- Timothy Anthony
- Mohammed Abdallah
- Elifuraha Giliad
- Eurad Onesphory
- Elisha Richard
- Goodluck Tairo
JOS is an operating system, which is an open source operating system with Swahili language feature for performing different operations such as files and folders management. JOS facilitate interaction and much understanding of how the operating system works because of using Swahili as the interaction language between the user and the JOS itself.
- C
- Assembly
These are the most important files and directories in the Joint Operating System:
- jos/
- jos/bitmaps/ - Contains the JOS background images and icons.
- jos/boot/
- jos/components/
- jos/documentations/ - Contains JOS user manual and other document files.
- jos/images/
- jos/objects/ - Contains JOS object files.
- jos/programs - Contains JOS user programs source codes.
- jos/kijenzi.sh - JOS building file.
This section explains how to get JOS, building and running it on the emulator such as QEMU. The section also presents briefly about JOS Terminal.
Before being able to build and run the JOS, you need to prepare and configure the working environment. This include the computer running either a Linux or Window based Operating System having a minimum requirements of 1 GHz processor and 256 MB of RAM.
You can use the computer having Window as operating system but we advise you to use the one running any Linux distro because it will be easy to install or update the tools and dependencies needed for building and running JOS. We tested the JOS in a computer running Ubuntu Mate 16 without any problem.
Also you need to download and configure the tools and dependencies such as GCC, QEMU, Pluma and Hexedit which helps in the whole process of building and running JOS.
The commands used in this manual document for installation and configuration of different tools and dependencies were run on a computer running Ubuntu Mate. If you using another Linux distro and encounter any problem find the appropriate command to install and configure it, or find the appropriate tool or dependencies which will work on Windows in case you are using the computer which is installed with the Windows.
The GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) is a compiler system produced by the GNU Project supporting various programming languages. GCC is a key component of the GNU toolchain.
GCC will be used to compile Joint Operating System source codes files of .c and .asm into .o files which are object files. And then GCC will link those object files to create a different single files which will be in binary format and executable. In our case it will create a binary files for Bootloader and Kernel.
Mostly Linux distro comes with GCC already, in case you do not have it, you can use the following command(s) to install it. (Type the command on your Terminal, and don’t forget to supply the root password if asked)
sudo apt-get install gcc
To verify if the GCC is already installed you can use one of the following commands;
gcc -v
gcc –version
If you still encounter any problem installing GCC, type the following commands one after another;
(This will install GCC version 4.8)
sudo apt-get install python-software-properties
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gcc-4.8
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.8 50
QEMU is a generic and open source machine emulator and virtualizer. It is free and open source tool that allows users to create and manage Virtual machines inside the host operating system. The resources of the host operating system, such as hard drive, RAM, Processor, will be divided and shared by the guest operating systems (Virtual machines).
QEMU will be used to run the Joint Operating System by taking the values of the JOS image file, file system as the parameters and the number of processor and amount of RAM to use.
To install QEMU, write the following command on your Terminal.
sudo apt-get install qemu-kvm qemu virt-manager virt-viewer libvirt-bin
You may use other Emulator such as Virtualbox and Bochs which they both offer the same functionalities.
Pluma is a graphical application which supports editing multiple text files in one window (tabs or MDI). It fully supports international text through its use of the Unicode UTF-8 encoding. As a general purpose text editor, pluma supports most standard editor features, and emphasizes simplicity and ease of use.
Pluma will be used to view the source codes of the JOS, which will allow you to do more configuration and adding new functionalities by modifying the source codes.
Mostly pluma comes as the default text editor for the Ubuntu Mate distro, but you can use the following command to install it;
sudo apt-get install pluma-dev
If you encounter with any problem while installing, type the following commands one after another.
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pluma-dev
Hexedit is among of the editors which deals with binary or byte files. Hexedit is a type of computer program that allows manipulation of the fundamental binary data that constitutes a computer file. The name 'hex' comes from 'hexadecimal': a standard numerical format for representing binary data.
Hexedit will be used to view the content of the linked executable binary file i.e. Bootloader and Kernel and verifying them if they are in good format of values and size.
To install Hexedit on your computer, type the following commands on your Terminal one after another;
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install hexedit
The process of compiling and building the Joint Operating is performed by following these steps:
- On your terminal navigate to where the folder of JOS source codes present.
- Change the permission of all the files and folders of JOS source codes.
You can use the following command on your terminal.
chmod 777 –R jos - Change the current working directory to be that of the JOS source code.
You can use the following command on your terminal.
cd jos - Run the building file called kijenzi.sh present on the root of the JOS source codes files.
You can use the following command on your terminal
./kijenzi.sh
Or you can double click the kijenzi.sh file and choose to run it in terminal. Then you should wait for the process of JOS compilation and building to be finished and be presented with the JOS Terminal as the first interface which is a CLI for the interaction between the user and the JOS itself.
Copyright (c) 2016 Joint OS Development Team
This software is licensed under MIT license