127 lines
5.0 KiB
Markdown
127 lines
5.0 KiB
Markdown
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# LK (Little Kernel) Documentation
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Welcome to the LK (Little Kernel) documentation. LK is a small operating system designed for embedded systems, offering a lightweight kernel with threading, memory management, and device drivers.
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## Table of Contents
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### Getting Started
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- [Getting Started Guide](getting_started.md) - Quick start guide for building and running LK
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- [TODO List](todo.md) - Current development tasks and known issues
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### Core Kernel Documentation
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- [Threading and Scheduler System](threading_and_scheduler.md) - Comprehensive guide to LK's preemptive multithreading system
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- [Blocking Primitives](blocking_primitives.md) - Synchronization primitives (mutexes, semaphores, events, ports, spinlocks)
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- [VMM Overview](vmm_overview.md) - Virtual Memory Management system architecture and implementation
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- [Source Tree Structure](source_tree_structure.md) - Organization and structure of the LK source code repository
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### Platform-Specific Documentation
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#### ARM Fixed Virtual Platform (FVP)
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- [FVP Base - How to Run](fvp-base/how_to_run.md) - Build and run instructions for FVP Base platform
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- [FVP Base - Internal Overview](fvp-base/internal.md) - Boot sequence, memory layout, and peripheral details
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### Development and Testing
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- [Network Setup for QEMU](lk_tap.md) - Setting up tun/tap networking for QEMU testing
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## Architecture Overview
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LK is designed as a modular kernel with the following key components:
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- **Threading System**: Preemptive multithreading with priority-based scheduling
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- **Memory Management**: Physical memory management (PMM) and virtual memory management (VMM)
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- **Synchronization**: Comprehensive set of blocking primitives for thread coordination
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- **Device Support**: Drivers for common embedded peripherals
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- **Platform Abstraction**: Support for multiple CPU architectures and platforms
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## Supported Architectures
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- ARM (32-bit and 64-bit)
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- RISC-V (32-bit and 64-bit)
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- x86/x86_64
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- Motorola 68000
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- Microblaze
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- MIPS
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- OpenRISC 1000
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- VAX (experimental)
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## Supported Platforms
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- QEMU virtual platforms (ARM, RISC-V, x86)
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- ARM Fixed Virtual Platform (FVP)
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- Various embedded development boards
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- Custom hardware platforms
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## Key Features
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- **Real-time capable**: Priority-based preemptive scheduler with real-time thread support
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- **Memory protection**: Virtual memory management with address space isolation
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- **SMP support**: Symmetric multiprocessing for multi-core systems
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- **Modular design**: Component-based architecture for easy customization
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- **Small footprint**: Designed for resource-constrained embedded systems
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## Contributing
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LK is an open-source project. For the latest development status and to contribute:
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- [GitHub Repository](https://github.com/littlekernel/lk)
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- [Issue Tracker](https://github.com/littlekernel/lk/issues)
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## Quick Start
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1. Install or build a recent version of qemu. Make sure qemu-system-riscv64 is in your path.
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2. Clone the repository:
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```bash
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git clone https://github.com/littlekernel/lk
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cd lk
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```
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3. Download a toolchain:
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```bash
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scripts/fetch-toolchains.py --prefix riscv64-elf
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export PATH=$PWD/toolchain/riscv64-elf-15.1.0-Linux-x86_64/bin:$PATH
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```
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4. Build and run:
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```bash
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make qemu-virt-riscv64-test
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scripts/do-qemuriscv -6S
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```
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For detailed instructions, see the [Getting Started Guide](getting_started.md).
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This will get you a interactive prompt into LK which is running in qemu
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arm64 machine 'virt' emulation. type 'help' for commands.
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Note: for ubuntu x86-64
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sudo apt-get install gcc-aarch64-linux-gnu
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or fetch a prebuilt toolchain from
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https://newos.org/toolchains/aarch64-elf-15.1.0-Linux-x86_64.tar.xz
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### Building with LLVM-based toolchains
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To build LK with a LLVM-based toolchain you will have to manually specify the compiler and linker in the environemnt.
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Unlike GCC clang is a cross-compiler by default, so the target needs to be specified as part of the CC/CXX/CPP variables.
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For example, assuming LLVM is in `/opt/llvm/bin/`, the following command will work to build for 64-bit RISC-V:
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```bash
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gmake qemu-virt-riscv64-test 'CC=/opt/llvm/bin/clang --target=riscv64-unknown-elf' 'CPP=/opt/llvm/bin/clang-cpp --target=riscv64-unknown-elf' 'CXX=/opt/llvm/bin/clang++ --target=riscv64-unknown-elf' 'LD=/opt/llvm/bin/ld.lld' TOOLCHAIN_PREFIX=/opt/llvm/bin/llvm- CPPFILT=/opt/llvm/bin/llvm-cxxfilt
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```
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TOOLCHAIN_PREFIX can be set to use the LLVM binutils, but due to the different naming of `llvm-cxxfilt` vs `c++filt` it needs to be set explicitly.
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To build for AArch64 the command looks similar, just with a different `--target=` flag.
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```bash
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gmake qemu-virt-arm64-test 'CC=/opt/llvm/bin/clang --target=aarch64-unknown-elf' 'CPP=/opt/llvm/bin/clang-cpp --target=aarch64-unknown-elf' 'CXX=/opt/llvm/bin/clang++ --target=aarch64-unknown-elf' 'LD=/opt/llvm/bin/ld.lld' TOOLCHAIN_PREFIX=/opt/llvm/bin/llvm- CPPFILT=/opt/llvm/bin/llvm-cxxfilt
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```
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---
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## [TODO](todo.md)
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*This documentation covers the core aspects of the LK kernel. For specific implementation details, refer to the source code and individual documentation files.*
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