Bare Metal OS in Rust

This is an experimental bare metal operating system written in Rust and Assembly, inspired by Philipp Oppermann's Blog OS. Code and implementation developed with assistance from Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

Project Overview

This project is a hands-on exploration of operating system development using:

• Rust for the kernel
• Assembly for boot code
• Custom bootloader implementation

Project Structure

• boot.asm / boot2.asm - Assembly boot code
• src/main.rs - Kernel entry point
• src/vga_buffer.rs - VGA text mode buffer implementation
• Cargo.toml - Rust project configuration
• x86_64-blog_os.json - Custom target specification

Building

Make sure you have the following prerequisites:

• Rust nightly
• cargo-bootimage tool
• QEMU for testing (optional)

Build the project:

cargo build

Create bootable image:

cargo bootimage

Running

Running Rust OS

You can run the OS in QEMU:

qemu-system-x86_64 -drive format=raw,file=target/x86_64-blog_os/debug/bootimage-blog_os.bin

Or using cargo run (if configured):

cargo run

Running Assembly Boot Code

To run the assembly boot code variants:

# Run first boot code variant
make run1

# Run second boot code variant
make run2

The assembly variants demonstrate:

• run1: A simple 16-bit real mode bootloader that displays a message and echoes keyboard input
• run2: A graphics demo that switches to VGA mode (320x200, 256 colors) and draws a circle using the midpoint circle algorithm

Learning Resources

• Writing an OS in Rust by Philipp Oppermann
• OSDev Wiki

Status

This is an educational project aimed at learning OS development concepts through hands-on implementation. Currently implements:

• Basic boot sequence
• VGA text mode output
• More features to come...

License

MIT License (or specify your chosen license)