Welcome to the Valecium OS project! This documentation provides everything you need to understand, build, develop, and use Valecium OS.
Valecium OS is a Unix-like, multi-architecture operating system kernel designed with clean architecture, modularity, and educational value in mind. Whether you’re a curious learner, a systems developer, or someone interested in OS internals, this documentation will guide you through the project.
Quick Start
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Want to build the project? → See Building the Project
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Want to contribute code? → See Developer Guide
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Want to try running it? → See Usage Guides
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Curious about the architecture? → See Kernel Documentation
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Know about the boot process? → See Bootloader Documentation
Project Overview
Valecium OS is built with the following principles:
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Multi-architecture support — Designed from the ground up to support multiple CPU architectures (i686, x64, ARM64, etc.)
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Clean separation of concerns — Hardware abstraction layer (HAL) isolates platform-specific code
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Modular design — Each subsystem (memory, filesystem, drivers) is self-contained
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Well-documented — Code and systems are documented for learning purposes
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Performance-oriented — Practical optimizations without sacrificing clarity
Documentation Files
For Developers and Contributors
These documents cover everything needed to participate in Valecium OS development:
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devel.ad — Coding standards, naming conventions, assembly strategy, and git workflow
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kernel/index.ad — Deep dives into kernel subsystems, memory management, scheduling, and device drivers
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bootloader/index.ad — Understand how does the legacy BIOS and new UEFI boot works
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roadmap.ad — Planned features, known limitations, and architectural goals
New contributors should start with devel.ad to understand the project’s coding standards and build system.
For Users and Testers
Want to try Valecium OS or understand how to use it?
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building.ad — Step-by-step instructions for compiling the kernel and userland
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usage/index.ad — How to boot, interact with, and test Valecium OS
For Userspace Developers
Building applications or utilities for Valecium OS?
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usr/index.ad — System calls, libc functions, and standard library APIs
Quick Reference
| Topic | Document |
|---|---|
Code style & conventions |
devel.ad |
Memory management |
kernel/index.ad |
Building from source |
building.ad |
Running on QEMU |
usage/index.ad |
Contributing patches |
devel.ad |
Supported architectures |
kernel/index.ad |
BIOS and EFI boot |
bootloader/index.ad |
Getting Help
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Found a bug? → Open an issue on GitHub
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Have a question? → Check devel.ad or search existing documentation
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Documentation out of sync with code? → Please submit a pull request with fixes
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Want to contribute? → See the Contributing section in devel.ad