Spunky. The approach is to first successively translate parts from the C++ base-hw kernel and temporarily integrate them with the remaining C++ parts. Once, the whole Kernel made it to Ada, Spunky can be further developed independently to benefit from the characteristics of Ada or even SPARK. This time, I'll talk about the port of the CPU device driver and about the use of the GNAT binder for the Spunky main package. Continue...
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Pine fun - Networking
This article walks through the challenge of porting a network driver from the Linux kernel to Genode. It thereby exemplifies Genode's device-driver environment approach for the reuse of unmodified Linux kernel code, touches crucial technicalities of the Linux kernel, and provides practical clues. Continue...
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Experimental Gpu session for the etnaviv GPU driver
In this series of posts I am going to elaborate on porting the etnaviv driver to Genode and what this effort did entail. The third post is about replacing the ad hoc Drm session with an adapted Gpu session. Continue...
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MNT Reform 2 - Use Sculpt OS on SD-card
There is a new, updated Sculpt OS version available for the MNT Reform 2. It features a fully functional, and more performant SD-card driver. It enables you to persistently install Sculpt OS and additional depot packages on your MNT Reform 2. Moreover, the new driver support enables you to exchange the SD-card dynamically at runtime. Continue...
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Mobile networking in Sculpt
Last year, ssumpf added basic LTE modem support to Genode. Since many Sculpt-compatible laptops come with integrated LTE modems already or can be easily upgraded, I started a little side project to equip Sculpt with easy-to-deploy mobile networking support. In this article, I summarise how to reap the fruits of this project. As a side effect, it showcases the varied possibilities of component compositions. Continue...
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Genode's VFS #2: Storage and interconnections
Over the past years, the Virtual File System (VFS) has played an ever more important role in Genode-based systems. Its applications cover not only access to conventional file systems but also font servers, network stacks, cryptographic devices, debugging facilities, and more. Yet documentation about the VFS is quite scattered and context-specific. In this article series I'd like to gather simple examples that explain how to use most of the plugins and utilities around Genode's VFS. Continue...
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Experimental porting of the etnaviv Mesa driver
In this series of posts I am going to elaborate on porting the etnaviv driver to Genode and what this effort did entail. The second post is about dealing with the Mesa driver and briefly skims over the process. Continue...
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Spunky #5: IRQ controller driver
In this article series I illustrate the development of an Ada kernel for Genode named Spunky. The approach is to first successively translate parts from the C++ base-hw kernel and temporarily integrate them with the remaining C++ parts. Once, the whole Kernel made it to Ada, Spunky can be further developed independently to benefit from the characteristics of Ada or even SPARK. This time, I talk about my personal learning curve regarding low-level programing with Ada and the porting of the IRQ controller driver. Continue...
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Experimental porting of the etnaviv Linux DRM driver
In this series of posts I am going to elaborate on porting the etnaviv driver to Genode and what this effort did entail. The first post is about dealing with the Linux DRM driver and briefly skims over the process. Continue...
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Genode's VFS #1: The basics
Over the past years, the Virtual File System (VFS) has played an ever more important role in Genode-based systems. Its applications cover not only access to conventional file systems but also font servers, network stacks, cryptographic devices, debugging facilities, and more. Yet documentation about the VFS is quite scattered and context-specific. In this article series I'd like to gather simple examples that explain how to use most of the plugins and utilities around Genode's VFS. Continue...
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Linux device driver ports - Choose compilation units
In my first blog post of this series, I've described the motivation to break new grounds in porting Linux drivers to Genode. Moreover, you've seen how to re-use the headers and configuration of a pre-built Linux kernel. In the last blog post, we continued our journey with a new helper tool to generate missing Linux kernel function definitions automatically. This time I'll continue with how to choose the absolutely necessary compilation units for a given driver resp. subsystem. Continue...
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Dynamically changing keyboard remapping rules
When setting up my Sculpt-based work environment, my intent was to run an unmodified Linux installation as VM in Sculpt. Being strongly accustomed to i3wm, I quickly noticed the lack of the Windows key that is used for controlling the i3 window manager but which is intercepted by Sculpt for the same job. A bit reluctant to change my habits and retrain new key combos, I needed a better solution. With advice from Norman, I came to a pretty neat solution that I would like to share with you. Continue...
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Native screenshot component
Martin had recently expressed to me that a native screenshot component using the Capture session would be really helpful. Moreover, when writing the VNC server article, I also encountered the need to make a screenshot myself. As I already got in touch with the Capture session, I briefly switched contexts to bring the screenshot component into being right away. Continue...
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Remote desktop solution for Sculpt via VNC
Thanks to alex-ab, we already have a native VNC client available in Sculpt to connect to VMs remotely. How nice would it be to also bring a VNC server to Sculpt and thereby enable remote desktop scenarios? In this article, I want to share my experiences made when developing a VNC server application with Goa and ultimately present a ready-to-use package for Sculpt. Continue...
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Spunky #4: Kernel Timing
In this article series I illustrate the development of an Ada kernel for Genode named Spunky. The approach is to first successively translate parts from the C++ base-hw kernel and temporarily integrate them with the remaining C++ parts. Once, the whole Kernel made it to Ada, Spunky can be further developed independently to benefit from the characteristics of Ada or even SPARK. This time, I talk about the translation of timeout scheduling and the underlying timer driver. Continue...
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MNT Reform 2 - Run Sculpt OS
It has been a while since I started to do the first steps of porting Genode to the MNT Reform 2. Continue...
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A short guide to the Timer Session interface
In my last article about timing, I presented the Timeout framework - the most preferable solution when you want to do timing in native Genode applications. However, I also pointed out that the Timeout framework isn't always the best solution and promised to explain in detail when and how to fall back to the Timer session in this case. That's what this article is about. Continue...
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Pine fun - Pruning device trees
We briefly touched the treasure trove called device trees in the previous article. To leverage the wealth of information for the development and porting of Genode device drivers, this article introduces a handy new tool set. Continue...
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Introducing the File Vault
The File Vault is a graphical user interface that aims for making it easy for everyone to create and manage encrypted file systems in Genode. A beta version of the vault was just published for Sculpt 21.03b in my depot mstein -> Tools -> file vault. Therefore, I'll give a short overview of the program. Continue...
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Do you 🖤 your 💻?
Once in a while, I come across a website that uses unicode emoji for illustration. Github is one of these that uses such symbols in the sidebar of the notification view. However, if you do not have a font installed that contains the corresponding glyphs, you will only see those beautiful inexpressive boxes ⌷ (or even whitespace). This is the case for the falkon browser packaged for Sculpt. Yet, it is pretty easy to augment it with emoji support. Continue...
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Pine fun - Taking Linux out for a Walk
In preparation of the porting of drivers from Linux to Genode, we have to gather knowledge about the drivers' natural habitat. This article goes through the steps of building a custom Linux system that is tailored to a driver of our choice. Continue...
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A short guide to the Timeout framework
Last week, a colleage of mine asked me on how to use the native interface for userland timing in Genode, the Timeout framework. So, I thought it would be worth sharing this knowledge in form of a short article. Continue...
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Troublesome guest additions
On my journey towards transitioning to Sculpt as a day-to-day OS, I already desribed how to access an existing Linux installation in my previous article. Since I recently struggled with installing the VirtualBox Guest Additions, I want to share my findings with a short follow up article. Continue...
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USB stick passthrough in Sculpt 21.03
Recently, I wanted to use an USB stick in my Linux VM in Sculpt 21.03 and I couldn't figure out anymore how to do it. I was surprised that I struggled to find information on this topic and so I wrote this short tutorial in order to make it easier for others. Continue...
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Pine fun - One Platform driver to rule them all
In the previous article we exercised direct-device access from user-level components. In Genode systems beyond such toy scenarios, however, it would be irresponsible to follow the path of allowing arbitrary drivers to access any device willy-nilly. Our call for discipline and rigidity is answered by the (rising drum roll) platform driver. Continue...
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Starting an existing Linux installation from Sculpt
In the last years, I've had an on-and-off relationship with Genode mostly because other commitments kept me from spending time with the framework. Although I was keen on using Sculpt as a day-to-day OS, I didn't manage to make a smooth transition. Initially, my idea was to use my existing Linux system and install Sculpt in parallel. Ideally, I would be able to start my existing Linux system in Virtualbox on Sculpt. My first efforts were stalled by some EFI boot issues and due to a lack of time this idea slumbered for about two years...until recently. Continue...
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Making the MNT Reform my own
This is the little embarrassing story of my first customization of the MNT Reform laptop that I received just two weeks ago. Continue...
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Linux device driver ports - Generate dummy function definitions
In my last blog post I've described the motivation to break new grounds in porting Linux drivers to Genode. Moreover, you've seen how to re-use the headers and configuration of a pre-built Linux kernel. This time we'll continue by invoking the very first initialization routines. Therefore, a new little helper tool gets introduced to generate missing Linux kernel function definitions automatically. Continue...
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Performance analysis made easy
Identifying performance bottlenecks of Genode's low-level system components remains a tedious effort. For this reason, it is usually not practiced as a routine during development but only under strong pressure. Conversely, performance optimizations may be implemented without evidence for their presumed effect, increasing complexity for rather intangible benefits. Now a new utility presented in this posting comes to the rescue. Continue...
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Linux device driver ports - Breaking new ground
In my following blog post(s) I want to elaborate on recent attemtps to renew and enhance the way Linux device drivers are ported to Genode. This is highly experimental work. So be warned if you try to follow the same approach: it hasn't proved its worth yet. But first let me explain why to break new grounds at all. Continue...
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A C++ inlining anecdote
During my recent work on the management component of Sculpt OS, the compile time of this particular component started to bother me. Moreover, the size of the resulting binary raised my eyebrows. So I took a closer look. Continue...
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What's new in Sculpt OS 21.03
The just released version 21.03 of Sculpt OS becomes resilient against several classes of driver failures, improves the responsiveness and convenience of the user interface, and makes recent Genode features like CPU-load balancing and screen capturing available to Sculpt components. Let's have a look at the most prominent changes. Continue...
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Pine fun - Device access from the user level
Genode's peripheral device drivers live outside the kernel and have the form of regular user-level components. This article presents how the device-hardware access works under these conditions, while taking the general-purpose I/O pins of the Pine-A64-LTS single-board computer as playground. Continue...
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Pine fun - Kernel packaging and testing
With our toes still a bit frozen from testing the waters of the user land, we now take the remaining steps towards a cultivated Genode life, largely automating our work flow, packaging the kernel, and testing the platform like there is no tomorrow. Continue...
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Genode on RISC-V - an Update
RISC-V support on Genode has been around for five years by now. Our initial RISC-V port to the base-hw kernel reached back to the privileged ISA specification 1.7 while the current stable version is already at 1.11. Therefore, we have experienced quite a big part of the RISC-V evolution and generally appreciate the direction RISC-V is heading. Continue...
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Pine fun - Excursion to the user land
Equipped with the rudimentary debugging skills presented in the previous article, it is time to conquer the remaining stumbling blocks on our way to the user land. Continue...
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Pine fun - How did we come here?
Some kids from the city once told me about programs called "debuggers". They also use a technology named "green light" to cross the streets. City kids. As we are still far away from urban territory, we are in need of the rural ways of debugging. What are our options? Continue...
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Pine fun - Kernel skeleton
Of the several kernels supported by the Genode OS framework, the so-called base-hw kernel is our go-to microkernel for ARM-based devices. Section Execution on bare hardware of the Genode Foundations book goes into detail about its underlying software design. This article describes the process of porting this kernel to a new board, specifically the Pine-A64-LTS single-board computer. Continue...
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Mobile Tech Demo
Recently, a bunch of posts on this blog platform circled around Genode seriously entering the mobile world. Be it the enabling of a touchscreen, LTE modem support, or the first steps to bring Genode to the Pinephone. But a mobile platform doesn't have different technical requirements only, like support for certain peripherals. It varies in the way people are interacting with it, which needs to be considered in its GUI. To experiment in this direction a bit on the one hand, and to integrate several of the recent new components available in Genode in a sound prototype was the motivation behind the tech demo that is described in the following. Continue...
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Pine fun - Bare-metal serial output
For low-level kernel-bootstrapping work, we need a primitive way to print debug messages over a serial connection. This article goes through the steps of executing custom code on bare-metal hardware with no kernel underneath, and attaining serial output by poking UART device registers directly. Continue...
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Warming up for some Pine fun
I recently got my hands on a PinePhone along with a Pine64 board and have the aspiration to bring Sculpt OS to this platform. This is a very welcome opportunity to document the process of such a porting effort. Continue...
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LTE modem support for Genode
One of Genode's visions is to support smartphones in the no so distant future. After we took care of touchscreen input the second most important feature of a phone is to drive modems in order to provide network connectivity. Modern modems are usually connected via an M.2 slot to the SoC of the phone and because protocols like LTE have real-time demands ship their own real-time capable operating system. Continue...
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CPU-load balancing
In the following article the current state of the load balacing topic, as scheduled by the 2020 roadmap, will be described. Additionally, the feature can be test driven by a extended Sculpt 20.08 based image and a video recording is available. Continue...
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"U can't touch this"
With our on-going effort to add more and more Genode support for NXP's i.MX 8M Quad EVK SoC, which is for example deployed by the Librem 5 smartphone from Purism, it became time to add touchscreen input to the list of Genode supported features, because a phone without a touchscreen would not be of much use, would it be? Continue...
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Genode development container
In the past, the question was asked several times: why doesn't Genode provide a development container, e.g., a docker image. The question was raised by some community members, as well as people interested in giving Genode a try. They did not want to install an additional compiler toolchain and a bunch of tools and thereby pollute their daily working environment. Continue...
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What's new in Sculpt OS 20.08
The version 20.08 of Sculpt OS has just become available. Let's have a look at the most interesting changes and new features. Continue...
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Genode Community Summer 2020
Update: Due to the uncertain situation with the Corona virus and the low number of participation requests so far, the Genode Community Summmer 2020 will not take place! Continue...
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Streaming Android to Genode using Scrcpy
In this post I report about the work of bringing Scrcpy to Genode. Additionally, a short video demonstrates the outcome of the undertaking. Continue...
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MNT Reform 2 - First Steps
Recently, I was honored for receiving the first beta MNT Reform 2.0 shipped by MNT Research GmbH. This is an interesting laptop project produced by a team of three people: Lukas Hartmann (electronics / software design), Ana Beatriz Albertini Dantas (product / industrial design), and Greta Melnik (sleeve design / SMD assembly). Continue...
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Re-stacking the GUI stack
As I am currently right in the middle of a far-reaching rework of Genode's low-level GUI stack, I'd like to share a bit of background behind this work: the Why, the What, and the How. Continue...
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Micro benchmarks - what can possibly go wrong
From time to time I need to compare execution times and memory throughput in between Genode's hw-kernel and the baseline (typically using Linux) regarding one of the hardware platforms supported by Genode. Mostly this is done when the hw-kernel is ported to new hardware, or we experience unusual workloads on a platform, like recently when investigating a non-working USB driver on Raspberry Pi 1. Continue...
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The CBE series #4 - Video "A Linux VM on a CBE device"
There is now an online video of the tutorial "The CBE series #3 - A Linux VM on a CBE device" available on Youtube. It goes through the whole tutorial starting with a fresh Sculpt 20.02 installation until the rekeying of the CBE device while rebooting the Linux VM on top of it. Continue...
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The CBE series #3 - A Linux VM on a CBE device
In the Genode 20.05 release notes we teased using the CBE for running encrypted VMs in Sculpt. This article will guide you through setting up a CBE device, installing and using a Linux VM on it, and controlling the CBE online - like creating snapshots, resizing the device, or doing a rekeying. Continue...
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About the CBE design approach
In this article, I'd like to document the design approach applied in the CBE because I find it particularly interesting and elegant in some ways. Although the article was motivated through my work at the CBE project, I didn't add it to the CBE article series because the concept is not CBE specific and, in fact, existed in great part already before the CBE with projects like Genode's VFS and propably even earlier in other systems that I don't know. So, please don't take this as a claim for the concept to be my idea - I just want to document it ;) Continue...
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The CBE series #2 - Online resizing
This article describes in detail how online resizing is done in the Consistent Block Encrypter (CBE). Online resizing enables the user to re-dimension the block pools used in the CBE block device with the device remaining accessible throughout the entire process. Continue...
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The CBE series #1 - Online rekeying
This article explains in detail how online rekeying works in the Consistent Block Encrypter (CBE). Online rekeying means to re-encrypt a CBE block device completely with a new encryption key and eventually remove the old encryption key while the device remains accessible the whole time. Continue...
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Autoconf support is landing in Goa, Git comes to life
I'd like to share a few recent developments around Goa, which is a new tool for porting, building, and packaging Genode components. With autoconf, a third build system enters the picture, which, in turn, paves the ground for bringing software like Git over to Genode. Continue...
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Porting Sculpt (1) - Preparations
In my previous article, I presented an overview of undertaking the port of Sculpt OS to another SoC. Today, let us take a closer look at the first step - taking technical and non-technical preparations. Continue...
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Remap mouse buttons in the input filter
As the current USB HID driver simply parses the report descriptor some input devices will operate in its default configuration. That, however might be undesirable - input filter to the rescue. Continue...
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An Android VM for ARMv8 (update)
This is a follow up on the current state of the An Android VM for ARMv8 line of work. The article explained how to build Android from source and how to execute Android as a virtual machine on Genode. We were able to boot Android successfully but still had issues with the camera and the audio devices. Continue...
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What does it take to bring Sculpt OS to another ARM SoC?
Since I wrote the article about the ARM SoC landscape from Genode's perspective, I got repeatedly asked about the principle steps needed to enable Sculpt OS for various ARM-based hardware platforms. Drawing from our experience with the initial port of Sculpt OS to a 64-bit ARM device in Genode version 20.02, let me try to provide a rough guide for the steps needed to port Sculpt OS to a new ARM-based hardware platform. Continue...
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Native VNC client
In order to connect to VMs remotely, several options exist. Using VNC is one way to go. Virtualization solutions like Qemu/KVM have built-in support, so a native VNC client on Genode becomes handy. In this post I'm going to report about a ported VNC client of the libvncserver project and its usage on Sculpt 20.02. Continue...
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Virtual Machine Monitor for ARM
In my last blog post, I described some aspects of ARMv8 hardware-assisted virtualization. The presented findings were collected during some exploration work I've done together with my colleague Alexander Boettcher during last year. As already mentioned, one outcome of this work was a new Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) written from scratch for the ARMv8 architecture. In the meantime the VMM got extended to support recent, generic Linux kernels for ARMv8 and ARMv7, and thereby supersedes the former, outdated PoC implementation for ARMv7. Continue...
Stories around the Genode Operating System
