CopperOS

A minimal x86 operating system featuring a two-stage bootloader and a kernel that confirms it has booted.

Architecture

os.img (raw disk image)
├── Sector 1 — boot/boot.asm   (512 bytes, MBR bootloader)
└── Sector 2 — kernel/kernel.asm (loaded at 0x8000)

Bootloader (boot/boot.asm)

• Runs in 16-bit real mode at address 0x7C00 (standard BIOS load address)
• Prints Loading CopperOS...
• Loads the kernel from disk sector 2 into memory at 0x8000 using BIOS INT 13h
• Jumps to the kernel

Kernel (kernel/kernel.asm)

• Runs in 16-bit real mode at address 0x8000
• Prints CopperOS kernel has booted successfully!
• Halts the CPU

Requirements

• NASM — Netwide Assembler
• xorriso — to build the ISO image (make iso)
• QEMU — to run the OS image (optional)

Building

make

This produces os.img, a raw disk image containing the bootloader and kernel.

Building a bootable ISO

make iso

This produces os.iso, a bootable El Torito ISO image suitable for burning to a CD/DVD or booting in a virtual machine.

Running

make run

This launches QEMU with the disk image. You should see:

Loading CopperOS...
CopperOS kernel has booted successfully!

Cleaning

make clean

Releases

Pre-built ISO images are available on the Releases page. A new release is automatically published whenever a version tag is pushed (e.g. v0.1.0-beta). Tags that include alpha, beta, rc, or pre are published as pre-releases.