W4118 OPERATING SYSTEMS I

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Resources

C Programming

• C Books
  • The C Programming Language (2nd edition) Kernighan, Ritchie, awesome and useful book on C programming, written by the guys who invented it.
  • Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment (2nd Edition) Stevens, Rago, the absolute bible on C programming in the Unix environment
  • Expert C Programming Peter Van der Linden, a great book on advanced C programming


• C Links
  • ANSI C for programmers on UNIX Systems
  • C Frequently Asked Questions
  • C Pointers and Memory Allocation
  • GNU C Library Manual
  • Common C Problems
  • Programming In C: Unix System Calls and Subroutines in C
  • C Programming Guide
    

x86 Emulation

• QEMU - A fast and popular x86 platform and CPU
• User manual

x86 Assembly Language

• PC Assembly Language, Paul A. Carter, November 2003. (MIT copy)
• Intel 80386 Programmer's Reference Manual, 1987 (HTML). (MIT copy - PDF) (MIT copy - HTML)
  Much shorter than the full current Intel Architecture manuals below, but describes all processor features used in 6.828.
• IA-32 Intel Architecture Software Developer's Manuals, Intel, 2007. Mit copies:
  • Volume I: Basic Architecture
  • Volume 2A: Instruction Set Reference, A-M
  • Volume 2B: Instruction Set Reference, N-Z
  • Volume 3A: System Programming Guide, Part 1
  • Volume 3B: System Programming Guide, Part 2
• Multiprocessor references:
  • MP specification
  • IO APIC
• AMD64 Architecture Programmer's Manual.
  Covers both the "classic" 32-bit x86 architecture and the new 64-bit extensions supported by the latest AMD and Intel processors.
• Writing inline assembly language with GCC:
  • Brennan's Guide to Inline Assembly, Brennan "Mr. Wacko" Underwood
  • Inline assembly for x86 in Linux, Bharata B. Rao, IBM
  • GCC-Inline-Assembly-HOWTO, Sandeep.S
• Loading x86 executables in the ELF format:
  • Tool Interface Standard (TIS) Executable and Linking Format (ELF).
    The definitive standard for the ELF format.

PC Hardware Programming

• General PC architecture information
  • Phil Storrs PC Hardware book, Phil Storrs, December 1998.
  • Bochs technical hardware specifications directory.
• General BIOS and PC bootstrap
  • BIOS Services and Software Interrupts, Roger Morgan, 1997.
  • "El Torito" Bootable CD-ROM Format Specification, Phoenix/IBM, January 1995.
• VGA display - kern/console.c
  • VESA BIOS Extension (VBE) 3.0, Video Electronics Standards Association, September 1998. (MIT copy)
  • VGADOC, Finn Thøgersen, 2000. (MIT copy - text) (MIT copy - ZIP)
  • Free VGA Project, J.D. Neal, 1998.
• Keyboard and Mouse - kern/console.c
  • Adam Chapweske's resources.
• 8253/8254 Programmable Interval Timer (PIT) - inc/timerreg.h
  • 82C54 CHMOS Programmable Interval Timer, Intel, October 1994. (MIT copy)
  • Data Solutions 8253/8254 Tutorial, Data Solutions.
• 8259/8259A Programmable Interrupt Controller (PIC) - kern/picirq.*
  • 8259A Programmable Interrupt Controller, Intel, December 1988.
• Real-Time Clock (RTC) - kern/kclock.*
  • Phil Storrs PC Hardware book, Phil Storrs, December 1998. In particular:
    • Understanding the CMOS
    • A list of what is in the CMOS
  • CMOS Memory Map, Padgett Peterson, May 1996.
  • M48T86 PC Real-Time Clock, ST Microelectronics, April 2004. (MIT copy)
• 16550 UART Serial Port - kern/console.c
  • PC16550D Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter with FIFOs, National Semiconductor, 1995.
  • Technical Data on 16550, Byterunner Technologies.
  • Interfacing the Serial / RS232 Port, Craig Peacock, August 2001.
• IEEE 1284 Parallel Port - kern/console.c
  • Parallel Port Central, Jan Axelson.
  • Parallel Port Background, Warp Nine Engineering.
  • IEEE 1284 - Updating the PC Parallel Port, National Instruments.
  • Interfacing the Standard Parallel Port, Craig Peacock, August 2001.
• IDE hard drive controller - fs/ide.c
  • AT Attachment with Packet Interface - 6 (working draft), ANSI, December 2001.
  • Programming Interface for Bus Master IDE Controller, Brad Hosler, Intel, May 1994.
  • The Guide to ATA/ATAPI documentation, Constantine Sapuntzakis, January 2002.
• Sound cards (not supported in 6.828 kernel, but you're welcome to do it as a challenge problem!)
  • Sound Blaster Series Hardware Programming Guide, Creative Technology, 1996.
  • 8237A High Performance Programmable DMA Controller, Intel, September 1993.
  • Sound Blaster 16 Programming Document, Ethan Brodsky, June 1997.
  • Sound Programming, Inverse Reality.
• E100 Network Interface Card
  • Intel 8255x 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller Family Open Source Software Developer Manual
  • 82559ER Fast Ethernet PCI Controller Datasheet
  • The 82559 EEPROM

Linux Resources

• Some Linux kernel programming rules, extracted from my experiences hacking the Linux kernel and finding bugs in it.
  • Never call a blocking function (e.g. a function that may call sched()) with interrupt disabled or spin_lock held, or you risk deadlock. A typical mistake is to assume kmalloc() never blocks; it can. You need the GFP_ATOMIC flag for a non-blocking kmalloc().
  • Never directly dereference a user-provided pointer in kernel; use "paranoid" functions (e.g. copy_from_user) to access them instead.
  • Memory allocation can fail, so you must carefully check the returns of *alloc() functions against NULL.
  • Don't simply call panic() for trivial errors, because panic() panics your entire kernel! A particular bad thing to do is to panic() whenever kmalloc() returns NULL.
  • When you return from a function due to an error (e.g. kmalloc() returns NULL), don't forget to release resources (e.g. spin_lock, allocated memory) you've acquired.


• Building the Linux kernel
  • Linux Kernel Archives at kernel.org
  • Linux Kernel HOWTO for configuring and compiling the kernel (very useful)
    
  • Kernel Rebuild Guide: another source for configuring and compiling the kernel


• Debugging the Linux kernel
  • KDB: built-in kernel debugger with multiprocessor support
  • Kgdb: a kernel patch to support the gdb debugger. By default you need two machines connected through a serial line; however, with some minor tweaks you can debug the kernel running inside VMware


• Understanding the Linux kernel
  • Linux 2.6 Memory Management (PDF), covering Linux 2.6
  • Rusty Russell's Unreliable Guide to Locking
    
  • Some Linux kernel programming rules


• More about Linux
  • Linux homepage
    
  • Linux Information HQ
  • Linux Documentation Project


• Linux News
  • Linux Weekly News (LWN.net)
  • KernelTrap.org

Android References

• Android source code cross-reference. It's very useful for quickly finding the right place in the source code where a function is defined or used. It cross-references both the user-space code and the kernel code, so remember to navigate to the right version of the kernel before search.
• Instructions for setting up your Android emulator environment for the class.
• Downloading the Android SDK. To run the emulator, you do not need the entire SDK. Just download the "SDK Tools Only" distribution for your platform and then install the appropriate Android platform version and device image using the included android tool.
• How to build an Android kernel. From the Android Open Source Project (AOSP).
• Android Emulator command line reference.