Genode OS Framework release 22.02 Feb 28, 2022

With Genode 22.02, 3D acceleration becomes available to guest operating systems running in VirtualBox 6, Sculpt OS evolves into a versatile framework for building special-purpose operating systems, and Genode starts to interact with the modem of the PinePhone.

The features mentioned above are merely the tip of the iceberg of version 22.02. In fact, the majority of the development work during the release cycle was focused on topics beyond the visible surface, ranging from the reorganization of the code base for streamlining the targeting of new hardware, over the tightening of foundational framework APIs, to the raising of the default warning level used when building genuine Genode components. Over the course of this infrastructural work, almost no component was left unturned.

Functionality-wise, improvements of the Genode-based Sculpt OS are at the center stage of the release. Originally pursued with the vision of a Genode-based general-purpose OS that is fit for day-to-day use on commodity PC hardware, the current release lifts the potential of Sculpt's architecture for the creation of special-purpose operating-system appliances. The gained flexibility took even us developers by surprise! Thanks to the new modular approach, we were able to demonstrate a bare-bones version of Sculpt OS on the PinePhone at FOSDEM, or accelerate our development workflow by routinely running Sculpt OS directly on the Linux kernel.

The intensive device-driver-related developments of the previous releases continued as well. This time, we took our new approach for running Linux drivers in Genode to PC hardware, starting with a fresh port of the USB host controller driver. The Intel GPU driver received numerous performance improvements and can now even be combined with guest operating systems running in VirtualBox 6. Further notable driver-related improvements are the new ability to interact with the modem on the PinePhone and largely streamlined driver infrastructure for the Raspberry Pi.

All the details of the new version can be found in the release documentation of version 22.02...