From-Scratch · x86_64 · Long Mode

NYX OS

A 64-bit operating system written from scratch in C and x86_64 Assembly — a preemptive kernel, a windowed desktop with the Selene web browser, a real TCP/IP stack, an EXT2 filesystem, and an in-OS C toolchain that self-hosts (TinyCC + xbm) plus the native N language. No libraries. Just the metal.

◆ v6.4.180 LTS · v5.9.0 GPL-2.0+ 57 Syscalls

Read the manual Browse the source

NyxOS Desktop · Window Compositor 1080p @ 60Hz

RUNNING

NyxOS 1080p Desktop Compositor with Selene Browser and App Suite

nyx:root — terminal (PID 6)

$ uname -a

NyxOS nyx-core 6.4.180 #1 SMP PREEMPT x86_64

CR3: 0x0000000000100000 | PML4[511] HIGHER-HALF

$ selene https://nyxos.cc

HTTP/1.1 200 OK — Decoded chunked stream

57 SYSCALLS ACTIVE APIC: 1000 Hz

nyx:root — shell interactive

nyx:root / #

Quick: nyxfetch uname -a cat /etc/os-release help selene ping 127.0.0.1 ps cc hello.c clear

Core Systems

Kernel Architecture Pipeline

An interrupt-driven higher-half monolithic kernel engineered from first principles in C and NASM Assembly. Zero external runtime libraries.

Boot & Initialization

Multiboot2 hand-off with memory map & framebuffer. Enters 64-bit Long Mode, sets up GDT/TSS, IDT with IST stacks, and 1000 Hz APIC timer.

GDT · IDT · APIC · PIT · PS/2

CR0.PG = 1 · EFER.LME = 1

Memory Management

Bitmap physical page frame allocator, 16 MB kernel heap, 4-level paging with PML4[511] higher-half mapping, and NX + SMEP page permissions.

PML4 · PDPT · PD · PT · Heap

CR3: 0x100000 (Base)

Processes & Scheduler

Preemptive weighted round-robin scheduling over kernel threads and ring-3 processes. Full job control: exec, spawn, jobs, wait, kill, and nice.

Context Switch · TSS · RSP0

APIC IRQ0 Vector 32

ELF Userspace & 57 Syscalls

ELF64 loader, embedded initramfs, fork() with COW, 57 atomic syscalls via syscall/sysret, minimal libc, and isolated per-process file descriptors.

ELF64 · Ring-3 · MSR_LSTAR

RCX = RIP · R11 = RFLAGS

Filesystem & VFS

Ramdisk VFS with full EXT2 read/write driver auto-mounted at /mnt, write-through sector cache, per-fd offsets, and persistence across reboots.

EXT2 Inodes · VFS Nodes · ATA

Auto-mount: /mnt

Network Subsystem

Realtek RTL8139 PCI NIC driver with TX/RX rings, ARP cache, IPv4 routing, ICMP echo, UDP datagrams, and full TCP with exponential RTO.

RTL8139 · TCP · UDP · poll()

DHCP · DNS · Loopback

Hardware Inspector

x86_64 Register & Syscall Transition

MSR_LSTAR (0xC0000082)

sys_write (#1) sys_read (#0) sys_fork (#57) sys_poll (#7) sys_socket (#41)

RAX (Syscall ID)

0x0000000000000001

RDI (Arg 1)

0x0000000000000001 (fd = STDOUT)

RSI (Arg 2)

0x0000000040001080 (buf)

RDX (Arg 3)

0x000000000000002A (count = 42)

R10 (Arg 4)

0x0000000000000000

R8 (Arg 5)

0x0000000000000000

sys_write (Syscall #1) Ring 3 (Userspace) ➔ Ring 0 (Kernel)

Writes up to count bytes from buffer to open file descriptor. Checks user-space memory pointers before committing to VFS/framebuffer driver.

Memory Management Unit

4-Level Paging (PML4 ➔ PT Translation)

64-bit Virtual Address:

Level 4 (Bits 47:39)

PML4[511]

Level 3 (Bits 38:30)

PDPT[510]

Level 2 (Bits 29:21)

PD[0]

Level 1 (Bits 20:12)

PT[256]

Page Offset (11:0)

Offset: 0x000

Mapped Physical Frame: 0x0000000000100000 [Present · R/W · NX=0]

Human Interface

The 1080p Desktop & Selene Browser

NyxOS renders a double-buffered 1080p compositor with live window dragging, drop shadows, and Selene — a native web browser that fetches live web pages over TCP/IP.

NyxOS Desktop Compositor Running Live Applications

Z-Ordered Windows

Double-buffered compositor with snap-to-edge preview, drag, resize, and drop shadow blending.

Virtual Workspaces

Switch seamlessly between application workflows with instant state caching.

1080p

High-DPI Framebuffer

SB16

Audio Subsystem

Sound Blaster 16 driver with DMA transfer, IRQ routing, and multi-channel mixing.

← → ↻

GET

Status: 200 OK RTL8139 · TCP Sockets · HTML Tokenizer

Wire Protocol

A Real TCP/IP Stack

Every layer from PCI NIC ring descriptors up to an HTTP/1.1 server. Includes full-duplex nc and poll() I/O multiplexing.

L7 HTTP · DNS · Selene · tcpserve

Browser, Web Server, Chunked Transfer

L4 TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)

Exponential RTO, Listen/Accept, Sockets

L4b UDP · ICMP

Datagrams, Ping Echo with RTT Statistics

L3 IPv4 (Internet Protocol)

Header Checksum, Routing, Loopback (127.0.0.1)

L2 ARP & Ethernet II

Dynamic ARP Cache, MAC Framing

L1 Realtek RTL8139 Driver

PCI Configuration, TX/RX Ring Buffers

Interactive Packet Dispatcher LIVE WIRE

[00:00:01] rtl0: Link up 100Mbps full-duplex (PCI 00:03.0)

[00:00:02] DHCP: Bound IP 10.0.2.15 Netmask 255.255.255.0 Gateway 10.0.2.2

[00:00:03] TCP Stack ready. Listening on socket 0.0.0.0:80 (tcpserve)

Developer Ecosystem

In-OS C Toolchain & Compilers

NyxOS self-hosts. A ported TinyCC 0.9.27 compiles C code directly inside the operating system (tcc compiles tcc), paired with the xbm package manager and native N compiler.

[C]

Self-Hosting C

TinyCC 0.9.27 Compiler

Ported to run inside NyxOS ring-3 userspace. Emits 64-bit ELF executables directly to the EXT2 filesystem. Compiles and executes C applications in milliseconds with zero host dependencies.

tcc compiles tcc ELF64 Generator 0 Host Dependency

[PKG]

Package Manager

xbm Package Manager

The native binary package manager for NyxOS. Resolves recipe dependencies, manages disk storage in /mnt/bin, and installs user applications with checksum validation.

xbm install Recipe Engine EXT2 /mnt/bin

[N]

Native Language

The N & N++ Language

The native programming language designed specifically for NyxOS low-level applications. Compiled via ncc into fast, statically verified native machine code.

ncc Compiler Strict Typing Zero Runtime Overhead

[VFS]

VFS & Graphics

EXT2 VFS & Bochs VBE Graphics

Persistent EXT2 filesystem with inode caching, sector write-through buffers, and hardware-accelerated 32-bit RGB framebuffer drawing primitives for graphics development.

EXT2 Inodes VBE 32-bit RGB DMA Audio SB16

In-Browser Compiler Sandbox TinyCC 0.9.27 + ncc

Ready to compile. Press "[RUN] Compile & Run".

Target: ELF64 · Isolated Ring-3 Memory

Formal Verification

Known-Answer Tests in CI

Every build executes an exhaustive cryptographic test suite verifying PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256, AES Key Wrap (RFC 3394), and SHA-256 primitives against NIST CAVP standards with zero warnings.

nyx-crypto-testbed (FIPS 180-4 / RFC 3394) 55/55 Verified

[PASS] PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256 (Iteration 4096) 100% OK (RFC 6070)

[PASS] AES-128 Key Wrap (RFC 3394) 40-byte payload 100% OK (NIST CAVP)

[PASS] SHA-256 FIPS 180-4 1M "a" Repetition 100% OK (FIPS 180-4)

[PASS] HMAC-SHA256 Variable Key (128-byte pad) 100% OK (RFC 4231)

[PASS] Chroot Path Normalization & User Pointer Check 100% OK (Kernel Ring-3)

Documentation

Getting Started with NyxOS

Build the kernel, boot the ISO in QEMU, forward network ports, and log in to the desktop.

Clone & Compile

Requires x86_64-elf-gcc or host GCC with 64-bit support.

bash

git clone https://github.com/kazah-png/nyx-os.git
cd nyx-os
make -C kernel

Run in QEMU

Launches with GUI desktop, RTL8139 NIC, and EXT2 disk image.

QEMU Command

qemu-system-x86_64 -cdrom NyxOS.iso \
  -m 256M -nic user,model=rtl8139 \
  -display sdl

Log In to Desktop

PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256 authenticated default credentials.

Default Credentials
Username: nyx
Password: nyx

One-Click Hardware Setup

QEMU Launch Command Generator

Memory (RAM)

SMP CPU Cores

NIC Interface

Audio Driver

            qemu-system-x86_64 -cdrom NyxOS.iso -m 256M -smp 2 -nic user,model=rtl8139 -audiodev dsound,id=snd0 -device sb16,audiodev=snd0 -vga std -display sdl
          

Command Encyclopedia

Available in text console & graphical Terminal

Category	Commands	Description
System	help clear nyxfetch uname date version reboot	System information, kernel version, diagnostics, clock, and ACPI reboot.
Files	ls cd pwd cat touch mkdir rm cp mv grep	VFS & EXT2 file manipulation, searching, directory traversal, and stream output.
Processes	ps mem free exec spawn jobs kill	Preemptive process monitoring, memory layout inspect, job control, and signal dispatch.
Toolchain	cc xbm ncc tcc	In-OS C compiler & runner, package manager (xbm install), and N language toolchain.
Network	ifconfig dhcp ping setip tcptest tcpserve nc	IP configuration, DHCP lease, ICMP echo with RTT, TCP client/server, and full-duplex netcat.
Applications	selene editor paint calc gui	Launch Selene web browser, graphical text editor, paint studio, and window compositor.

The Bare-Metal Manifesto

BUILD IT. UNDERSTAND IT. OWN IT.

NyxOS. From scratch. No libraries. Just the metal.

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