OSDev.org

Hey just thought I'd introduce venom OS to ya all. It's a pmode OS written for i386+ CPUs aimed at gamers and advanced users. Future versions will include multiuser support and access based security.

It's a simple interface using system calls to access devices and files. Each device supports the standard open/close/read/write operations and can be extended to support their own functions for the device.

Its reached v0.2.2 and can be found on sourceforge at
http://sourceforge.net/projects/venom-os/

with source code and bootable images here
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfile ... _id=209075

It's progressing slowly and the latest addition was a framebuffer for text or vga graphics.
It's been tested on real hardware but an BOCHS is still recommended.

Check it out and let us know what you think.

Well, on Qemu:
I get a GPF when I select hangman, and a pagfault when selecting islands or stars.

-JL

VPC2007 v6.0.156.0 made it to the 'select an application' area, but no matter which one I choose I just kept cycling back to the 'select and application' bit. If I pressed random keys it did nothing, but if I selected one it would cycle through again.

Results from real HW:
"Unable to enter protected mode" (Pentium II 266 MHz, 98 MB RAM)

Results from Bochs 2.3.6:
When entering the Island game, pressing ESC and ENTER, it writes " I don't understand the word ' "
and it'll freeze. Also the cursor in the main menu is "broken" in bochs, from a end-user's/gamer's view, it should be at the last line. (it doesnt matter much, but it was the first thing that gave me a slap across my face. ) You should also add a menu or some sort when selecting apps, or at least this:

Select a application:
1) x
2) y
3) z
Your choice: _
to let the user know what he selected.

And for the stars application, it was a bit slow in Bochs. When I re-launched it again, it gave me a page fault just like piranha's case - and on the last line it printed some garbage characters.

FYI when I was running your OS in Bochs, bochsout.txt was filled with this:
allow_io(): IO addr 3c5 (len 1) outside TSS IO permission map (base=68, limit=67) #GP(0)

Results from MS Virtual PC 2007: the same as Mr. E-69 reported

Regards
inflater

I get the same as piranha on Qemu:

I get a GPF when I select hangman, and a pagfault invalid mem at 0x000000 when selecting islands or stars.

Ok thanks for testing this for me.

More bugs than I was hoping for but thats the game of OS deving huh.

i havn't tested it (may do later, i'm setting up some syscalls at the moment) but you say "aimed at gamers and advanced users", i often find that these two groups are very different. There are users who fit into both categories, but i know a lot of gamers that think they're 1337 because the know how to use .rar and how to patch a game engine.

They dont have to be the same category. An advanced user is someone who can install, configure and maintain their own PC. Most gamers I know can build a system from the hardware up and that's more advanced than the average home/business user who types a doc or enters numbers in a database. At minimum to use venom a user/gamer would need to be able to install and run an app. An advanced user could use venom for something other than games, they will just have more control over the system through their own code/scripts/utils.

venom will have a full cli to system commands, games, apps and network etc, but also include a gui for users who prefer it or apps that are easier to use with window gadgets. The underlying kernel will operate in both modes equally well as it controls files and devices not user interfaces.

A new disk image snapshot of venom OS v0.2.2 (2008-07-17) is available for testing. This release addresses the bugs found in v0.2.2

venom-img-20080717.zip

01000101 wrote:VPC2007 v6.0.156.0 made it to the 'select an application' area, but no matter which one I choose I just kept cycling back to the 'select and application' bit. If I pressed random keys it did nothing, but if I selected one it would cycle through again.

inflater wrote:Results from real HW:
"Unable to enter protected mode" (Pentium II 266 MHz, 98 MB RAM)

I've fixed this to work in qemu, but I'd be interested to know if this now works on your hardware or inside VPC.

inflater wrote:And for the stars application, it was a bit slow in Bochs. When I re-launched it again, it gave me a page fault just like piranha's case - and on the last line it printed some garbage characters.

This is much faster in qemu and from now on I'll be using it for all the testing. The printed garbage is a C library error I haven't looked at yet.

'kay, seems to work on real hardware.

Some bugs I've found:
-Keyboard driver: Arrow keys are interpreted as numbers if you press SHIFT+Backspace, keyb LED diodes and their status isn't supported (e.g. capslock - make all letters big etc), backspace didn't work for me.
- "Cosmetic": I would clear the screen after the game's end
-Albeit slow OS loading on real HW, took almost one minute (VPC was fast though)
- "Cosmetic" again: you should add a reboot function or some sort, but it isn't required.

Good work.

Regards
inflater

b.zaar wrote:... Most gamers I know can build a system from the hardware up ...

sorry to be nit-picky here, but most gamer I know can't, some can, but not most. therefore i think it will be hard work designing an OS that appeals to both of those categories, although i don't want to discourage you, as if you can pull it off im sure it will be very cool. It will just be a challenge that's all... even more so than OS dev usually is.

Virtual Box:
I gave it 4MB of ram and the thing crashed on me. Maybe add a ram check to make sure the system meets mimimum specs.
I gave it a gig of ram and everthing booted and played fine at a nice pace. Except backspace didnt work correctly in island, it just produced a weird character. When I chose stars my screen went blank and nothing happened for a while so I shut it down.

Steady OS from what I saw of it.

- "Cosmetic": I would clear the screen after the game's end

Seconded.