A Wonderful Life in a Magical Tux

I just got bored, that’s ENOUGH of all the spam overflowing from many places to my blog, so I decided to get rid of DotClear, and make my own blog engine.

This is probably going to take a bit of time (understand « a while », if I ever really start writing it) and it’ll probably require at least the latest version of PHP (understand PHP 5.3.0, or not).

This new stuff will provide a new system for trackbacks (they will be signed using an SSL key, and if someone trackbacks with a new - unknown - key, you’ll have to approve that key before), better comment management (ban a user/ip and all its posts will disappear, also spam detector included, and finally a few spam-detection and annoy-the-spammers systems).

Anyway stay tuned.

Btw if anyone can provide me with design, it’ll be welcome.

If you didn’t hear before about pinetd, let me tell you more about it.

Initially, when PHP3 was out, I wrote a mail server using php. It was initially using xinetd to be run, then PHP/NC was born. PHP/NC (NC = Non-Connu) was a normal build of php 3, including a few more functions about sockets manipulation. It wasn’t really safe, but allowed more control over sockets in php.

Then, PHP4 was released, and a socket extensions was there too…

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It’s been a while since it last happened. We’ve been working a lot on 五OS recently, and managed to implement a lot of things. This includes :

• An “events” system, which allows applications to receive events
• A basic buffer used only for stdin, allowing an application to “read” from the console
• Various improvements of kernel modules

And finally, yesterday evening, I was able to write the first 五OS console “emulator”, with 3 commands : help, echo and exit.

Page about 五OS revision 239 (with screenshot)

Some documentation on the modtool utility was also released.

We decided for 五OS (pronounced « Go O.S. ») to start working on the global design of the user interface. As the development of the OS internals is getting closer to be on the User Interface, we decided to let a different team start working on this aspect of the OS.

http://5os.net/wiki/Proof_of_concept

We welcome constructive comments (yeah, we know it looks a lot like vista, we’re working on this aspect, no need to remind that to us). Basically the user interface should be out for febuary 2008, but it may be quite limited (don’t know yet, it’ll depend on when I manage to completly fix multitasking).

By the way, kernel module support has been completed, and the kernel is now able to load additionnal module to provide support for different graphic cards. Kernel seems to be broken on Bochs/VMWare (somewhat manages to start, but crashes before or after enabling graphics mode) but it should be fixed soon.

Here’s some precisions about 五OS (pronounced Go-OS)…

Basically what makes 五OS so specific is the kernel. It manages display (on Linux, the display is managed by a separate server) and many other things. Also it has the ability to modify itself on the fly, allowing for new drivers to be loaded/unloaded at boot time, increasing the global boot process.

Our goal is to make a kernel able to bootup the computer within less than 5 seconds. This is not possible in 100% of the cases (some RAID cards require ~20 seconds to be ready), however it should be possible for 99% of people running standard PC architecture.

The source of the kernel itself is not open. The kernel has some secrets which are not to be shared with anyone; however some modules of the kernel will be opensource, and anyone will be able to create a kernel module.

The idea is to make possible to create binary kernel drivers, and allow companies such as nVidia or ATI to provide binary drivers, which will provide the best possible device support. As the kernel is not under GNU license, it is possible to link anything against it, not only GNU software, and provide pre-compiled stuff (no more need for “glue” like on current linux nvidia drivers).

Even if the kernel is not opensource, some other pieces of software from the opensource world will be provided (with sources), like the glibc. Only the kernel itself (and maybe some other configuration applications, but those should be opensource and under BSD license) will be closed source, and coded internally by us.

Next step in kernel developpement: check the 五OS Roadmap.

It’s been a while since I last talked about 五OS, that’s because we’ve been quite busy with the whole thing.

We’re currently working on some complex parts of the OS, mainly internal stuff (invisible to the end user).

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