Building a hobby OS with Bochs and Qemu
Hobby Time
Reading and understanding the complete Linux kernel is a challenging project. A hobby kernel lets you implement standard OS features yourself in a few hundred lines of code.
Everyone who works professionally with Linux is used to building software from the source code, perhaps implementing small changes, automating routine work with shell scripts, or developing their own software in one of the many current programming languages. Tinkering with your own, completely new operating system, on the other hand, is a pretty unusual pastime. If you start from scratch, it will take a long time before your system is useful for anything.
If you are looking for a challenging amateur project (for example, if you are a computer science student) or you want a better understanding of the theoretical basics of interrupts, memory management, scheduling, and other OS features, working on your own kernel can provide valuable insights. Linus Torvalds actually created Linux through a similar tinkering project. In 1991, he posted in a Minix news group, "I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones." [1]
A development environment for an operating system is more complex than one for an application, because you cannot simply compile the source code and run it on a trial basis. Instead, you need to create a bootable disk that can be used to boot a VM or emulated PC. It makes the work easier if there are debugging possibilities. The Qemu [2] and Bochs [3] emulation tools have proven useful for building a virtual environment.
[...]
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.
-
Linux Kernel 6.15 Now Available
The latest Linux kernel is now available with several new features/improvements and the usual bug fixes.
-
Microsoft Makes Surprising WSL Announcement
In a move that might surprise some users, Microsoft has made Windows Subsystem for Linux open source.
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.
-
IBM Announces Powerhouse Linux Server
IBM has unleashed a seriously powerful Linux server with the LinuxONE Emperor 5.