v0.23-beta.2
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🚀 Release Notes - NovumOS v0.23-beta.2
Date: February 8, 2026
Version: v0.23-beta.2
🌟 Highlights - The User Mode & Security Update
This major release introduces User Mode (Ring 3) support, a standardized System Call Interface, and a complete migration of the Nova Language interpreter into a protected environment. This update provides the foundation for system stability and application isolation.
🛡️ User Mode & Privilege Isolation
- Ring 3 Support: The kernel now supports execution at privilege level 3. This implements memory protection and prevents user-mode code from executing privileged instructions.
- Stable Transition (IRET): Implemented a robust entry/exit mechanism via the
iretinstruction, ensuring consistent stack and register states during transitions. - Hardened IRQ Handling: Enhanced interrupt wrappers (Keyboard, Timer) to safely save and restore all segment registers (
DS,ES,FS,GS), preventing cross-privilege state corruption. - SSE & Alignment: Enabled SSE support for user processes and enforced 16-byte stack alignment (at
0x3FFFF0) to support modern compiler optimizations (Zig/Clang).
📞 System Call Interface (int 0x80)
- Standard Gateway: Provided a unified entry point for user applications.
- Initial API Surface:
0: Exit process1: Print string (with automatic carriage return handling)2: Get character (blocking keyboard input)3/4: VGA Hardware Cursor control (Set/Get)5: Clear Screen
- Transparent Redirection: Core Zig modules (
vga,keyboard,common) now automatically detect the privilege level and redirect I/O requests through syscalls when running in Ring 3.
📦 Nova Language in Ring 3
- Protected Environment: The Nova interpreter now runs entirely in User Mode. Any potential interpreter faults are now safely caught by the kernel's exception handlers.
- Enhanced I/O Safety: Integrated privilege checks in VGA and Serial drivers to prevent General Protection Faults (
#GP) during accidental direct hardware access.