Benu
====

Operating System Increments for Education and Research
(_Built for _education, _not (normal) _usage)

Simple operating system for demonstration only (academic).
Build through several steps, each bringing something new.
System is "work in progress", improved/extended with (almost) every year.

Name "Benu", besides acronym, represents an Egyptian bird ...

Compilers used:
* for i386 - GNU gcc, GNU ld (GNU Binutils)
* for arm - Sourcery CodeBench Lite Edition for ARM EABI
Tested in QEMU ('qemu-system' package on ubuntu)


Version history (by academic year):
===================================
* 2013/2014 (candidate): https://github.com/l30nard0/benu tag v0.3
  - added support for arm platform
  - tested only with Versatile PB926EJS on QEMU
  - upgrades & fixes

* 2012/2013: https://github.com/l30nard0/benu tag v0.1
  - POSIX interface (signals, timers, threads, ...)

* 2011/2012: http://sourceforge.net/projects/oszur12/
  - small upgrades ...
  - mirror on https://github.com/l30nard0/os4ec/

* 2010/2011: http://sourceforge.net/projects/oszur11/
  - code in English, switched to git repository
  - rewritten (different increment structure)
  - removed paging support (implementation not simple enough)

* 2009/2010: http://code.google.com/p/oszur2010/
  - supported only i386 platform
  - code in Croatian, svn repository


Full description (in Croatian) available in textbook at:
	http://www.fer.unizg.hr/en/course/osfec
	http://www.fer.unizg.hr/predmet/oszur


IMPORTANT!
==========
If running created system (built from Benu) in emulator other than QEMU, set
standard input and output to vga_text mode -- in conf/config.ini set:
K_INITIAL_STDOUT = vga_text_dev
K_STDOUT = VGA_TXT
U_STDIN = i8042
U_STDOUT = VGA_TXT
U_STDERR = VGA_TXT
(uncomment this lines, comment other with *=COM1)
(Buggy serial port implementation; works on QEMU but not with other emulators)


Please report any bugs (and other problems) on site or via email.
Contact address: leonardo@zemris.fer.hr


DISCLAIMER
==========
Presented system has (probably) *many* bugs! Many concepts might not be
adequate or good as might be (as are in some "real systems").
*Please* do not use it for any other purpose other than education.
It’s not tested near enough to be used for anything more.