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Distendo edited this page May 16, 2026 · 4 revisions

minios Wiki

Welcome to the minios wiki — a minimal UNIX-like x86 operating system built from scratch with a graphical window manager, TCP/IP stack, filesystem, language runtimes, and 9 built-in applications.

WARNING

This project have some bugs. If you find them, tell me! I will (try to) fix them.

Quick Links

Topic Description
Getting Started Build, run, and first boot
Architecture System layers and design
Shell Commands Full command reference
GUI & Window Manager Desktop, apps, taskbar
Networking RTL8139 driver and TCP/IP stack
Filesystem In-memory FS and persistence
Keyboard & Shortcuts Key mappings and special keys
Configuration Settings file reference
Development Building, hacking, contributing

Overview

minios is a from-scratch operating system targeting 32-bit x86 (i686) that runs in QEMU or on bare metal via Multiboot. It features:

  • VGA text mode (80×25) and VESA framebuffer (800×600×32)
  • Multi-window GUI with drag, resize, minimize, taskbar, and apps menu
  • Shell with 40+ commands, command history, tab completion, and mid-line editing
  • TCP/IP stack — ARP, IP, TCP, DNS, HTTP (via RTL8139 NIC)
  • In-memory filesystem — 64 files, 4 KB each, 64 KB pool
  • Language runtimes — Python interpreter, TinyCC C compiler, x86 assembler
  • 9 built-in applications — Terminal, Paint, Snake, Browser, Settings, Files, Calculator, Notepad, Winver

Quick Start

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/Distendo/minios.git
cd minios

# Build
make

# Run
qemu-system-i386 -kernel minios.bin -m 64 -vga std -nic user,model=rtl8139

Repository

Clone this wiki locally