Genode OS Framework 18.08 released Aug 31, 2018

Genode 18.08 advances the framework's device drivers to accommodate modern PC hardware, introduces a new microcode-update mechanism for Intel CPUs, and enhances the networking and VFS infrastructure. With the new version, Sculpt OS enters the next stage by moving towards an interactive graphical user interface.

With Genode 18.08, we enter the third episode of our story of developing the Sculpt general-purpose OS. The release addresses four crucial concerns of general-purpose computing, namely the support of modern hardware, the ability to timely respond to the discovery of new CPU-level vulnerabilities by the means of applying microcode updates, the scalability of application workloads, and the interactive usability of the system. The latter is particularly exciting as Genode allows us to explore new user-interface paradigms to lay the power of capability-based security into the hands of the user.

The most prominent aspect of the current release is the framework's device-driver support, which includes the update of all Linux-based drivers to kernel version 4.16.3, a largely reworked wifi stack, the split of the USB driver into multiple components, and improved hardware compatibility of the PS/2 and network drivers. The release also introduces an experimental runtime for hosting drivers of Google's Fuchsia OS as Genode components.

Among the many further improvements are an extended Ada language runtime, added multi-processor support for our custom base-hw microkernel on x86, the ability to route network traffic between an arbitrary number of physical NICs, and a new way to select the networking stack of a component between lwIP and the Linux TCP/IP by a mere configuration change.

All improvements are covered in detail by the release documentation of version 18.08...