Xv6, a simple Unix-like teaching operating system • Hacker News Board

Re: Xv6, a simple Unix-like teaching operating system

#21

Post by Not_Oles » Tue, Aug 02, 2022, 5:06 AM UTC

Hello!

I have an antique server with qemu set up to run Xv6.[1] I wanted somebody to go through the course with me.[2] So far nobody has come aboard, and I haven't really started. If anyone here might be interested, please feel free to get in touch: notoles@metalvps.com. It would be super great to have a few friends along! Thank you!

Best wishes and kindest regards,

Tom

[1] https://lowendbox.com/blog/how-to-compile-the-3-items-needed...

[2] https://lowendbox.com/blog/invitation-to-join-me-for-mits-fr...

Re: Xv6, a simple Unix-like teaching operating system

#22

Post by Jtsummers » Tue, Aug 02, 2022, 5:12 AM UTC

phendrenad2 wrote: post #6

adastra22 wrote: post #2

Why not MINIX?

MINIX isn't very Unix-like

It actually is Unix-like, and is even POSIX compliant.

Re: Xv6, a simple Unix-like teaching operating system

#23

Post by pjmlp » Tue, Aug 02, 2022, 5:39 AM UTC

Ah the book that set UNIX into the wild.

Re: Xv6, a simple Unix-like teaching operating system

#24

Post by sour-taste » Tue, Aug 02, 2022, 6:08 AM UTC

One of my favorite classes in college was Operating Systems, taught by Peter Fröhlich at Johns Hopkins. We modified and built new xv6 features. Here's the course webpage, with the excellent and fun assignments:

https://www.cs.jhu.edu/~phf/2016/fall/cs318/

Re: Xv6, a simple Unix-like teaching operating system

#25

Post by Not_Oles » Tue, Aug 02, 2022, 6:14 AM UTC

Not_Oles wrote: post #21

Hello! I have an antique server with qemu set up to run Xv6.[1] I wanted somebody to go through the course with me.[2] So far nobody has come aboard, and I haven't really started. If anyone here might be interested, please feel free to get in touch: notoles@metalvps.com. It would be super great to have a few friends along! Thank you! Best wishes and kindest regards, Tom [1] https://lowendbox.com/blog/how-to-compile-t…

Hello again!

Already have one person for our Xv6 study circle! Thank you HN! Anybody else?

I'm going to sleep now, but if anybody emails me, I will for sure reply in the morning.

Best!

Tom

Re: Xv6, a simple Unix-like teaching operating system

#26

Post by nix23 » Tue, Aug 02, 2022, 6:38 AM UTC

phendrenad2 wrote: post #6

adastra22 wrote: post #2

Why not MINIX?

MINIX isn't very Unix-like

>MINIX isn't very Unix-like

Can you please tell me why do you come to such a wrong conclusion?

Re: Xv6, a simple Unix-like teaching operating system

#27

Post by IshKebab » Tue, Aug 02, 2022, 8:21 AM UTC

I'm not really sure how I feel about universities (which should be teaching modern technologies and methods) teaching ancient 70s stuff like Unix.

Do we really want a new generation of people who think Unix was born perfect and cannot be improved upon?

Re: Xv6, a simple Unix-like teaching operating system

#28

Post by ode » Tue, Aug 02, 2022, 9:02 AM UTC

azhenley wrote: post #18

My favorite OS tutorial that I recommend to students, which uses Rust to target RISC-V: https://osblog.stephenmarz.com/

Why the downvotes?

Re: Xv6, a simple Unix-like teaching operating system

#29

Post by wsc981 » Tue, Aug 02, 2022, 9:45 AM UTC

garren wrote: post #19

Also, XINU, “ Operating System Design - The Xinu Approach”[0] The book isn’t free, but I’ve found it to be fun to work through. The projects are centered around building and running on small boards like beaglebone, Galileo, and more recently raspi (although this isn’t covered in the book.) [0] https://xinu.cs.purdue.edu/

I just scanned the Xv6 book [0] and it seems the book's exercises aren't really to build an OS from scratch, but modify an existing bare-bones OS.

When looking at the Xinu book index, it's not clear to me if the Xinu book is different. Does the Xinu book show how to write an OS from scratch or is the book also about making small changes to an existing OS?

---

[0]: https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.828/2021/xv6/book-riscv-rev2.pd...

Re: Xv6, a simple Unix-like teaching operating system

#30

Post by jamhan » Tue, Aug 02, 2022, 9:56 AM UTC

IshKebab wrote: post #27

I'm not really sure how I feel about universities (which should be teaching modern technologies and methods) teaching ancient 70s stuff like Unix. Do we really want a new generation of people who think Unix was born perfect and cannot be improved upon?

Your comment is almost certainly the stupidest thing I have ever read on HN.

I look forward to more insightful comments from you in this vein:

"I'm not sure how I feel about universities (which should be teaching modern history) teaching ancient 27BC stuff like the Roman Empire. Do you really want a new generation of people who think the Roman Empire was perfect and cannot be improved upon?"

I'm sure students would benefit more from MIT running courses such as "7.1729: An Introduction to 23 Not-Invented-Here JavaScript Frameworks" /s