whily/yalo

Lisp OS running on bare metal x86-64 hardware (WIP)

Source code at GitHub https://github.com/whily/yalo

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  "createdAt": "2014-01-26T12:21:56Z",
  "defaultBranch": "master",
  "description": "Lisp OS running on bare metal x86-64 hardware (WIP)",
  "fullName": "whily/yalo",
  "homepage": "",
  "language": "Common Lisp",
  "name": "yalo",
  "pushedAt": "2022-05-11T01:57:19Z",
  "stargazersCount": 586,
  "topics": [],
  "updatedAt": "2025-11-25T08:11:19Z",
  "url": "https://github.com/whily/yalo"
}

Yalo

Target

Yalo is a Lisp OS running on bare metal x86-64 hardware. The system programming language is Ink, a new Lisp dialect which combines the elegance of Scheme and powerfulness of Common Lisp. The project webpage is: https://github.com/whily/yalo

Status

The project is only at very very initial stage, with an assembler written in Common Lisp, and a 64 bit bootloader.

“Short term” plan:

VGA text mode without using BIOS.
Keyboard handling without using BIOS.
Switch to 32 bit protected mode.
Switch to 64 bit long mode.
Physical/virtual memory management.
Userland and system call.
Implement Ink interpreter with assembly.
Self hosting a more powerful Ink interpreter with Ink itself.

Getting Started

Getting Bootable Image

Currently, cross compilation is needed to build one floppy image containing yalo.

Cross compilation

Although yalo should compile on any Ansi Common Lisp implementation, it is only tested on SBCL and Clozure CL (aka CCL).

Mandatory Requirements:

[SBCL](http://sbcl.sourceforge.net SBCL) or CCL
git

Optional Requirements:

Emacs
SLIME

Getting Source Code

Run following command to anonymously checkout the latest source code of yalo.

$ git clone https://github.com/whily/yalo.git

Setup link for ASDF

Run following commands to make SBCL/CCL aware of the ASDF file for the cross compiler. Note that one only needs to run the script once.

$ cd yalo/cc
$ ./lnasdf

Build Floppy Image

With SBCL or CCL alone

For SBCL, in the root directory of the project (e.g. directory yalo), run script write-kernel-sbcl. Afterwards,floppy.img is written directly to the same directory, where scripts to run the image (e.g. run-bochs) are located. It should be noted that it is assumed that sbcl executable is installed in directory /usr/bin. Otherwise modify script write-kernel-sbcl accordingly.

For CCL, in the root directory of the project, type the following at REPL to generate floppy.img:

(require 'asdf)
(asdf:oos 'asdf:load-op 'cc)
(in-package :cc)
(write-kernel "../floppy.img")

One may type (ccl:quit) to exit from CCL.

With Emacs+SLIME

Inside Emacs,

First type M-x slime if SLIME is not started.
Type M-x slime-load-system then type cc when prompted for the system.
At REPL, type (in-package :cc) to switch to package cc (alternatively, one can user keyboard shortcut C-x M-p and then type cc).
Type (write-kernel "../floppy.img") at SLIME REPL to generate the kernel. Here we assume that current directory is cc of the source tree, therefore floppy.img is written directly to the source tree, where scripts to run the image (e.g. run-bochs) are located.

Above is applicable for both SBCL and CCL, assuming SLIME is configured properly for the CL implementation(s).

Run Image

There are various ways to run the image.

Bochs

Go to the root directory of the source code, where script run-bochs is located. Run the scripts and select 6 to proceed emulation. After invoking run-bochs, select 6, emulation starts directly.

On HiDPI screens, the font of Bochs is too small to see. Therefore in script run-bochs, there is one line related to using SDL2 (make sure the library is installed) as display library and starts the emulator in fullscreen mode, as below:

    'display_library: sdl2, options="fullscreen,gui_debug"'

Bochs header bar is not visible in full screen mode. Therefore one needs to press Ctrl+Alt+q to shutdown Yalo to quit emulator. Alternatively, one can modify the script files (e.g. removing fullscreen option or deleting the line containing display_library completely).

In addition, scripts/build-boch is the script the author used to compile a customized Bochs.

Note that on Ubuntu (at least in 16.10), package bochs-x should be installed in addition to package bochs.

QEMU

Similar to Bochs, go to the root directory of the source code, where script run-qemu and debug-qemu are located.

In both run-qemu and debug-qemu, QEMU monitor is redirectted to stdio (via argument -monitor stdio). Script run-qemu will start the emulator without GDB support; while debug-qemu enables GDB support: -s argument makes QEMU listens to port 1234 for GDB, while -S argument makes QEMU pauses at the beginning for GDB’s continue command. After running debug-qemu and starting GDB, first type target remote :1234 to connect to QEMU, then type command continue to resume the emulation.

VirtualBox

In the Storage page of the virtual machine settings, right click and select “Add Floppy Controller”. And the select the image file floppy.img for floppy drive. In the System page of virtual machine settings, make sure that Floppy is checked for Boot order.

Assuming the VM name is yalo, go to the root directory of the source code, where script run-virtualbox and debug-virtualbox are located. Run script run-virtualbox to start the emulator, or script debug-virtualbox to start the emulator with debug window.

Software version

So far, the development is done on Arch Linux. For above-mentioned software, the corresponding version is listed below:

SBCL: 1.4.10 or CCL 1.12
Emacs: 26.1
SLIME: 2.22
Bochs: 2.6.9
QEMU: 3.0.0
VirtualBox: 5.2.18