Pirmin Duss
Benjamin Lamowski
Michael Grunditz
Martin Stein
Sebastian Sumpf
Sagar Acharya
Tomasz Gajewski
Johannes Kliemann
Guido Witmond
Valery Sedletski
Cedric Degea
Daniel Collins-
Goa - Debugging with GDB
With Goa supporting Sculpt OS as a remote test target and Sculpt supporting on-target debugging, it was time to streamline the debugging experience with Goa. In this article, I share the details about how I integrated GDB support into Goa and how it's put into use. Continue...
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Goa - Using a headless Sculpt as a remote test target
Goa's ability to run applications on a remote Sculpt system comes in handy for testing. However, switching between keyboards to control the remote-running application is a tiny inconvenience. My recent experiments with Sculpt on a ZimaBlade, which has no built-in display, thus motivated me to experiment with solutions for Sculpt as a truly remote test target. Continue...
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On-target debugging with GDB on Sculpt OS 24.04
With the recent Sculpt release, we introduced initial on-target debugging support to get the best from the ported GNU debugger (GDB) and our custom debug monitor that fuels the Sculpt runtime. This little hands-on introduction is completed by a live demo. Continue...
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FOSDEM 2024 aftermath
This year's FOSDEM was once again an eventful experience. By now, most presentations have become available. Yet I took the opportunity to re-record a more complete version of my talk that I want to share with you. Continue...
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Adding a dynamic desktop background to Sculpt
For getting to know LVGL, I wrote a configurable desktop background for Sculpt OS that shows certain system information (e.g. clock, battery state). Continue...
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Goa - Test running applications on Sculpt
Since its first release, Goa allows test-running applications on the host. We recently added an alternative run target to Goa which enables executing a Goa application on a Sculpt system. Continue...
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Crafting a modded Sculpt OS image in a few moderate steps
I'd like to invite you to get playful with Sculpt OS. Because Sculpt OS is entirely Free Software, no user is bound to the decisions taken by us core developers. This article gives you tangible steps to start modding your user experience beyond the mere configuration level. Continue...
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What's new in Sculpt OS 23.10
My personal highlights and a few technical tidbits about the just released Sculpt OS version 23.10, putting the spotlight on the Framework laptop, the PinePhone, and the MNT Reform laptop. Continue...
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Sculpt Customisation
The modularisation of Sculpt with release 22.02 enabled us to easily build customised Sculpt images. Instead of personalising my Sculpt OS via config files on the used file system, I've been managing my customisations in a separate repository since then. In this article, I want to share what modifications have worked out for me and provide ideas to fellow Genodians. Continue...
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x86 CPU frequency and power steering with Sculpt 23.10
With Sculpt 23.10 the previous sneak peek feature got integrated into the Genode base framework and hence is readily available with the new Sculpt OS release. Continue...
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Sculpt OS 23.04 on MNT Reform2
Though so much time has passed since the last Sculpt OS release for MNT Reform2, the development did not stop, and I proudly present version 23.04 to you. This new release includes some interesting features related to our beloved MNT Reform2 laptop, namely: Continue...
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Sneak peek: dynamic CPU frequency steering with Sculpt 23.04
With the Sculpt 23.04 release an proof-of-concept extension is available for managing frequency, power and performance features of your Intel and AMD CPUs on Sculpt. Continue...
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What's new in Sculpt OS 23.04
With Sculpt OS 23.04 being in the wild since almost two weeks, it's time to put the spotlight on the most prominent changes. Continue...
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Firefox & Thunderbird VM for Sculpt 23.04
With the Sculpt 23.04 release several ready-to-use VMs powered by Seoul VMM got updated to the latest version. Continue...
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Audio pkgs with a twist for Sculpt
Managing the audio driver and mixer is somewhat involved as the generic pkgs require the use of a launcher for run-time changes. The “pkgs with config” mend this by storing the config in a file-system. Continue...
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First system image of mobile Sculpt OS
At FOSDEM 2023, I'm going to introduce the mobile version of Sculpt OS at the "FOSS on mobile" developer room - the perfect opportunity to kick off a first public field test. Continue...
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Mobile user interface, not in the face!
When approaching the user interface for a Genode-based phone, we started with the vague idea to mirror time-tested user-interface paradigms established in the worlds of Android and iOS, but we ultimately diverged from this beaten track. Instead, we took the opportunity to reflect the unique security architecture of our operating system at the user-interface level, giving the user an extremely strong sense of control over the device. This article presents our rationale and the initial scope of functionality. Continue...
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Getting Fujitsu U7411 up and running: Network Boot
Earlier this year, the Genode team met the challenge to bring our OS to recent Intel Gen11 hardware, more precisely we faced the task to fully enable the Fujitsu LIFEBOOK U7411. But first things first: How to prepare the notebook for remote booting without sufficient legacy BIOS support? Continue...
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How to install a fresh VM on Sculpt
I recently needed to set up a new Linux VM on top of Sculpt. Since I encountered a few pitfalls along the way, I'd like to share my experiences and provide up-to-date instructions. Continue...
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Genode's Browser Odyssey
This article tells the twisted story behind Genode's native web browser, which is one of the most prominent achievements of the project during the past year. It is going to cover our motivation behind this undertaking, the rationale behind the choice of the browser engine, and many technical tidbits. Continue...
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Sculpt OS 21.10 on ARM
Beside the x86 architecture, the new Sculpt OS 21.10 can also be used on top of the MNT Reform 2 and i.MX 8MQ EVK board. Although those ARMv8-based boards are not yet officially supported, you can give it a first try. Continue...
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MNT Reform 2 - Use Sculpt OS on SD-card
There is a new, updated Sculpt OS version available for the MNT Reform 2. It features a fully functional, and more performant SD-card driver. It enables you to persistently install Sculpt OS and additional depot packages on your MNT Reform 2. Moreover, the new driver support enables you to exchange the SD-card dynamically at runtime. Continue...
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Mobile networking in Sculpt
Last year, ssumpf added basic LTE modem support to Genode. Since many Sculpt-compatible laptops come with integrated LTE modems already or can be easily upgraded, I started a little side project to equip Sculpt with easy-to-deploy mobile networking support. In this article, I summarise how to reap the fruits of this project. As a side effect, it showcases the varied possibilities of component compositions. Continue...
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Dynamically changing keyboard remapping rules
When setting up my Sculpt-based work environment, my intent was to run an unmodified Linux installation as VM in Sculpt. Being strongly accustomed to i3wm, I quickly noticed the lack of the Windows key that is used for controlling the i3 window manager but which is intercepted by Sculpt for the same job. A bit reluctant to change my habits and retrain new key combos, I needed a better solution. With advice from Norman, I came to a pretty neat solution that I would like to share with you. Continue...
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Native screenshot component
Martin had recently expressed to me that a native screenshot component using the Capture session would be really helpful. Moreover, when writing the VNC server article, I also encountered the need to make a screenshot myself. As I already got in touch with the Capture session, I briefly switched contexts to bring the screenshot component into being right away. Continue...
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MNT Reform 2 - Run Sculpt OS
It has been a while since I started to do the first steps of porting Genode to the MNT Reform 2. Continue...
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What's new in Sculpt OS 21.03
The just released version 21.03 of Sculpt OS becomes resilient against several classes of driver failures, improves the responsiveness and convenience of the user interface, and makes recent Genode features like CPU-load balancing and screen capturing available to Sculpt components. Let's have a look at the most prominent changes. Continue...
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Mobile Tech Demo
Recently, a bunch of posts on this blog platform circled around Genode seriously entering the mobile world. Be it the enabling of a touchscreen, LTE modem support, or the first steps to bring Genode to the Pinephone. But a mobile platform doesn't have different technical requirements only, like support for certain peripherals. It varies in the way people are interacting with it, which needs to be considered in its GUI. To experiment in this direction a bit on the one hand, and to integrate several of the recent new components available in Genode in a sound prototype was the motivation behind the tech demo that is described in the following. Continue...
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CPU-load balancing
In the following article the current state of the load balacing topic, as scheduled by the 2020 roadmap, will be described. Additionally, the feature can be test driven by a extended Sculpt 20.08 based image and a video recording is available. Continue...
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What's new in Sculpt OS 20.08
The version 20.08 of Sculpt OS has just become available. Let's have a look at the most interesting changes and new features. Continue...
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Re-stacking the GUI stack
As I am currently right in the middle of a far-reaching rework of Genode's low-level GUI stack, I'd like to share a bit of background behind this work: the Why, the What, and the How. Continue...
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Porting Sculpt (1) - Preparations
In my previous article, I presented an overview of undertaking the port of Sculpt OS to another SoC. Today, let us take a closer look at the first step - taking technical and non-technical preparations. Continue...
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Remap mouse buttons in the input filter
As the current USB HID driver simply parses the report descriptor some input devices will operate in its default configuration. That, however might be undesirable - input filter to the rescue. Continue...
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What does it take to bring Sculpt OS to another ARM SoC?
Since I wrote the article about the ARM SoC landscape from Genode's perspective, I got repeatedly asked about the principle steps needed to enable Sculpt OS for various ARM-based hardware platforms. Drawing from our experience with the initial port of Sculpt OS to a 64-bit ARM device in Genode version 20.02, let me try to provide a rough guide for the steps needed to port Sculpt OS to a new ARM-based hardware platform. Continue...
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Native VNC client
In order to connect to VMs remotely, several options exist. Using VNC is one way to go. Virtualization solutions like Qemu/KVM have built-in support, so a native VNC client on Genode becomes handy. In this post I'm going to report about a ported VNC client of the libvncserver project and its usage on Sculpt 20.02. Continue...
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Compartmentalized window management in Sculpt OS
When using Sculpt OS day-in day-out, the simple default window manager as introduced in the manual is quite limiting. This article presents an alternative that is able to remember window positions across reboots, swap out window decorations on the fly, and that empowers the user to modify the window layout directly via a textual interface. Continue...
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CPU affinity with Sculpt OS
With the latest 20.02 Sculpt release we added support to configure the affinity and number of CPUs available to components running on Sculpt. The principal support was already part of the Genode framework since 13.08, but missed to be easily usable on previous Sculpt versions. Continue...
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Sculpt OS - FOSDEM 2020 Edition
In my talk at FOSDEM, I present a brand new version of Sculpt OS. It is a preview of the upcoming release. For those of you who are eager to play with this version, I have put a downloadable image online. Continue...
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Goa - publishing packages
In the previous articles (1, 2, 3) about Goa, we created a minimalistic Unix system by combining Genode's ready-to-use building blocks with universally loved GNU software. Now it's time to publish our little creation so that it can be deployed directly on Sculpt OS. Continue...
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Screencast on Sculpt OS
From time-to-time the screen cast support on Genode pops up. Martin successfully ported avconv and demonstrated it back then in 2016. In the event of Sculpt OS, I lately had the chance to update the port and integrate it with Sculpt OS in form of packages ready for use. The following instructions will guide you through the setup. Additionally a short video recorded running on Sculpt is available. Continue...
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Pending Sculpt user-interface changes
During our road-map discussion, I vaguely mentioned my plan to change the administrative user interface of Sculpt OS. This post is a response to John's inquiry for more details. Continue...
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Graphical CPU utilization and monitoring tool (19.12)
The top_view component is a tool using the tracing infrastructure of Genode to gather thread related information, e.g. execution time, and prepare them for graphical presentation. Lately the tool got some updates I want to share. Beside the textual post I also uploaded a short tutorial video. In order to test the current version, you will have to build the Sculpt OS image yourself. Continue...
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Sculpt OS on HP EliteBook 840 G5
A few weeks ago, I got hold of a brand-new HP EliteBook and was eager to find out how Sculpt OS may do on it. The specs promised a smooth ride but as always I had to face some hidden obstacles. Continue...
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Download Debian VM and the VirtualBox Guest Additions reloaded
With the release of Sculpt 19.07 and release of Debian 10 (Buster) it is about time to update the download_debian package as well. I briefly tested the VirtualBox guest-additions version 6.0.4 (that's the version provided in the non-free repository) by installing them directly from the .iso which appear to work well. Continue...
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Copy and paste with Sculpt OS 19.07
The upcoming Sculpt OS version 19.07 allows the user to copy and paste text between virtual machines, terminal windows, Qt5 applications, and the administrative interface (Leitzentrale). This article sheds light on the underlying mechanism and its security considerations, shows how to configure subsystems to use the new feature, and covers a few caveats you may encounter. Continue...
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Modern look for the graphical terminal
Some weeks ago, I was finally done with the wishy-washy Solarized Dark color theme in my terminals and searched for a palette rich of contrast but still pleasing to the eyes. The new color palette inspired me to a small coding project for our graphical terminal over the Hack'n'Hike weekend. Continue...
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Resurrecting Escape Paint with Hatari
A recent series of events flared up my enthusiasm for Atari home computers. I just couldn't help but draft a plan of bridging this nostalgic trip with our modern-day Sculpt OS. Continue...
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Seoul VMM and the new VM interface
In January I presented the ongoing work at the FOSDEM 2019 about the generalization of the virtualization interface on Genode for x86. Now the first bunch of commits entered Genode master for the Seoul VMM. Continue...
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Graphical CPU utilization and monitoring tool
The top_view package is a tool using the tracing infrastructure of Genode to gather thread related information, e.g. execution time, and prepare them for graphical presentation. I already develop it for a while beginning with the early Sculpt versions. In the last weeks I extended it in my leisure time with some extra features, with the goal to selectively monitor behaviour of components of interest over some time. The main impulse was triggered during the work on audio on Sculpt, where I missed a basic online tool that supports me to get better insights into some behaviour of the system. Continue...
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Updated packages for Sculpt CE
With the image release of Genode's Sculpt CE yesterday, it is time to report about some updated packages of mine. Continue...
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Sculpt as a Community Experience
We just released the fourth version of Sculpt OS today. It is subtitled "Sculpt as a Community Experience". In this posting, I'd like to explain what's behind this slogan. Continue...
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Disposal browser VMs
Since the early beginning of Sculpt I host and maintain two packages for running an up-to-date Firefox as VM. My main motivation is to have the door to the Internet out-of my "work" VM, which contains all sorts of sensible data. Continue...
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Download Debian VM and the VirtualBox Guest Additions
Since most of the previous launchers but a few vital ones are gone and superseded by the index mechanism, the download_debian package is now located in Depot → cnuke → Virtual Machines → download_debian. As Debian's guest-additions packages might target a newer VirtualBox host version it is now recommended to install them in a different way to properly match the currently supported host version. Continue...
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Native audio with Sculpt VC
On the way back of FOSDEM 2019 I recognized that I missed to setup audio for my Sculpt VC machine. I used it already with Sculpt TC, but somehow I never took the time to re-integrate it with Sculpt VC. The next days after the FOSDEM trip I consulted my personal audio advisor -Josef- how to setup things. Continue...
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Locking up your Sculpt VC screen
Using Sculpt on my working machine as day-to-day OS became quite comfortable. Still, some inconvenient stayed. One specific one appeared whenever I started for lunch - I wanted to lock the screen. Currently, this functionality is missing - because of that I had to power down my machine during lunch. Obviously, this is annoying - so I started to investigate how to solve the issue. Continue...
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Testing components directly on Sculpt via the depot user local
Software is installed on Sculpt using the deploy mechanism that incorporates a caching component to keep the memory footprint for often used parts of the system constant. For the time being it is not contemplated to easily replace already loaded files and is therefor unsuited for testing components. However, there is still a way to perform the testing on Sculpt: the depot user local. Continue...
Stories around the Genode Operating System
