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OS Development - Testing

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  • 25-02-2013 2:01am
    #1
    L.Jenkins
    Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 19,240 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    Just wondering what is the best way to test for, when developing an Operating System. I have an old laptop with a broken screen, so I could hook up a monitor to the system and use that machine.

    I was wondering what is the best way to test it? Use my old laptop to run as an emulator of some sort with software to assist or use the machine to run and test the OS? There will be quite a lot of testing as I'll want to develop from the ground up.

    If I get frustrated with that idea, would it be better to develop around an existing kernel or should I truck on with the project to further understand the nitty-gritty of low level system programming?


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    #2
    ChRoMe
    Registered Users Posts: 2,021 ✭✭✭ChRoMe


    Itzy wrote: »
    Just wondering what is the best way to test for, when developing an Operating System. I have an old laptop with a broken screen, so I could hook up a monitor to the system and use that machine.

    I was wondering what is the best way to test it? Use my old laptop to run as an emulator of some sort with software to assist or use the machine to run and test the OS? There will be quite a lot of testing as I'll want to develop from the ground up.

    If I get frustrated with that idea, would it be better to develop around an existing kernel or should I truck on with the project to further understand the nitty-gritty of low level system programming?

    Eh.... writing an operating systems is a ****ing massive task. To be frank, if you dont know the answer to your own questions, you are not capable of the task.


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    #3
    ressem
    Registered Users Posts: 2,426 ✭✭✭ressem


    An OS for your own purposes is not necessarily a massive task, but it requires a lot of in-depth hardware and design knowledge.
    So you would really want to use generic hardware with lots of technical information.

    You will definitely want to make full use of an emulator as your code will crash a lot.

    How about downloading MINIX and looking at its kernel source and driver source to see if it holds your interest.
    http://git.minix3.org/?p=minix.git;a=tree;hb=HEAD

    It's tiny compared to most and just about every college course uses it and Tanenbaum as the basis of their operating system design syllabus


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