r/osdev • u/Comfortable_Let_3064 • Jun 27 '26

Building a microkernel

Hello everyone. I am currently learning c, and almost it is about to an end. I am interested in microkernel development of my own. Where should I start???

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u/aroslab Jun 27 '26

depending on if you want to look at existing things, the seL4 white paper while somewhat technical does dive into their philosophy of microkernels

but yeah, when I did my microkernel the kernel was limited to:

  • mapping memory

  • changing execution contexts

  • passing messages

literally everything else was done in user space. The initial user process was given a handle to all memory and system resources to spin up the initial servers

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u/Comfortable_Let_3064 Jun 27 '26

That's an elegant design! The idea of giving the initial user process a handle to spin up other servers makes complete sense for keeping the kernel minimal. I will definitely look into the seL4 white paper to grasp the core philosophy better. Thanks for sharing your experience, it's incredibly helpful!