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Genode OS 15.05 Brings New Drivers, Architecture Improvements

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  • Genode OS 15.05 Brings New Drivers, Architecture Improvements

    Phoronix: Genode OS 15.05 Brings New Drivers, Architecture Improvements

    The release of the Genode OS 15.05 Operating System Framework is now available and it's quite a sizable release...

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    I feel like a description of what Genode is should probably have been included. From their about page:
    The Genode OS Framework is a tool kit for building highly secure special-purpose operating systems. It scales from embedded systems with as little as 4 MB of memory to highly dynamic general-purpose workloads.

    Genode is based on a recursive system structure. Each program runs in a dedicated sandbox and gets granted only those access rights and resources that are needed for its specific purpose. Programs can create and manage sub-sandboxes out of their own resources, thereby forming hierarchies where policies can be applied at each level. The framework provides mechanisms to let programs communicate with each other and trade their resources, but only in strictly-defined manners. Thanks to this rigid regime, the attack surface of security-critical functions can be reduced by orders of magnitude compared to contemporary operating systems.

    The framework aligns the construction principles of L4 with Unix philosophy. In line with Unix philosophy, Genode is a collection of small building blocks, out of which sophisticated systems can be composed. But unlike Unix, those building blocks include not only applications but also all classical OS functionalities including kernels, device drivers, file systems, and protocol stacks.

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    • #3
      They are based on L4 kernels, plural. They have two currently that can be used from outside their project, one home built one, and they are porting to the seL4 microkernel as well.

      seL4 is an interesting project, as it is the only mathematically proven L4 kernel, and when it was last tested, it was also the fastest kernel. It can virtualize an environment to run te linux kernel, and a full Linux stack on top. And this Linux kernel runs faster than a native Linux kernel.

      Now, Genode ported a version of Virtualbox last year, and spent some time improving it this year.

      They are also working with a Kickstarted security project that is basically a linux computer that uses Genode as a secure environment for things such as authentication. Very interesting stuff.

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