[HN Gopher] Genode OS Framework
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Genode OS Framework
Author : justinclift
Score : 117 points
Date : 2025-09-26 09:52 UTC (13 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (genode.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (genode.org)
| Antibabelic wrote:
| > The framework aligns the construction principles of L4 with
| Unix philosophy. In line with Unix philosophy, Genode is a
| collection of small building blocks, out of which sophisticated
| systems can be composed. But unlike Unix, those building blocks
| include not only applications but also all classical OS
| functionalities including kernels, device drivers, file systems,
| and protocol stacks.
|
| That's very interesting, but does it actually work in practice?
| johnwayne666 wrote:
| https://genode.org/download/sculpt
|
| > Sculpt is an open-source general-purpose OS. It combines
| Genode's microkernel architecture, capability-based security,
| sandboxed device drivers, and virtual machines in a novel
| operating system for commodity PC hardware and the PinePhone.
| _Sculpt is used as day-to-day OS by the Genode developers_.
| iamnothere wrote:
| Yes, I recommend putting Sculpt on USB and trying it on a few
| years old x86 machine (one with decent Linux support). It's a
| vision into a completely different computing paradigm, as
| distinct as Plan 9 or Qubes. If you are interested in OSdev you
| will be shocked.
| justinclift wrote:
| There are Youtube video's of it for a few years now, so you can
| watch it's progress over time.
|
| Or to see something recent, there's a developer talk about it
| (~2 weeks ago) that's pretty informative:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=N624i4X1UDw
| chelmuth wrote:
| A list of Genode videos can be found at
| https://genode.discourse.group/t/collection-of-genode-
| video-...
| nfeske wrote:
| Genode developer here. Surprised seeing the project at HN, I'm
| very happy about the interest.
|
| My colleagues and me are indeed using the system on a daily
| basis. Personally, I'm running it on an Intel-based Gen12
| Framework laptop and on an i.MX8-based MNT-Reform laptop.
|
| Earlier this year, I recorded a casual walk-through of the
| Genode-based Sculpt OS.
|
| https://genodians.org/nfeske/2025-01-30-sculpt-os-walkthroug...
| awkwardpotato wrote:
| Do you have any articles about setting it up/running it on
| your Framework? Sounds really neat
| iamnothere wrote:
| This isn't specific to Framework but should be similar on
| more or less all supported devices:
| https://genodians.org/nfeske/2025-01-30-sculpt-os-
| walkthroug...
|
| The Sculpt OS articles on genode.org also provide a
| thorough overview:
| https://genode.org/documentation/articles/index
| unquietwiki wrote:
| Hey there. Came across this a while ago, but glad to see it
| alive & kicking. Two questions...
|
| 1. Is there going to be a disk image/installer for 25.08, or
| is that supposed to be self-compiled?
|
| 2. Does the OS download missing components on its own or
| something? The 25.04 image on the website is only 30+ MB.
|
| Thanks!
| iamnothere wrote:
| The core OS (including GUI) is surprisingly small. It will
| download software like the browser when you first enable
| it.
| zem wrote:
| that's pretty awesome, I've seen the project mentioned every
| so often, but I didn't realise it was that usable already!
| blauditore wrote:
| Has "genode" any meaning in English, or is it just an artistic
| blend of "generic" and "node" or similar?
|
| I'm asking because my brain read "Genocide OS" at the first pass,
| which seems a bit unfortunate.
| iamnothere wrote:
| Please don't make insubstantial comments about project names.
| There is a plague of this kind of comment here.
| dvh wrote:
| Well op has 3x more karma then you which means he's 3x more
| likely to understand the hn vibe then you. Secondly, the
| famous joke says that there are 2 hard problems in computer
| science - cache invalidation and naming things, so names of
| the computer projects are legitimate topic.
| iamnothere wrote:
| I rarely comment hence the low karma, which isn't a
| reliable indicator anyway (plus this is not Reddit). And
| besides, this is my fourth or fifth account.
|
| Naming comments are too frequently used to derail
| conversations here, particularly threads on FOSS projects.
| These threads never lead to a productive conversation and I
| fail to see any purpose other than trolling or "joking
| around" (if you can even call it that).
| hundchenkatze wrote:
| Then just downvote/flag and move on. Commenting just to
| complain furthers the derailment, here were are 4 layers
| in...
|
| imo there's nothing wrong with discussing project names.
| iamnothere wrote:
| Frankly I'd be happy to see a formal rule against it, or
| at least a community norm, but only frequent complaint is
| likely to drive things in that direction.
|
| I see these comments almost daily, it's a true plague.
| And never once have I seen it lead to an actual real-
| world change. Name-related comments most often serve as a
| sort of drive-by "dunking" for indirectly hating on
| projects. Do we really need a hundredth person commenting
| on a thread about Mastodon that there is also a band with
| the same name? What does that add to the conversation?
|
| I recognize that I'm tilting at windmills, but someone
| has to speak up about it.
| slekker wrote:
| My mind went to Genome :^)
| lucideer wrote:
| Curious if you're a native English speaker - the "-cide" suffix
| has a general root meaning of "to kill", which means that words
| ending in it generally have the opposite connotation to the
| word with the suffix.
|
| E.g. "Eco" has positive connotations whereas "ecocide" has
| negative ones. Similarly, here "geno" would never naturally
| seem to have negative connotations without the suffix.
|
| Just my 2c
| geor9e wrote:
| They just read it too fast and it's the closest real word
| geno(ci)de
| prerok wrote:
| Well, to expand on your point, the -cide suffix is actually
| rooted in Latin. So, even us, non-native English speakers
| would sooner recognize that word as opposed to other words.
|
| That said, the term genode is familiar to me, so I did not
| get the negative vibes.
| calvinmorrison wrote:
| your reply had me reread this and its apparently "Genode" not
| "Geode OS" which sounds cooler to me.
| geor9e wrote:
| I too read it as genocide, the closest real english word, and
| assumed it was some catty editorial headline about Israeli army
| tech. But no, it was named before that word's recent spike in
| news popularity. It's from Germany so you'd have to consider it
| in the German language. There's no name explanation given, but
| -de is their country code, and geno- is from greek.
| stavros wrote:
| I'm always reading it as "geode", "genocide" is inserting quite
| a few letters there.
| maksimur wrote:
| I've read it as "genocide" too and I scrolled down to see if
| there were any comments like yours. I wasn't disappointed.
| gunalx wrote:
| It is soo cool. Had the opportunity to see a demo at last year
| fossdem, and it blew me away with the level of configurability
| and seemingly compatibility.
| pkphilip wrote:
| Very interesting OS but it is a bit difficult to get my mind
| around this one as it is so different from any other OS out
| there. Is there a default option within Sculpt where you can
| easily get access to a desktop with a app launch option, editors,
| a browser etc without having to click through a lot of very
| obscure menus to add components one at a time?
| iamnothere wrote:
| I believe this can be done (clumsily) by setting up presets for
| different groups of apps, one preset per use case:
| https://genode.org/documentation/articles/sculpt-25-04#Custo...
|
| Not ideal, but the Sculpt "desktop" is still immature. Genode
| is primarily a framework for building secure OSes, with Sculpt
| being a kind of demonstration piece to help devs understand how
| it works. It's only recently that the project has had the
| resources to expand and grow Sculpt usability. I'm hoping they
| continue this work, as Sculpt has a lot of potential to be a
| usable and secure desktop OS. The backend is mostly ready, but
| it lacks UX investment.
| nfeske wrote:
| Sculpt OS features a couple of presets, which are examples of
| several components wired-up for you. For a quick test, enable
| the "Use" button in the RAM-fs component (so everything will be
| deployed into RAM) and find the default presets in the "System"
| menu at the upper left screen corner.
|
| The "Window manager" preset gives you a suitable starting point
| for a desktop scenario. Or the "Falkon web browser" preset
| gives you a disposable web browser. Upon selecting a preset,
| all the needed components will be downloaded and deployed
| automatically.
|
| Even though the presets are a convenient starting point, to
| actually make use of the system, I'm afraid there is no way
| around studying the documentation:
| https://genode.org/documentation/articles/sculpt-25-04
| initramfs wrote:
| does it work on 4MB RAM with a GUI?
| nfeske wrote:
| No. The 4 MiB mentioned on the website refer to a rudimentary
| artificial scenario without driver components.
| olivia-banks wrote:
| I remember seeing this a while ago when I was on an OS kick, I
| thought it died!
| fgbarben wrote:
| Is there a preferred CI pipeline for Genode?
| joshu wrote:
| getting a machine running to try out sculpt/genome has been in my
| todo list forever.
| metalforever wrote:
| Hi Sculpt team, I have been watching this project for a long
| time. I have tried the OS on my MNT Reform. I had some confusions
| about how to navigate and set specific options . I was thinking a
| similar interface to a traditional desktop could be helpful in
| wrapping my head around the features . However, I did not want to
| impose on your vision if the Sculpt team felt strongly about
| their current interface. What are your thoughts ?
| dpc_01234 wrote:
| Huh. This project is still going strong. I remember playing with
| it ... 15 years ago, when (IIRC) for some time it was supporting
| microkernel I was part of the team developing (Codezero).
|
| The Base Platform
| https://genode.org/documentation/platforms/index mentions mostly
| microkernels even older than Genode. I wonder how does the
| microkernel landspace looking now? Is it just done or do people
| still release interesting new projects nowadays? Do real
| deployments of Genode use typically Linux due to HW support
| anyway?
|
| How is RISV support anyway?
|
| Makes me wonder if something like Nix and Genode could be
| combined for some interesting properties. Reproducible, flexibly
| nested OSes, etc.
| iamnothere wrote:
| As an observer and occasional Genode user, not a Genode
| developer, the non-Linux option with the highest development
| focus is the NOVA microkernel (default for Sculpt OS), with
| seL4 also receiving a lot of attention. Genode on Linux is most
| often used for development. I am not clear on the tradeoffs
| between different kernels but you may ask in the forums if
| interested. I suspect that the (formally verified) seL4 fully
| works, but at a performance cost.
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