Ginux: Independent rust based Linux implementation

Ginux is an experimental, Rust-first x86-64 operating-system prototype that aims to run Linux programs without relying on the Linux kernel. It boots as a single UEFI image containing its own kernel and an administration controller running in user mode. The kernel provides process and memory management, scheduling, filesystems, networking, devices, and a Linux-compatible interface. Its central isolation unit is the “domain”: a kernel-managed environment with its own processes, address spaces, filesystem views, capabilities, resources, and lifecycle. OCI images supply domain filesystems, but Ginux itself supplies execution and isolation. The embedded controller configures devices and networking, manages persistent settings and image caches, and creates and supervises domains without running with kernel privileges.

The project demonstrates multiple isolated domains, selected unmodified Alpine and Rocky Linux programs, and Rocky Linux 10 reaching systemd’s multi-user target. Its tested platform is a QEMU x86-64 Q35 machine with OVMF, virtio devices, and an Intel IOMMU; it can run under KVM on Linux or QEMU’s emulator on Apple Silicon. Linux compatibility remains limited: of 375 Linux 6.12 x86-64 syscall numbers, 82 are classified as complete, 245 as partial, and 48 as policy-denied, so tested workflows do not establish broad compatibility. Hardware support, networking, storage persistence, resource enforcement, security validation, and physical-machine testing are also incomplete. Ginux is intended for research and architecture experiments, not production use or replacement of Linux.