Running

Cosmos supports running on any Intel x86 environment. However, for debugging and ease of use, many virtual and physical setups have integrated support. If you do not see your environment, this does not mean Cosmos will not work. You can simply fall back to ISO, which should work with any environment.

ISO

The ISO option creates an ISO image of the Cosmos output. This ISO file can be mounted and booted by most virtualization technologies. In addition, a physical optical disk can be burned and used to boot physical hardware.

Linux/Posix

DISCLAIMER: This article assumes that you are using a Debian-based operating system!

QEMU

Here you can use a generic run file, you can run it by using sh run.sh -i <ISO> -m <memory size> -h <hdd image>. It has to be at the root directory of the project.

QEMU is required and can be installed with apt-get install qemu-system.

To create an HDD image, you have to convert this .vmdk file to a .img, which can then be used by QEMU using the following command qemu-img convert -f vmdk -O raw Filesystem.vmdk cosmos.img

Here is the run.sh: run.sh:

#!/bin/bash

helpFunction()
{
   echo ""
   echo "Usage: $0 -i <ISO> -m <memory size> -h <hdd image>"
   echo "\t-i ISO path to be used"
   echo "\t-m Memory size to allocate to the Virtual Machine"
   echo "\t-h Hard disk image location, can be created with qemu-img"
   exit 1 # Exit script after printing help
}

while getopts "i:m:h:" opt
do
   case "$opt" in
      i ) ISO="$OPTARG" ;;
      m ) MEMORY_SIZE="$OPTARG" ;;
      h ) HDD_IMAGE="$OPTARG" ;;
      ? ) helpFunction ;; # Print helpFunction in case parameter is non-existent
   esac
done

# Print helpFunction in case parameters are empty
if [ -z "$ISO" ] || [ -z "$MEMORY_SIZE" ] || [ -z "$HDD_IMAGE" ]
then
   echo "Some or all of the parameters are empty";
   helpFunction
fi

# Build the project
dotnet build

# Emulate the ISO
qemu-system-x86_64 -boot d -cdrom $ISO -m $MEMORY_SIZE -hda $HDD_IMAGE

VirtualBox

Create a virtual machine and use this .vmdk as your HDD image. If you are utilizing audio, we recommend VirtualBox for the ability to use their AC97 driver.

Windows

VMWare

WMWare Workstation and VMWare Player are the preferred testing environments for Cosmos. This is because they are stable, reliable, and easily controlled by the Cosmos Visual Studio integration package. This allows for easy debugging and code execution control.

VMWare Workstation is not free, however VMWare Player is. VMWare Player for the typical Cosmos developer provides more than enough functionality.

VMWare Player

VMWare Player can be downloaded here.

VMWare Workstation

VMWare Workstation (paid version) can be downloaded for a free trial here.

QEMU

QEMU is not officially supported for Cosmos at this time, but can be used. Just use the ISO option above with debugging turned off. If you want to use graphical mode in QEMU (Canvas or SVGA-II), ensure that VBE multiboot is enabled in your project settings of Cosmos.

QEMU can be downloaded here

Bochs

Bochs is officially supported for Cosmos. As Bochs is a full emulation software, results vary and are often times slower than other virtualization platforms.

Bochs can be downloaded here

PXE

For PXE, no special software is required. Only an ethernet connection to your router. However, if you have a computer that does not support network booting, or if you must perform the action over WiFi, you may need to look at a PXE chainloader such as gPXE. To run your Cosmos kernel in PXE you need to follow these steps:

Step #1: Disable Cosmos Remote Debugger, activate PXE and compile in bin format. Go to Properties and copy these settings:

Boot the machine and connect it via Ethernet and will show this screen:

Wait and your OS will boot up.

Hyper-V, VirtualPC

Not supported at this time.

Last updated on 24 March 2024.