website/content/contributing/building-exectos.md

+++ title = 'Building ExectOS' date = 2024-06-18T16:37:24+02:00 +++ To build ExectOS, you must use the XTchain toolchain. Make sure you have already downloaded and installed it. Once the toolchain is installed and the source code is ready, open a terminal and launch the XTchain Build Environment:

xtchain

Next, set your target architecture and build type. You can choose between:

• Architecture: i686 (32-bit) or amd64 (64-bit)
• Build type: DEBUG (for development and debugging) or RELEASE (for production)

Use the following commands:

charch [i686|amd64]
chbuild [DEBUG|RELEASE]

Now, configure the project:

• On Linux, run:

./configure.sh

• On Windows, run:

.\configure.ps1

Once configuration is complete, navigate to the build directory and compile the source:

cd build
xbuild

After the build completes, the compiled binaries will be located in the build/output/binaries directory. Additionally, depending on the selected build type, you may also find debug symbols in PDB format inside the build/output/symbols folder. Precompiled libraries intended for linking other software with XTDK are available in the build/output/library directory.

Creating Qemu Disk Image

If you want to build a bootable disk image for use with QEMU, you can do so with the following command:

xbuild diskimg

This command generates a virtual disk image that can be directly booted in a QEMU virtual machine. You can also convert this image into other formats compatible with alternative hypervisors such as VirtualBox or VMware.

Testing with Qemu

Once ExectOS has been successfully compiled, you can test it in a virtual environment. The recommended approach is to use QEMU, which supports both hardware virtualization (via KVM) and software emulation (via TCG).

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 can be executed directly from the build directory. For example, run xbuild testkvm to launch QEMU with hardware virtualization, or xbuild testtcg to use software emulation:

xbuild testkvm  # For KVM hardware virtualization

or

xbuild testtcg  # For TCG software emulation

These commands will automatically configure QEMU with the appropriate settings and start the virtual machine. Keep in mind that QEMU is not distributed with XTchain and must be installed manually.

In addition to QEMU, you can also test ExectOS using Bochs, an IA-32 (x86) PC emulator that offers a different emulation environment. To launch Bochs with the ExectOS disk image, run the following command:

xbuild bochsvm

This will start the Bochs emulator with ExectOS loaded, allowing you to test the system in a context that may offer different debugging capabilities compared to QEMU. Like QEMU, Bochs is not bundled with XTchain and needs to be installed separately.

The performance and debugging experience will differ depending on which emulator you use. KVM requires a host system with hardware virtualization support and offers the best performance. TCG is a pure software-based emulator and works even on systems without virtualization capabilities, albeit at slower speeds. Bochs, while slower than both, provides a rich set of debugging features which can be especially helpful when troubleshooting complex or low-level issues. Alternatively, you may use other hypervisors like VMware or VirtualBox by manually configuring them to boot from the generated disk image.