TAIL OS

Real Time OS written in RUST

TAIL OS is a microkernel-based real-time operating system written in Rust and designed for embedded systems.

Quick Start

Install QEMU:

sudo apt-get install -y qemu-system-aarch64 qemu-utils

Download TAIL OS & Disk images:

wget https://tail-os.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/tail.rfs
wget https://tail-os.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/tail_disk.img

Run TAIL OS:

qemu-system-aarch64 -M raspi3b -kernel tail.rfs -serial stdio -drive file=tail_disk.img,format=raw,if=sd

Features

Kernel

Process Management: Process creation, termination, and lifecycle management
Thread Management: Thread scheduling with priority-based FIFO scheduling
Memory Management:
- Physical and virtual memory page managers
- Kernel heap allocator
- User memory allocator
- MMU abstraction
- Memory mapping/unmapping (mmap/munmap)
Inter-Process Communication (IPC):
- Topic-based publish/subscribe IPC
- Message-based request/reply IPC
Exception Handling: Complete exception vector table and interrupt management
System Clock: Hardware timer abstraction and timing services
Scheduler: Priority-based preemptive scheduling with real-time guarantees

File System

FAT16 Support: FAT16 file system implementation
File System Server: Dedicated server process for file operations
RFS (Root File System): Boot-time file system with ELF loading

Hardware Support

Target Platform: ARMv8-A (AArch64) – Raspberry Pi 3 and QEMU
UART Driver: PL011 UART driver for serial communication
SD Card Driver: SD card support for Raspberry Pi 3
Interrupt Controller: GIC (Generic Interrupt Controller) support

Full Installation

For a complete development environment including QEMU, TAIL OS toolchain, and Rust compiler, follow these steps:

# Install TAIL OS for QEMU
wget https://tail-os.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/install_tail_os_for_qemu.sh
chmod +x ./install_tail_os_for_qemu.sh
./install_tail_os_for_qemu.sh

# Run TAIL OS
wget https://tail-os.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/run_tail_os_on_qemu.sh
chmod +x ./run_tail_os_on_qemu.sh
source ~/.bashrc
./run_tail_os_on_qemu.sh

Resources

Website: https://tail-os.com

For questions, issues, or contributions, please contact the TAIL OS development team.

README