Show HN: Bonebox-01 – 29KB bare metal x86 OS (80 KiB, built to kill Tiny Core)
Bonebox-01 is a minimalist, bare-metal x86 operating system designed to be extremely small and deterministic. It avoids modern abstractions like Linux or POSIX, focusing on a verified, byte-accounted architecture for low-level computing.
Why it matters
It serves as a technical demonstration of how to build a functional, secure, and transparent operating system from the ground up without relying on complex, hidden firmware or kernel layers.
ONE BOOT SECTOR. ONE NUCLEUS. ONE ARENA. NO HIDDEN MACHINE.
FINAL STATUS ============ PROJECT LINE B0-B7 COMPLETE IMPLEMENTATION FROZEN NUCLEUS BONEBOX-01 v1.0.6 SHELL BONE/X86 v0.0.4 FILESYSTEM BFS1 v1 READ-ONLY EXECUTABLE BEX1 v1 OVERLAY COMMAND TAIL 0-31 BYTES ADDRESS CLASS 80 KiB RESIDENT MUTABLE 5 BYTES TRANSIENT MUTABLE 599 BYTES HOST TESTS 99 / 99 PASS WINDOWS VERIFY PASS / VERIFY OK QEMU BOOT + INTERACTIVE SHELL CONFIRMED VERIFIED RUNTIME df3c456c89c168d3cc0218b55e2ea197a4748d3b IMAGE SHA256 7a33cbbfa602bacf33a40b5586be54eba38f371fd922eeae94cbaf73ebaba4b8 The runtime commit above is the authority for boot.bin , kernel.bin , shell.bin , root.bfs , HELLO.BEX , SELFTEST.BEX , and ECHO.BEX . Documentation commits after it do not alter the verified runtime bytes.
BONEBOX-01 is a native x86 real-mode operating system built from its own boot sector upward. It is not Linux with the visible parts removed. It is not a RAM-disk trick. It is not an ELF loader hiding behind firmware services.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in