Import 'Building ExectOS' page

content/contributing/building-exectos.md

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+title = 'Building ExectOS'
+date = 2024-06-18T16:37:24+02:00
+draft = true
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+ExectOS must be compiled with the XTChain toolchain. Make sure you have already [downloaded](/download) and installed it.
+Once this is done and the source code is ready, open a terminal and launch the XTChain Build Environment.
+```
+xtchain
+```
+Then, set your target build architecture and the build type and configure the project. Choose `i686` or `amd64` depending
+on the architecture you wish to target. The build type can be either `DEBUG` for debugging purposes or `RELEASE` for
+a production build.
+```
+charch [i686|amd64]
+chbuild [DEBUG|RELEASE]
+./configure.sh
+```
+After the sources are configured, navigate to the build directory and compile the source code.
+```
+cd build
+xbuild
+```
+Afterwards, you will find the binaries in `build/output/binaries` directory. Apart from that, depending on build type, you
+can also find a debug symbols in PDB format in `build/output/symbols` folder and precompiled libraries that can be used to
+link other software using XTDK in `build/output/library`
+
+## Creating Qemu Disk Image
+If you want to build a disk image that is ready to use with Qemu, you can use the following command:
+```
+xbuild diskimg
+```
+This will create a disk image that you can boot within a Qemu Virtual Machine, or convert to other format for use within
+other hypervisor, like VirtualBox.
+
+## Testing with Qemu
+After successfully compiling ExectOS, you can test it using Qemu with either hardware virtualization (KVM) or software
+emulation (TCG). To start Qemu with KVM, use the `testkvm` target, and for TCG emulation, use the `testtcg` target. These
+targets are provided for convenience and you can run these commands from your build directory.
+```
+xbuild testkvm  # For KVM hardware virtualization
+```
+or
+```
+xbuild testtcg  # For TCG software emulation
+```
+These commands will automatically configure Qemu with the appropriate settings for ExectOS and start the virtual machine.
+In addition to Qemu, you can also use Bochs for emulation. Bochs is an IA-32 (x86) PC emulator that provides a different
+emulation environment. To launch Bochs with the ExectOS image, run the following command:
+```
+xbuild bochsvm
+```
+This will start the Bochs emulator with ExectOS loaded, allowing you to test the system in an environment that may offer
+different debugging capabilities compared to Qemu.
+
+Remember that the performance and debugging features will vary depending on whether you use KVM, TCG, or Bochs. KVM
+requires that your host machine supports hardware virtualization, while TCG is a pure software emulator which works on
+systems without hardware virtualization. Bochs provides a rich set of debugging features, which can be useful when
+troubleshooting complex issues.