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What is Basekernel?

Basekernel is a simple operating system kernel for research, teaching, and fun.

Basekernel is not a complete operating system, but it is a starting point for those who wish to study and develop new operating system code. If you want to build something different than Windows, Linux, or Multics, Basekernel may be a good place to try out your new ideas.

Basekernel can boot an Intel PC-compatible virtual machine in 32-bit protected mode, with support for VESA framebuffer graphics, ATA hard disks, ATAPI optical devices, basic system calls, and memory protection memory. Simple user level programs can be loaded from a CDROM filesystem and make use of a basic graphics library. The kernel is still under active development in early 2018.

Our goal is to keep Basekernel simple and easy to understand, so that others can build on it and take it in different directions. We use it in our operating systems class at Notre Dame to study how kernel code works.

To be clear, this is raw low-level code, and there is no guarantee that it will work on your particular machine, or work at all. If you want to do some code hacking and learn about operating systems, you may like this. If you are hoping to download a new complete OS for your laptop, then you will not like Basekernel.

If you have read this far and are still interested, please read the Basekernel Vision and then Building and Running to get going.