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Documentation
Installing XEOS
This section will teach you how to compile and run XEOS.
Please carefully read the «Requirements» section, to learn how to setup the necessary build environment.
Please carefully read the «Requirements» section, to learn how to setup the necessary build environment.
Technical details about the OS (source code, features, etc.) can be found in the technical section of this documentation.
1. Requirements
In order to be built, XEOS needs a custom version of the GNU compiler (GCC).
The reason for this is that the compilers available by default on standard systems may only compile executables of a specific format.
For instance, you won't be able to build ELF on Mac OS X, nor Mach-O executables on Linux.
The reason for this is that the compilers available by default on standard systems may only compile executables of a specific format.
For instance, you won't be able to build ELF on Mac OS X, nor Mach-O executables on Linux.
Additionally, the default compilers will usually automatically link with the standard C library that is available on the running system.
As XEOS is itself an operating system, it won't be able to use such a library.
As XEOS is itself an operating system, it won't be able to use such a library.
So the first step, in order to compile XEOS, is to compile the compiler that will be able to compile it...
And of course, a version of GCC needs to be available on your system in order to compile another version of GCC.
It may seems funny, but don't worry: everything has been prepared for you.
And of course, a version of GCC needs to be available on your system in order to compile another version of GCC.
It may seems funny, but don't worry: everything has been prepared for you.
2. Building the compiler
A specific version of GCC has been prepared, and is included in the XEOS sources.
You need to compile and install it, before compiling XEOS.
You need to compile and install it, before compiling XEOS.
From a terminal window, you need to cd to XEOS trunk's directory.
Then, type the following command:
Then, type the following command:
make cross
It will unpack and build everything that's needed to compile XEOS.
Everything will be installed in the «/usr/local/xeos/» directory, so you can easily clean everything up when needed.
Everything will be installed in the «/usr/local/xeos/» directory, so you can easily clean everything up when needed.
The tools that will be installed are:
- Binutils 2.20 - The GNU collection of binary tools
- GMP 4.3.2 - The GNU multiple precision arithmetic library
- MPFR 2.4.2 - The GNU multiple-precision floating-point computations with correct rounding library
- GCC 4.4.3 - The GNU compiler collection
- QEMU 0.12.2 - A generic and open source machine emulator and virtualizer
The build process may take some time. But once it's done, you are ready to compile and use XEOS.
3. Compiling
Compiling XEOS is a very simple task.
From the trunk's directory, simple type the following command:
From the trunk's directory, simple type the following command:
make
It will generate a FAT-12 floppy disk image containing the full OS, that you can run on any x86 machine or emulator.
4. Running XEOS
XEOS can be run with the QEMU emulator, which was automatically installed when building the compiler.
In order to launch it simply type, from the trunk's directory:
In order to launch it simply type, from the trunk's directory:
make test
This will launch QEMU, which will boot from the XEOS floppy drive.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!