vasilito
2e0fa30885
Major revision: replaces v4.1 with a code-grounded audit where every claim is verified by direct source inspection. Corrects several false claims in v4.1 and adds an honest gap matrix grounded in a live CachyOS desktop ISO booted in QEMU 11.0 as the functional reference. Corrections to v4.1: - audiod EXISTS at local/sources/base/audiod/ (real implementation, 277 lines, mixer with volume control and HANDLE_BUFFER_SIZE=4096) - redbear-input-headers EXISTS at local/recipes/drivers/redbear-input-headers/ (recipe.toml + source/include/linux/linux/ with input.h, uinput.h) - inputd is a real producer/consumer multiplexer, not a stub - synthetic_edid() is not a stub — generates valid 1920x1080@60Hz EDID with correct checksum - The Mesa LDFLAGS -lorbital link is the real EGL path issue, not 'EGL works' New v5.0 findings (not in v4.1): - ATOMIC ioctl in redox-drm passes empty connectors to set_crtc (showstopper, scheme.rs:1733) - No render node (renderD128) — Wayland compositors need this - PRIME export uses in-memory token, not real DMA-BUF FD — blocks Mesa - No VIRTIO_GPU_CMD_RESOURCE_MAP_BLOB handler - No host→guest resize notification processing in IRQ handler - libdrm missing DRM lease ioctls - redbear-compositor missing xdg-shell, zwp_linux_dmabuf, wp_presentation, zwp_linux_explicit_synchronization (showstoppers for modern Wayland) - redbear-compositor page flip reopens DRM fd every call - usbhidd/ps2d send to inputd (Orbital path) not to evdevd - evdevd not in init system of redbear-full - No virtio-input or virtio-snd drivers (QEMU specific) Critical path to functional QEMU Wayland desktop (12 weeks, no hardware): Phase 1: Fix DRM atomic modeset (2-3 weeks) Phase 2: Fix Mesa EGL Wayland (1 week) Phase 3: Add compositor protocols xdg-shell + dmabuf + presentation (2-3 weeks) Phase 4: Wire input pipeline to compositor (1-2 weeks) Phase 5: Add virtio-input + virtio-snd drivers (1-2 weeks) Phase 6: QEMU end-to-end validation vs CachyOS (1 week) Total to software-rendered Wayland desktop on QEMU: 12 weeks. Total to software-rendered KDE Plasma (QML gate): 18 weeks. Total to hardware-accelerated QEMU desktop (Mesa virgl): 22 weeks. Total to real AMD/Intel GPU: 42 weeks (requires hardware).
Red Bear OS
A microkernel operating system written in Rust, derived from Redox OS
What is Red Bear OS?
Red Bear OS is a general-purpose, Unix-like operating system with a microkernel architecture, written in Rust. It is a full fork of Redox OS, frozen at release 0.1.0, with added hardware support, filesystem drivers, and a KDE Plasma desktop path.
Goals:
- AMD & Intel parity — first-class support for both platforms on bare metal
- KDE Plasma desktop — Wayland-based desktop environment via the KWin compositor
- Hardware GPU acceleration — AMD GPU (amdgpu) and Intel GPU drivers via
redox-drm - Modern subsystems — USB, Wi‑Fi, Bluetooth, ext4, GRUB, D-Bus
- Offline-first builds — reproducible from archived, BLAKE3-verified sources
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
git clone https://gitea.redbearos.org/vasilito/RedBear-OS.git
cd RedBear-OS
# Build and run the desktop target in QEMU
./scripts/run.sh --build
# Build a live ISO for bare metal
./scripts/build-iso.sh redbear-full
# Build the text-only recovery target
./scripts/run.sh --build --config redbear-mini
Repository Hosting
The canonical Red Bear OS Git server is Gitea at
https://gitea.redbearos.org/vasilito/RedBear-OS.git. GitHub is not a Red Bear OS source of
truth and must not be used for pushes, issues, releases, or project coordination.
Public Scripts
| Script | Purpose |
|---|---|
scripts/run.sh |
Build and run in QEMU (-b to build, -c <config> for target) |
scripts/build-iso.sh |
Build a live ISO for bare-metal boot |
scripts/build-all-isos.sh |
Build all live ISO targets |
scripts/network-boot.sh |
PXE network boot helper |
scripts/dual-boot.sh |
Dual-boot installation helper |
Config Targets
| Target | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
redbear-full |
Desktop | Wayland + KDE + GPU drivers + D-Bus services |
redbear-mini |
Console | Text-only recovery / install target |
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 filesystem support (RedoxFS, ext4, FAT).
| Area | Status |
|---|---|
| Boot (ACPI/x2APIC/SMP) | ✅ Bare-metal proven |
| Userspace drivers (PCI, storage, net) | ✅ Working in QEMU |
| D-Bus system bus + services | ✅ Working (login1, PolicyKit, UDisks, UPower) |
| ext4 / FAT filesystems | ✅ Compiles, installer-wired |
| POSIX gaps (relibc) | 🚧 Bounded Wayland-facing support |
| DRM/KMS display drivers | 🚧 AMD + Intel compile; HW validation pending |
| Wayland compositor | 🚧 Bounded proof; Qt6/KF6 clients crash at init |
| KDE Plasma desktop | 🔄 In progress (Qt6/KF6 compile; KWin/QML blocked) |
| Wi‑Fi / Bluetooth | 📋 Planned (architected, implementation pending) |
How It Works
Red Bear OS uses a userspace driver model — all drivers run as unprivileged daemons:
Kernel (microkernel)
└── schemes: memory, irq, event, pipe, debug
└── Driver daemons (userspace)
├── pcid → PCI enumeration
├── e1000d → Intel ethernet
├── xhcid → USB controller
└── vesad → Display framebuffer
The kernel provides minimal services (memory, interrupts, IPC). Everything else — filesystems, networking, graphics, input — runs in userspace.
Documentation
- Implementation Plan — roadmap and execution model
- Desktop Path Plan — kernel → DRM → Mesa → Wayland → KDE
- D-Bus Integration — session bus architecture
- USB Plan — USB stack design
- Wi‑Fi Plan — wireless architecture
- Bluetooth Plan — BT stack design
- Documentation Index — full doc map
Contributing
Red Bear OS uses a full fork model. Upstream Redox sources are frozen and archived. All custom work lives in local/:
local/
├── sources/ # Red Bear source forks (git repos, directly editable)
├── recipes/ # Custom packages (drivers, GPU, system)
├── docs/ # Integration and planning docs
└── scripts/ # Build, test, and release tooling
We welcome contributions made with or without AI assistance — we care about quality, not how the code was produced.
License
MIT — same as upstream Redox OS.