<![CDATA[So, this weekend I'm playing with Fiwix.]]>So, this weekend I'm playing with Fiwix. Fiwix (https://fiwix.org/) is a small hobbyist operating system for i386 that aims to be Linux 2.0 compatible while being small enough that a single human could understand it as a whole (it's ~30k SLOC, self-hosted, and can be built with tcc).

A couple of years ago Fiwix was used in a fun project of "let's bootstrap a Linux system with only tiny tools that can be understood by a single person": https://github.com/fosslinux/live-bootstrap/blob/master/parts.rst

My refreshed interest in it comes from multiple sources: first, there is now a TCP/IP stack (still WIP). Second, GNU/Linux is *gestures ambiguously* in a strange state, so it is interesting to see how far one could get with a completely non-BSD non-standard tiny, toy-like operating system.

The installation is quite straightforward. "Please keep in mind this kernel is not yet suited for production. Use at your own risk!" is, in itself, a proof of reliability.

This is a beginning of a slow-going🧡

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/topic/fc8b8d41-b9bf-40b4-97a2-44dcf365cd68/so-this-weekend-i-m-playing-with-fiwix.RSS for NodeMon, 06 Apr 2026 08:16:57 GMTSat, 04 Apr 2026 14:16:19 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to So, this weekend I'm playing with Fiwix. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 20:27:22 GMT]]>@pulkomandy πŸ˜„ oh no

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/nina_kali_nina/statuses/116353980353153790https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/nina_kali_nina/statuses/116353980353153790Sun, 05 Apr 2026 20:27:22 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to So, this weekend I'm playing with Fiwix. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 20:27:01 GMT]]>@nina_kali_nina I plan to continue supporting it until SDL2 (or 3?) gets ported to all the platforms that have SDL1.2 (probably forever, because some of these platforms are dead)

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.tetaneutral.net/users/pulkomandy/statuses/116353978928346853https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.tetaneutral.net/users/pulkomandy/statuses/116353978928346853Sun, 05 Apr 2026 20:27:01 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to So, this weekend I'm playing with Fiwix. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 20:26:08 GMT]]>@pulkomandy neat~ I'll try the latest version tomorrow, then! Thanks!

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/nina_kali_nina/statuses/116353975452078907https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/nina_kali_nina/statuses/116353975452078907Sun, 05 Apr 2026 20:26:08 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to So, this weekend I'm playing with Fiwix. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 20:25:35 GMT]]>@nina_kali_nina GrafX2 still supports SDL1.2 in the latest versions. You can configure that with a variable in the Makefile Let me know if there are any other problems with porting it!

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.tetaneutral.net/users/pulkomandy/statuses/116353973309784822https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.tetaneutral.net/users/pulkomandy/statuses/116353973309784822Sun, 05 Apr 2026 20:25:35 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to So, this weekend I'm playing with Fiwix. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 20:22:40 GMT]]>FiwixOS only has SDL1.2, and I wasn't sure whether new Grafx2 supports it, so I chose a release from definitely-pre-SDL2 and, well, simply compiled it. I had to tweak the makefile because some of the required libraries were not where the make expected them to be. It is great to have truly portable software. Great job, @pulkomandy and the Grafx2 team πŸ™‚

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/nina_kali_nina/statuses/116353961854677546https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/nina_kali_nina/statuses/116353961854677546Sun, 05 Apr 2026 20:22:40 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to So, this weekend I'm playing with Fiwix. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 19:46:08 GMT]]>Adding new software to Fiwix isn't all that difficult. Here's a PR I made for mtools, a userland FAT12/16/32 tooling: https://github.com/mikaku/FiwixOS/pull/4

The DOSBox 0.74 is merged already, so it should be there with the next release in November πŸ™‚ If you want staging or dosbox-x, you're free to take a stab at it~

yes it is still a 🧡

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/nina_kali_nina/statuses/116353818179171445https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/nina_kali_nina/statuses/116353818179171445Sun, 05 Apr 2026 19:46:08 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to So, this weekend I'm playing with Fiwix. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 17:58:11 GMT]]>@nina_kali_nina Thanks for another deep dive into a new rabbit hole.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/fallbackerik/statuses/116353393713928332https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/fallbackerik/statuses/116353393713928332Sun, 05 Apr 2026 17:58:11 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to So, this weekend I'm playing with Fiwix. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 12:09:31 GMT]]>@nina_kali_nina i love it.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/nys793/statuses/116352022676198624https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/nys793/statuses/116352022676198624Sun, 05 Apr 2026 12:09:31 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to So, this weekend I'm playing with Fiwix. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 10:54:52 GMT]]>@drj an easier to use distribution is Debian 0.93+MGR on 86Box with Mouse Systems driver. I've uploaded ready-to-use HDD image a while ago: https://archive.org/details/bellcore-mgr-debian0.93

It is superior in a way that I've compiled most of the clients there, including the ghostscript viewer

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/nina_kali_nina/statuses/116351729149871345https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/nina_kali_nina/statuses/116351729149871345Sun, 05 Apr 2026 10:54:52 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to So, this weekend I'm playing with Fiwix. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 10:52:14 GMT]]>@nina_kali_nina I would _want_ to try it out. Intrigued by MGR ever since a friend demo'd it to me on his Atari ST (1040, more powerful than mine) around 1989. Didn't know it was MGR until at least decade later.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://typo.social/users/drj/statuses/116351718836825816https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://typo.social/users/drj/statuses/116351718836825816Sun, 05 Apr 2026 10:52:14 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to So, this weekend I'm playing with Fiwix. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 10:49:35 GMT]]>I took a moment to package the binaries for MGR - https://github.com/mikaku/FiwixOS/issues/2

The port is dirty/incomplete because there's probably two people out there who would want to try it out, and both of us are better off starting it from scratch

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/nina_kali_nina/statuses/116351708420356296https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/nina_kali_nina/statuses/116351708420356296Sun, 05 Apr 2026 10:49:35 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to So, this weekend I'm playing with Fiwix. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 07:27:50 GMT]]>@nina_kali_nina Kind of reminds me of the Italian Linux distro that fits on a floppy: muLinux! Almost 23 years old now, but also with kernel 2.x

https://micheleandreoli.org/public/Software/mulinux/

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://freiburg.social/users/6b6279/statuses/116350915061966117https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://freiburg.social/users/6b6279/statuses/116350915061966117Sun, 05 Apr 2026 07:27:50 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to So, this weekend I'm playing with Fiwix. on Sat, 04 Apr 2026 23:43:36 GMT]]>@nina_kali_nina @matt
Very cool!

I was useneting and windowing in 1989, I don't know why I didn't port and play with this back then.

Well, I was probably dealing with a relationship complication or breakup at the time; c'est la vie.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mathstodon.xyz/users/dougmerritt/statuses/116349089615429844https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mathstodon.xyz/users/dougmerritt/statuses/116349089615429844Sat, 04 Apr 2026 23:43:36 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to So, this weekend I'm playing with Fiwix. on Sat, 04 Apr 2026 22:40:02 GMT]]>@jarkko neat πŸ™‚ booting up from real mode is a special, fun exercise in a certain meaning of the word

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/nina_kali_nina/statuses/116348839704211892https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/nina_kali_nina/statuses/116348839704211892Sat, 04 Apr 2026 22:40:02 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to So, this weekend I'm playing with Fiwix. on Sat, 04 Apr 2026 22:38:26 GMT]]>@nina_kali_nina
It was worth a shot

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/kirtai/statuses/116348833366863887https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/kirtai/statuses/116348833366863887Sat, 04 Apr 2026 22:38:26 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to So, this weekend I'm playing with Fiwix. on Sat, 04 Apr 2026 22:37:43 GMT]]>@kirtai I seriously doubt that πŸ™‚ but if it can be compiled with C in userland, it can be done

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/nina_kali_nina/statuses/116348830595319448https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/nina_kali_nina/statuses/116348830595319448Sat, 04 Apr 2026 22:37:43 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to So, this weekend I'm playing with Fiwix. on Sat, 04 Apr 2026 22:35:58 GMT]]>@nina_kali_nina I've actually done aoUT type of stuff also professionally back in 2012 when I implemented this in collaboration with Peter Anvin:

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/arch/x86/realmode

Basically just applied learnings from this πŸ™‚]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.kernel.org/objects/5b538b5a-ba05-4e2d-bf88-b7741ce1cbc0https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.kernel.org/objects/5b538b5a-ba05-4e2d-bf88-b7741ce1cbc0Sat, 04 Apr 2026 22:35:58 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to So, this weekend I'm playing with Fiwix. on Sat, 04 Apr 2026 22:17:04 GMT]]>@nina_kali_nina ooh, that looks interesting. I’ll have a play as well.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/mauvedeity/statuses/116348749350111873https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/mauvedeity/statuses/116348749350111873Sat, 04 Apr 2026 22:17:04 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to So, this weekend I'm playing with Fiwix. on Sat, 04 Apr 2026 21:59:24 GMT]]>@nina_kali_nina "Why does that look like Plan 9?"

*reads*

> made by the Bell Communications Research, and it looked like Plan 9's older sister.

You had my curiousity, now you have my interest :3

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://merveilles.town/users/pixx/statuses/116348679902792414https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://merveilles.town/users/pixx/statuses/116348679902792414Sat, 04 Apr 2026 21:59:24 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to So, this weekend I'm playing with Fiwix. on Sat, 04 Apr 2026 21:53:12 GMT]]>@nina_kali_nina
yis thats true as well πŸ™‚

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/Etch9/statuses/116348655566577994https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/Etch9/statuses/116348655566577994Sat, 04 Apr 2026 21:53:12 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to So, this weekend I'm playing with Fiwix. on Sat, 04 Apr 2026 21:51:58 GMT]]>@nina_kali_nina
Hmm, I wonder if Fiwix has 9P support. It would make working in a VM easier (QEMU supports 9P for shared folders)

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/kirtai/statuses/116348650711816786https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/kirtai/statuses/116348650711816786Sat, 04 Apr 2026 21:51:58 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to So, this weekend I'm playing with Fiwix. on Sat, 04 Apr 2026 21:48:54 GMT]]>@Etch9 I think even if you're moderate on such issues, you could see benefit in having fun πŸ™‚

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/nina_kali_nina/statuses/116348638601525103https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/nina_kali_nina/statuses/116348638601525103Sat, 04 Apr 2026 21:48:54 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to So, this weekend I'm playing with Fiwix. on Sat, 04 Apr 2026 21:46:03 GMT]]>@nina_kali_nina
i see! well thats true but i do find myself more in the middle on these kinds of matters, i dont like the linux fundation at all and i hate the oss foundation for their stance on ai weights but i do trust torvalds and the companies are a big reason the linux kernel is this perfomant and the defacto standard

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/Etch9/statuses/116348627445453623https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tech.lgbt/users/Etch9/statuses/116348627445453623Sat, 04 Apr 2026 21:46:03 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to So, this weekend I'm playing with Fiwix. on Sat, 04 Apr 2026 21:43:24 GMT]]>@nina_kali_nina @jarkko Ah, yeah, that's a good point. And it'd probably be just as painful to cherry-pick patches, too.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://oldbytes.space/users/thelastpsion/statuses/116348617005665832https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://oldbytes.space/users/thelastpsion/statuses/116348617005665832Sat, 04 Apr 2026 21:43:24 GMT