Minimal Rust OS

A bare metal operating system implementation written in Rust, running without the standard library (no_std). This project demonstrates fundamental OS concepts using Rust's zero-cost abstractions and memory safety features.

Project Overview

This implementation follows a step-by-step approach:

1. Bare Metal Binary: Created a freestanding Rust binary without standard library dependencies
2. Basic Kernel: Implemented a minimal kernel that boots and displays "Hello World" through QEMU
3. VGA Text Mode: Added support for screen output using VGA text mode buffer
4. Testing Framework: Implemented comprehensive unit and integration tests

Requirements

• Rust nightly (at least 2020-07-15)
• QEMU for system emulation
• bootimage tool for creating bootable disk images

Building

First, ensure you have the latest nightly toolchain:

rustup update nightly --force

Install the bootimage tool:

cargo install bootimage

Build the project:

cargo build
cargo bootimage

This creates a bootable disk image in target/x86_64-blog_os/debug.

Running

Launch the OS in QEMU:

cargo run

For booting on real hardware (Linux):

dd if=target/x86_64-blog_os/debug/bootimage-blog_os.bin of=/dev/sdX && sync

Warning: Replace sdX with your USB device. Be extremely careful with the device name!

Testing

Run the test suite:

cargo xtest

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This project is based on phil-opp/blog_os and follows the "Writing an OS in Rust" blog series.