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JSLinux Now Supports x86_64

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Re: JSLinux Now Supports x86_64

#31

Post by the_mitsuhiko »

simonw wrote: post #19

The thing I most want to use this (or some other WASM Linux engine) for is running a coding agent against a virtual operating system directly in my browser. Claude Code / Codex CLI / etc are all great because they know how to drive Bash and other Linux tools. The browser is probably the best sandbox we have. Being able to run an agent loop against a WebAssembly Linux would be a very cool trick. I had a play with v86…

> The thing I most want to use this (or some other WASM Linux engine) for is running a coding agent against a virtual operating system directly in my browser.

That exists: https://github.com/container2wasm/container2wasm

Unfortunately I found the performance to be enough of an issue that I did not look much further into it.

Re: JSLinux Now Supports x86_64

#32

Post by g947o »

srdjanr wrote: post #20
redleader55 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agentic workloads create and then run code. You don't want to just run that code in a "normal" environment like a container, or even a very well protected VM. There are other options, ofc - eg. gvisor, crossvm, firecracker, etc, but this one is uncommon enough to have a small number of attackers trying to hack it.

What's wrong with a well protected VM? Especially compared to something where the security selling point is "no one uses it" (according to your argument; I don't know how secure this actually is)

Nothing, but "there are already working options" does not necessarily mean we shouldn't try new (and sometimes weird) things

Re: JSLinux Now Supports x86_64

#33

Post by d_philla »

simonw wrote: post #19

The thing I most want to use this (or some other WASM Linux engine) for is running a coding agent against a virtual operating system directly in my browser. Claude Code / Codex CLI / etc are all great because they know how to drive Bash and other Linux tools. The browser is probably the best sandbox we have. Being able to run an agent loop against a WebAssembly Linux would be a very cool trick. I had a play with v86…

Check out Jeff Lindsay's Apptron (https://github.com/tractordev/apptron), comes very close to this, and is some great tech all on its own.

Re: JSLinux Now Supports x86_64

#34

Post by zamadatix »

maxloh wrote: post #9
zamadatix wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://github.com/copy/v86 might be a more 1:1 fully open sourced alternative.

Not really. x86_64 is not supported yet: https://github.com/copy/v86/issues/133

Sure, and there are probably some other things lacking, but JSLinux supports a lot more than CLI Linux userspace on x86-64 too. E.g. compare to lack of graphical interface https://github.com/container2wasm/container2wasm/issues/196

It looks like container2wasm uses a forked version of Bochs to get the x86-64 kernel emulation to work. If one pulled that out separately and patched it a bit more to have the remaining feature support it'd probably be the closest overall. Of course one could say the same about patching anything with enough enthusiasm :).

Re: JSLinux Now Supports x86_64

#36

Post by dmd »

cheema33 wrote: post #23
blackhaz wrote: post #18

Sorry for the off-topic, but what a bliss to see Windows 2000 interface. And what an absolute abomination from hell pretty much all the modern UIs are.

Is that even remotely relevant to JSLinux?

If you'd clicked the link, instead of just reading the title, you'd have known it was.

Re: JSLinux Now Supports x86_64

#37

Post by zb3 »

AlecMurphy wrote: post #24

If anyone is interested, I made some modifications last month to get TempleOS running on the x86_64 JSLinux: https://ring0.holyc.xyz/

Wow, thanks for this, this is exactly what v86 was missing! Runs faster than my demo: https://zb3.me/qemu-wasm-test/jspi-noffi/

Even though it has no JIT. Truly magic :)

Re: JSLinux Now Supports x86_64

#38

Post by progrium »

d_philla wrote: post #33
simonw wrote: post #19

The thing I most want to use this (or some other WASM Linux engine) for is running a coding agent against a virtual operating system directly in my browser. Claude Code / Codex CLI / etc are all great because they know how to drive Bash and other Linux tools. The browser is probably the best sandbox we have. Being able to run an agent loop against a WebAssembly Linux would be a very cool trick. I had a play with v86…

Check out Jeff Lindsay's Apptron ( https://github.com/tractordev/apptron ), comes very close to this, and is some great tech all on its own.

It's getting there. Among other things, it's probably the quickest way to author a Linux environment to embed on the web: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGOHvWArOOE

Apptron uses v86 because its fast. Would love it for somebody to add 64-bit support to v86. However, Apptron is not tied to v86. We could add Bochs like c2w or even JSLinux for 64-bit, I just don't think it will be fast enough to be useful for most.

Apptron is built on Wanix, which is sort of like a Plan9-inspired ... micro hypervisor? Looking forward to a future where it ties different environments/OS's together. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGBeT8lwbo0

Re: JSLinux Now Supports x86_64

#39

Post by jgtrosh »

maxloh wrote: post #5
petcat wrote: post #2

I've always been fascinated by this, but I have never known what it would be useful for. Does anyone know of any practical use cases?

My college professor used it to teach us the Linux command line We have Windows PCs in the classroom.

Similarly I've used it for technical interviews.

Re: JSLinux Now Supports x86_64

#40

Post by peterburkimsher »

postalrat wrote: post #35
petcat wrote: post #2

I've always been fascinated by this, but I have never known what it would be useful for. Does anyone know of any practical use cases?

Some sort of web based archive of applications/etc where you can boot them up in your browser.

That’s what I’d like to use it for as well, but it’s difficult to do so because there’s no way to edit the disk image.

Any advice on how to create a JSLinux clone with a specific file pre-installed and auto-launching would be much appreciated!

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