kellito
2db8636f8b
Adds regression tests for Sprint 3 items that were verified
already-done during recon but had no dedicated test coverage:
- viewer::tests::hex_edit_apply_nibble_at_eof_is_safe_noop
Locks in the C8 contract: apply_nibble at cursor past EOF
is a safe no-op (no panic, no spurious modified flag).
- viewer::tests::move_cursor_clamps_to_size
Locks in the C8 cursor bounds invariant at move_cursor
level: positive deltas clamp to file size, negative deltas
clamp to 0 with no underflow.
- filemanager::panel::tests::history_dedups_consecutive_entries
Locks in the C11 contract: refreshing the same directory
N times grows the history by 1 entry (consecutive dedup),
not N.
- filemanager::panel::tests::sort_field_mtime_round_trips_through_config
Locks in the C12 contract: 'mtime' and 'time' config
strings both resolve to the Mtime sort field, and the
Panel reports the human-readable name 'Mtime'.
Tests (4 new, total 1299 passing):
+hex_edit_apply_nibble_at_eof_is_safe_noop
+move_cursor_clamps_to_size
+history_dedups_consecutive_entries
+sort_field_mtime_round_trips_through_config
Red Bear OS
A microkernel operating system written in Rust — derived from Redox OS, built for bare metal.
What is Red Bear OS?
Red Bear OS is a general-purpose, Unix-like operating system with a microkernel architecture,
written entirely in Rust. It is a full fork of Redox OS (baseline 0.1.0), actively developed
on branch 0.2.5 with hardware enablement, multiple filesystems, a native greeter and login
system, and a KDE Plasma desktop path.
We aim to stay close to upstream Redox — diverging only where necessary to add missing functionality, fix bugs, or support new hardware. The build system itself is under constant active development alongside the OS.
It ships with several first-in-class Rust-native tools found nowhere else in the OS world:
- cub — an AUR-inspired package manager with pacman-style CLI (
-S/-Q/-R) and a ratatui TUI that converts Arch Linux PKGBUILDs into Red Bear recipes on the fly - tlc (Twilight Commander) — a pure-Rust reimplementation of Midnight Commander; dual-panel file manager, built-in editor and viewer, 8 color themes, 1204 unit tests, zero unsafe code
- redbear-power — interactive ratatui TUI for live CPU frequency, governor, and thermal monitoring with on-the-fly P-state control
These are joined by dozens of redbear-* system utilities — redbear-netctl (network control),
redbear-info (hardware diagnostics), redbear-acmd (admin CLI), redbear-mtr,
redbear-nmap, redbear-btctl, and many more — all written in Rust, all built from source
alongside the OS.
Goals:
- AMD & Intel parity — equal-priority bare-metal support for both platforms
- KDE Plasma desktop — Wayland-based desktop environment via the KWin compositor
- Hardware GPU acceleration — AMD (amdgpu) and Intel GPU drivers via
redox-drm - cub package ecosystem — AUR → recipe.toml pipeline giving access to thousands of packages
- First-class subsystems — USB, Wi‑Fi, Bluetooth, ext4, FAT, GRUB, D-Bus (none optional)
- Power management — CPU frequency scaling, thermal monitoring, RAPL, sleep states
- Offline-first, reproducible builds — BLAKE3-verified source archives with content-hash caching
Our Git Server
Red Bear OS lives on a self-hosted Gitea instance at https://gitea.redbearos.org.
This is the canonical home — no GitHub, GitLab, or Codeberg mirror is authoritative.
There is exactly one repository: all component sources (kernel, relibc, drivers,
system utilities) live here as submodule branches or tracked trees in local/sources/.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Host | https://gitea.redbearos.org |
| User | vasilito |
| Web UI | https://gitea.redbearos.org/vasilito |
| Main repo | https://gitea.redbearos.org/vasilito/RedBear-OS |
Authentication tokens are per-session credentials — never stored in the repo. See
local/AGENTS.md§ Our Git Server for the full operator runbook.
Quick Start
Prerequisites
Linux x86_64 host with Rust nightly, QEMU, nasm, and standard build tools. See the Redox Build Guide for full setup.
Build & Run
# Clone (read-only)
git clone https://gitea.redbearos.org/vasilito/RedBear-OS.git
cd RedBear-OS
# Authenticated clone — supply token via env var
git clone https://vasilito:${REDBEAR_GITEA_TOKEN}@gitea.redbearos.org/vasilito/RedBear-OS.git
# Canonical build entry point
./local/scripts/build-redbear.sh redbear-mini # Text-only target
./local/scripts/build-redbear.sh redbear-full # Desktop-capable target
# Boot in QEMU
make qemu
local/scripts/build-redbear.shis the only supported build entry point. It handles.configparsing, prefix staleness detection, protected-recipe authorization, pre-cooking critical packages, and source fingerprint tracking. Directmakeinvocations bypass these gates. SeeAGENTS.md§ Build Commands for details.
Config Targets
| Target | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
redbear-full |
Desktop-capable | GPU drivers + Wayland compositor + Qt 6.11.1 + KF6 6.27.0 + KWin + SDDM + greeter + D-Bus |
redbear-mini |
Console | Text-only recovery / install target with tlc, cub, and redbear-* utilities |
redbear-grub |
Console | Text-only with GRUB boot manager |
Current Status
Red Bear OS boots to a login prompt in QEMU with working wired networking, D-Bus system bus,
hardware detection daemons, and three filesystem backends (RedoxFS, ext4, FAT). The ISO builds
successfully on branch 0.2.5. Graphics packages are frozen at latest upstream stable
(Qt 6.11.1, KF6 6.27.0, Plasma 6.7.2, SDDM 0.21.0, Mesa 24.0.8).
| Area | Status |
|---|---|
| Boot (ACPI, x2APIC, SMP) | ✅ Bare-metal proven — Ryzen Threadripper 128-thread verified |
| Userspace drivers (PCI, storage, net) | ✅ Working in QEMU |
| Filesystems — RedoxFS, ext4, FAT | ✅ Scheme daemons + mkfs/fsck tools |
| D-Bus system bus + services | ✅ Working — login1, PolicyKit, UDisks, UPower |
| cub package manager | 🟡 17-module Rust workspace; AUR → recipe pipeline; 70+ tests |
| tlc file manager | 🟡 113 .rs files, 46k+ lines; 986 tests; 8 skins; VFS archives |
| IRQ / PCI / MSI-X / IOMMU | 🟡 QEMU-proven; hardware validation open |
| POSIX gaps (relibc) | 🟡 ~85% coverage; ~38 active patches |
| DRM/KMS display drivers | 🟡 AMD + Intel + virtio-gpu compile; HW validation open |
| Mesa — llvmpipe + virgl | 🟡 Builds (virtio_gpu_dri.so, 17.4 MB); virgl EGL runtime probe open |
| SDDM display manager + Greeter/Login | 🟡 Wired in redbear-full; graphical login blocked by Qt6 Wayland crash |
| Qt 6.11.1 (Core, Gui, DBus, Wayland) | 🟡 Builds successfully; Wayland null+8 crash blocks runtime |
| KF6 Frameworks — 40/40 | 🟡 All frameworks build; KWin cooks successfully |
| Wayland compositor | 🟡 Bounded proof; blocked by Qt6 Wayland protocol crash |
| KDE Plasma / KWin | 🔴 Blocked by Qt6 Wayland crash in wl_proxy_add_listener |
| Wi‑Fi (Intel iwlwifi) | 🟡 VFIO/passthrough bounded runtime validation framework exists |
| USB / Bluetooth | 🔴 USB maturity work in progress; Bluetooth controller path planned |
Where help is most wanted: Qt6 Wayland protocol crash — the #1 blocker for graphical desktop · AMD/Intel GPU hardware validation on bare metal · USB controller maturity · Wi‑Fi native control plane · cub AUR pipeline hardening · package maintainers for the growing recipe catalog · tlc VFS remote backends and archive support
How It Works
Red Bear OS uses a userspace driver model — all drivers run as unprivileged daemons communicating through the kernel's scheme-based IPC.
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ KERNEL (microkernel) │
│ schemes: memory · irq · event · pipe · debug │
└──────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┘
│
┌─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┐
▼ ▼ ▼
┌──────────┐ ┌──────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────┐
│ pcid │ │ e1000d xhcid │ │ vesad redox-drm │
│ PCI enum │ │ Intel USB 3.0 │ │ fbdev GPU manager │
└──────────┘ └──────────────────┘ └──────────────────────┘
┌──────────┐ ┌──────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────┐
│ ext4d │ │ ps2d evdevd │ │ thermald cpufreqd │
│ fatd │ │ KB+mouse input │ │ thermal CPU freq │
└──────────┘ └──────────────────┘ └──────────────────────┘
┌──────────┐ ┌──────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────┐
│ iommu │ │ acpid │ │ dbus-daemon │
│ DMA map │ │ power mgmt │ │ system + session │
└──────────┘ └──────────────────┘ └──────────────────────┘
The kernel provides minimal services: memory, interrupts, and IPC. Everything else —
filesystems, networking, graphics, input, power management, D-Bus — runs in userspace.
Hardware quirks are handled by a data-driven system in redox-driver-sys with compiled-in
tables, TOML runtime configuration, and DMI matching.
Engineering Standards
Red Bear OS operates under strict discipline. Full policies: local/AGENTS.md.
| Rule | |
|---|---|
| Never delete to "fix" a build | If a package breaks, fix the root cause. Never remove, ignore, or comment out a package, service, or config to make a build pass. |
| Zero stubs | No fake headers, #ifdef no-ops, or "make it compile" shortcuts. Missing functionality must be implemented properly in the right component. |
| Single repository | All component sources live here — no per-component repos. 9 submodule/<component> branches. |
| Local fork model | Core components (kernel, relibc, base, etc.) maintained as local forks in local/sources/ with immutability guarantees. |
| Adapt to upstream | Red Bear adapts to upstream API/ABI changes — never pins, downgrades, or holds back a dependency. |
| Free/libre only | No proprietary, source-unavailable, or redistributability-restricted dependencies. MIT licensed. |
Documentation
- Desktop Path Plan — Canonical plan v6.0: kernel → DRM → Mesa → Wayland → KDE
- Implementation Plan — Roadmap and execution model
- cub Package Manager — AUR → recipe pipeline, CLI reference, architecture
- tlc File Manager — Pure-Rust Midnight Commander replacement
- D-Bus Integration — Session bus architecture
- IRQ & Low-Level Controllers — IRQ delivery, MSI/MSI-X, IOMMU
- Greeter & Login — Native greeter, auth daemon, session launch
- DRM Modernization — DRM/KMS display and render maturity
- USB Plan — USB stack design and implementation
- Wi‑Fi Plan — Wireless architecture and driver plan
- Bluetooth Plan — Bluetooth stack design
- Build Cache — Content-hash (BLAKE3) build cache system
- Build System Hardening — Collision detection, init service validation
- Quirks System — Hardware quirks infrastructure
- Documentation Index — Full doc map
Contributing
Red Bear OS is a full fork of Redox OS. Upstream sources are frozen and archived; all
custom work lives in local/ and survives every build operation.
local/
├── sources/ # Local forks of core components (kernel, relibc, base, bootloader, …)
├── recipes/ # Custom packages — drivers, GPU stack, system daemons, branding
├── patches/ # Durable changes to upstream source trees
├── docs/ # Integration and planning documentation
└── scripts/ # Build, test, validation, and release tooling
We're Looking For
| Role | What you'd work on |
|---|---|
| Package maintainers | Port and maintain AUR packages through cub's pipeline; write and test recipe.toml files for Red Bear OS; improve the PKGBUILD → recipe conversion |
| Driver developers | AMD/Intel GPU drivers, USB controller maturity, Wi‑Fi native control plane, Bluetooth |
| Graphics stack engineers | Qt6 Wayland crash fix (the #1 desktop blocker), Mesa virgl runtime, KWin Wayland compositor |
| Systems/Rust engineers | Kernel syscalls, relibc POSIX gaps, filesystem daemons, D-Bus services, hardware quirks |
| TUI/app developers | tlc feature completion, cub TUI polish, redbear-power enhancements, new redbear-* utilities |
Contributions are welcome with or without AI assistance — we care about quality, not how the code was produced. Pick an area from the status table above, check the relevant plan doc, and dive in.
License
MIT — same as upstream Redox OS.