AC Native OS Dev Wishlist#

Faster Iteration Loop#

Ethernet PXE Netboot (top priority)#

• Two ThinkPads with built-in ethernet (X13, T14, T16, L-series, P-series)
• One cable between them, ac-os serve on the dev machine
• Target reboots and grabs the new build over TFTP — no USB ever
• babypat (1.5 KB) downloads in milliseconds, full kernel (89 MB) in ~2s on gigabit
• Need: 2x ethernet-capable laptops, 1x ethernet cable
• Already built: fedac/babypat/netboot.sh (dnsmasq DHCP + TFTP server)
• TODO: ac-os serve command that wraps netboot for the full kernel

WiFi Netboot Stub (no ethernet needed)#

• Tiny Linux (~8 MB) on USB that never changes
• Boots, connects to WiFi, downloads payload over HTTP, kexec into it
• Dev machine serves builds over WiFi — same edit/rebuild/reboot loop
• Slower than ethernet but works with any laptop
• TODO: build the stub (kernel + wpa_supplicant + curl + kexec, ~8 MB)

Current Pain Points#

• USB stick plug/unplug cycle for every flash
• X1 Nano (current dev host) has no ethernet — can't PXE boot targets from it
• Devcontainer can't access /dev directly — needs SSH to docker host for flashing
• Build artifacts (~89 MB kernel) take time to write to USB

Hardware Wishlist#

• 2x ThinkPad with ethernet (X13 or T14) for twin dev setup
• USB-C ethernet adapters as fallback for ultrabooks ($10 each)
• Ethernet cable (cat6, any length)

babypat#

• Bare-metal UEFI musical keyboard, 1,536 bytes total
• Currently: PC speaker square wave (buzzy, not all laptops have one)
• Want: Intel HDA sine wave synthesis (~15-20 KB extra, real audio output)
• Want: fits in a single QR code on a card (currently 1.5 KB, QR max ~3 KB)
• Stretch: paper-encoded bootable OS on a score card

ac-os Improvements#

• ac-os serve — PXE/HTTP server for network boot (replaces ac-os flash)
• ac-os serve --wifi — WiFi stub mode (HTTP server, target downloads over WiFi)
• ac-os qemu — already exists, good for testing without hardware
• Faster kernel builds (incremental, ccache)