# MentOS

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## 1. What is MentOS

MentOS (Mentoring Operating System) is an open source educational operating
system. The goal of MentOS is to provide a project environment that is realistic
enough to show how a real Operating System work, yet simple enough that students
can understand and modify it in significant ways.

There are so many operating systems, why did we write MentOS? It is true, there
are a lot of education operating system, BUT how many of them follow the
guideline de fined by Linux?

MentOS aims to have the same Linux's data structures and algorithms. It has a
well-documented source code, and you can compile it on your laptop in a few
seconds!

If you are a beginner in Operating-System developing, perhaps MentOS is the
right operating system to start with.

Parts of MentOS are inherited or inspired by a similar educational operating 
system called [DreamOs](https://github.com/dreamos82/DreamOs) written by Ivan
Gualandri.

## 2. Prerequisites

MentOS is compatible with the main **unix-based** operating systems. It has been
tested with *Ubuntu*, *WSL1*, *WSL2*, and  *MacOS*.

### 2.1. Generic Prerequisites

#### 3.1.1. Compile

For compiling the system:

 - nasm
 - gcc
 - make
 - cmake
 - git
 - ccmake (suggested)
 - e2fsprogs (should be already installed)

Under **MacOS**, for compiling, you have additional dependencies:

 - i386-elf-binutils
 - i386-elf-gcc

#### 3.1.2. Execute

To execute the operating system, you need to install:

 - qemu-system-i386 (or qemu-system-x86)

#### 3.1.3. Debug

For debugging we suggest using:

 - gdb or cgdb

### 2.2. installation Prerequisites

Under **Ubuntu**, you can type the following commands:

```bash
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y
sudo apt-get install -y build-essential git cmake qemu-system-i386 e2fsprogs
sudo apt-get install -y gdb cgdb
```

Under **MacOS** you also need to install the i386-elf cross-compiler. The
simplest installation method is through Homebrew package manager.
Install [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/index_it) if you don't already have it, and
then type the following commands:

```bash
brew update && brew upgrade
brew install i386-elf-binutils i386-elf-gcc git cmake qemu nasm e2fsprogs
brew install gdb cgdb #<- for debug only
```

## 3. Compiling MentOS and generating the EXT2 filesystem

Compile MentOS with:

```bash
cd <clone_directory>
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
```

Then, generate the EXT2 filesystem with:

```bash
make filesystem
```
you just need to generate the filesystem once. If you change a `program` you need to re-generate the entire filesystem with `make filesystem`, but this will override any changes you made to the files inside the `rootfs.img`. In the future I will find a way to update just the `/usr/bin` directory and the programs.

## 4. Running MentOS

Boot MentOS with qemu:

```bash
make qemu
```

To login, use one of the usernames listed in `files/etc/passwd`.

## 5. Change the scheduling algorithm

MentOS provides three different scheduling algorithms:

 - Round-Robin
 - Priority
 - Completely Fair Scheduling

If you want to change the scheduling algorithm:

```bash

cd build

# Round Robin scheduling algorithm
cmake -DSCHEDULER_TYPE=SCHEDULER_RR ..
# Priority scheduling algorithm
cmake -DSCHEDULER_TYPE=SCHEDULER_PRIORITY ..
# Completely Fair Scheduling algorithm
cmake -DSCHEDULER_TYPE=SCHEDULER_CFS ..

make
make qemu
```

Otherwise you can use `ccmake`:

```bash
cd build
cmake ..
ccmake ..
```

Now you should see something like this:

```
BUILD_DOCUMENTATION              ON
CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE
CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX             /usr/local
DEBUGGING_TYPE                   DEBUG_STDIO
ENABLE_BUDDY_SYSTEM              OFF
SCHEDULER_TYPE                   SCHEDULER_RR
```

Select SCHEDULER_TYPE, and type Enter to scroll the three available algorithms
(SCHEDULER_RR, SCHEDULER_PRIORITY, SCHEDULER_CFS). Afterwards,

```bash
<press c>
<press g>
make
make qemu
```

## 6. Use Debugger

If you want to use GDB to debug MentOS, first you need to compile everything:

```bash
cd build
cmake ..
make
```

Then, you need to generate a file called `.gdbinit` placed inside the `build` directory, which will tell **gdb** which *object* file he needs to read in order to allow proper debugging.
```bash
make gdb_file
```

Finally, you run qemu in debugging mode with:
```bash
make qemu-gdb
```
If you did everything correctly, you should see an empty QEMU window. Basically, QEMU is waiting for you to connect *remotely* with gdb. Anyway, running `make qemu-gdb` will make your current shell busy, you cannot call `gdb` in it. You need to open a new shell inside the `build` folder and do a:
```bash
cgdb -q -iex 'add-auto-load-safe-path .'
```

Now you will have:
1. the QEMU window waiting for you,
2. the shell where you ran `make qemu-gdb` also waiting for you,
3. the debugger that loaded a series of symbol files and the location of their `.text` section.

By default I placed a breakpoint at the begginning of 1) the bootloader, 2) the `kmain` function of the kernel.

So, when gdb starts you need to first give a continue:
```bash
(gdb) continue
```

This will make the kernel run, and stop at the first breakpoint which is inside the *bootloader*:
```bash
Breakpoint 1, boot_main (...) at .../mentos/src/boot.c:220
220     {
```

giving a second `continue` will get you to the start of the operating system:

This will make the kernel run, and stop at the first breakpoint which is inside the *bootloader*:
```bash
Breakpoint 2, kmain (...) at .../mentos/src/kernel.c:95
95      {
```

## Contributors

Project Manager:

* [Enrico Fraccaroli](https://github.com/Galfurian)

Developers:
* [Alessandro Danese](https://github.com/alessandroDanese88), [Luigi Capogrosso](https://github.com/luigicapogrosso), [Mirco De Marchi](https://github.com/mircodemarchi)
    - Protection ring
    - libc
* Andrea Cracco
    - Buddy System, Heap, Paging, Slab, Caching, Zone
    - Process Image, ELF
    - VFS: procfs
    - Bootloader
* Linda Sacchetto, Marco Berti
    - Real time scheduler
* Daniele Nicoletti, Filippo Ziche
    - Real time scheduler (Asynchronous EDF)
    - Soft IRQs
    - Timer
    - Signals