Post by @mcc@mastodon.social

"Andi explores RedoxOS" thread begins here

Redox is an alternative experimental OS written in Rust. The train of thought starts here https://mastodon.social/@mcc/117102384367679851 but my goals are, in no order

- "I want a daily driver OS that is not made with generative AI code assistants"

- "It would be fun to make a Servo-based ChromeOS clone with Redox"

- "I want to learn to write kernel modules/drivers, and I want them to be Redox-compatible"

- "Find an unmet need/usability deficiency in Redox and address it"

mcc

@mcc@mastodon.social 3 mo. ago

Me: *says angry things about Linux*

astodon person: "Well, what should we do about it?"

Me: I don't know, my first step is to see if I can install Redox

Me, thinking: *Wait, if I go look up Redox on github am I going to get slapped in the face with a "a user you have blocked has contributed to this repository" banner?

Me: *checks*

Me: *EYES FILL UP WITH ACTUAL ANIME SPARKLES*

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mcc

@mcc@mastodon.social 2 mo. ago

*Reading the redox book* Oh, I do like this sentence though

EDIT: There is also a long apologetic section explaining why x86 chips older than the Pentium are not supported LOL

"In contrast to Linux or BSD, Redox has around 50,000 lines of kernel code, a number that is often decreasing"

mcc

@mcc@mastodon.social 7 days ago

*Kicks thread* OK. Updates on my Redox adoption project.

Read the Redox manual, looked at the installer. The manual had spelling errors, the installer was confusing because there were 300 optional packages but none had descriptions. So I uh… ran spellcheck on the manual and wrote descriptions for all 300 packages. The former patch got accepted, the latter is still moving slowly through review due to length. The Redox project community is easy to talk to and easy to submit patches to. Good sign.

Fritz Adalis

@FritzAdalis@infosec.exchange 7 days ago

@mcc @nina_kali_nina
Oh thank god I thought you were going to say everything went sideways.

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mcc

@mcc@mastodon.social 7 days ago

All I've got to show for my labors so far is this (nice, I think) web app that provides what I wished I could have found on the first day I started looking into Redox: A searchable list of all packages available in the Redox package repo.

https://redox.runhello.com/packages/

All packages have descriptions unless they are WIP (though most are WIP). Until my MR is accepted, this content is exclusive to this site.

Maybe I will attempt a qemu install (qemu's the thing on Linux now, right?) later this week.

Redox package listing (Unofficial)

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mcc

@mcc@mastodon.social 2 mo. ago

I start with literally zero information. I heard Redox was pretty primitive, so I assumed it wasn't at daily driver state, probably just a bare kernel, and someone doing fix-up work would be focusing on things like… build and packaging systems. Adding a shell. I figured "boot directly into Servo" could be an improvement on what Redox has currently.

No, not exactly. It's a full UNIX. It already basically looks like Gnome. Iced and egui work. Many Linux C programs work on a straight recompile.

Screenshot of RedoxOS running some terminals, a Windows-like "start menu", and DOOM.

mcc

@mcc@mastodon.social 2 mo. ago

In my naive pre-research thoughts, I imagined a useful thing would be a packager that lets you specify a custom-spec "distribution" of Redox. This already exists!:

https://gitlab.redox-os.org/redox-os/installer

You give it a list of packages, it builds an OS image. And of course they have a package system:

https://doc.redox-os.org/book/package-management.html

That makes me perk up because it looks like it can tell me what software exists already. How do you get a list of redox packages?

…I think the only way is:

https://static.redox-os.org/pkg/x86_64-unknown-redox/

Uhhh

A file directory full of .pkgar and .toml files

GitLab

redox-os / installer · GitLab

A Redox filesystem builder