Open-source alternatives to Lkmpg

xv6 is a Unix-like educational operating system designed for teaching kernel concepts. It is implemented as an instructional kernel for x86 and RISC-V architectures, featuring a virtual memory manager and support for symmetric multiprocessing. The system is designed to demonstrate core OS principles through a simplified re-implementation of Unix Version 6. It provides a controlled environment for studying system calls, trap handling, and process lifecycles. Its capability surface covers process management, including scheduling and context switching, and memory management via page tables for

NuttX is a POSIX-compliant real-time operating system designed for microcontrollers ranging from 8-bit to 64-bit architectures. It provides a deterministic execution environment with a real-time task scheduler and a POSIX embedded kernel to ensure portable code execution across diverse hardware targets. The project distinguishes itself through a comprehensive hardware abstraction layer that provides standardized drivers for I2C, SPI, CAN, and USB across various semiconductor chipsets. It also features an embedded networking stack supporting TCP, UDP, IPv4, and IPv6, alongside industrial proto

This project is a comprehensive educational resource and programming course covering C++ language semantics and features from C++03 through C++26. It provides structured tutorials and technical guides focused on modern C++ development. The material offers specialized instruction on template metaprogramming, including the use of type traits and compile-time computations. It features detailed guides on concurrency and parallelism for multi-core execution, as well as a reference for software design applying SOLID principles and RAII. Additionally, it covers build performance optimization to redu

This project is an open source Linux GPU kernel driver implemented as a loadable kernel module. It functions as a GPU firmware loader, providing the low-level driver services necessary to enable direct communication between the operating system and graphics processing units. The driver utilizes a dual-module architecture that separates GPL-licensed kernel code from proprietary firmware blobs. This system extracts and links signed binary firmware images into the kernel modules at driver load time. The project provides driver support for Turing-architecture GPUs and all subsequent newer hardwa

Asterinas is a memory-safe operating system kernel designed to prevent data races and memory corruption. It functions as a Linux-ABI compatible kernel, enabling the execution of existing Linux binaries and container workloads while providing a declarative operating system distribution model. The project distinguishes itself by acting as a virtual machine container host and a confidential computing guest OS, allowing it to run within hardware-isolated Trusted Execution Environments such as Intel TDX. It implements a minimal trusted computing base by isolating unsafe low-level operations and se

This project is a Chinese translation and educational resource focused on the internal workings of the Linux kernel. It provides a curated collection of technical content designed for studying low-level operating system mechanisms and kernel development. The project utilizes a specialized localization workflow where translations are maintained in a forked repository. It employs a patch-based model and Git-driven synchronization to align Chinese translations with the original English source files through differential merge processes. The technical scope covers core operating system internals,

This project is a Windows Precision Touchpad driver and Apple Trackpad HID driver. It functions as an input device gesture driver that converts raw touch data from Apple trackpads and MacBooks into native multi-touch gestures and precise pointer movement. The driver implements the precision touchpad protocol to enable native Windows gesture and pointer controls for Apple hardware. This allows the operating system to recognize Apple trackpads as precision touchpads, replacing basic mouse functionality with native multi-finger swipes and precise scrolling. The implementation covers kernel-mode

OpenWrt-Rpi is a firmware builder and embedded Linux build toolset designed to compile custom router operating system images for Raspberry Pi and NanoPi hardware. It utilizes a GitHub Actions CI pipeline to automate the generation of fresh firmware images from the latest source code via daily updates. The project maintains a custom package repository and local software sources for managing community plugins and kernel modules. This infrastructure is used to ensure version consistency and prevent dependency conflicts during the installation of network drivers and system extensions. The build

This project is a comprehensive technical interview preparation resource and computer science interview guide. It serves as an educational reference for developers to study core software engineering fundamentals and common coding patterns required for employment screenings. The repository provides detailed guides and references covering data structures and algorithms, networking and security, operating systems, and web development. It specifically focuses on the implementation and complexity analysis of sorting, searching, and graph algorithms. The material encompasses a wide breadth of comp

This project provides a development framework for writing loadable Linux kernel modules using the Rust programming language. It establishes a methodology for safe systems programming by enforcing memory and thread safety within the restricted execution environment of the kernel, allowing developers to extend operating system functionality while preventing common memory corruption errors. The framework distinguishes itself through automated generation of type-safe foreign function interfaces, which bridge high-level code with low-level kernel headers and system structures. It maps high-level s

This project is a comprehensive technical interview preparation guide and computer science knowledge base. It serves as a structured study resource designed to help software engineers review core engineering concepts and prepare for professional coding assessments. The repository focuses on a wide array of theoretical and practical domains, including detailed references for mobile application architecture and operating system fundamentals. It provides curated materials on software architecture patterns and network protocol analysis to support professional development. The content covers foun

This project is a technical reference and a collection of internal analysis notes focused on the Go language runtime and compiler. It provides a detailed breakdown of the language internals, covering memory management, garbage collection, and the execution model of the scheduler. The material distinguishes itself by providing deep dives into low-level system details, including a reference for Go assembly instructions, register usage, and system call interfacing. It specifically analyzes the internal implementation of concurrency primitives, such as the goroutine scheduling mechanism, channel

Nim is a statically typed, compiled systems programming language designed for high performance and cross-platform development. It translates high-level source code into C, C++, or JavaScript, allowing developers to produce efficient native binaries or web-compatible scripts from a single codebase. The language emphasizes a clean, indentation-based syntax that simplifies code hierarchy while maintaining the power of a full-featured systems language. What distinguishes Nim is its robust metaprogramming framework, which allows developers to inspect, modify, and generate code structures during th

This repository is a collection of reference source code and implementation examples for developing drivers using the Windows Driver Kit. It provides hardware device driver samples and development templates for building kernel-mode software that enables communication between the Windows operating system and hardware devices. The library includes examples for creating universal Windows drivers, which utilize a shared set of interfaces to operate across multiple versions of the operating system. It also contains specialized implementation samples for various hardware categories, including netwo

This project is an educational curriculum designed to teach the fundamentals of operating system development and low-level systems programming. It provides a structured sequence of lessons and code samples that guide users through building a functional kernel and bootloader from scratch, enabling a practical understanding of how software interacts directly with computer hardware. The repository distinguishes itself by focusing on the core mechanics of bare-metal execution. It covers the implementation of essential system components, including assembly-based bootloaders that transition process

Skill-Tree is an educational framework designed to map theoretical technical concepts to practical implementation pipelines and structured interview preparation. It organizes technical knowledge into a tree-based index to enable structured navigation and uses a theory-to-implementation pipeline to verify conceptual understanding through concrete software tasks. The project provides curated study paths and cross-referenced indexing that links common interview questions and simulated exam sets to specific technical modules. It employs module-based subject isolation to separate diverse backend d

Kernel-Bridge is a C++ framework designed for Windows kernel-mode development, providing a comprehensive toolkit for building drivers, hypervisors, and system-level monitoring tools. It serves as a foundational environment for managing low-level operating system interactions, including memory management, process control, and cross-layer communication. The project distinguishes itself by offering specialized primitives for hypervisor construction and hardware-assisted memory isolation. It facilitates advanced system manipulation through techniques such as direct kernel object modification, asy

Mimalloc is a general purpose dynamic memory allocator for C and C++ designed to increase execution speed and reduce fragmentation. It functions as a scalable heap manager that replaces standard library allocation functions to improve performance and memory efficiency across applications. The project distinguishes itself as both a heap security hardener and a memory corruption detector. It employs randomized allocation, encrypted free lists, and sampled guard pages to mitigate heap exploits and identify buffer overflows or use-after-free errors during runtime. The allocator provides capabili

m1n1 is a low-level bootloader for ARM64-based Apple Silicon hardware. It serves as a firmware tool and experimentation environment for loading external kernels and non-native operating systems. The project enables the execution of concatenated binary payloads containing kernels, device trees, and ramdisks. It provides a platform for firmware experimentation and the deployment of custom kernels on Apple Silicon chips. The system covers low-level hardware abstraction, including memory-mapped register access, device tree transmission, and stage-based bootloading. It also includes UART-based se

This project is a comprehensive technical interview question bank and reference library designed for software engineering roles at major technology companies. It serves as a study guide and knowledge base covering the core principles of high-performance systems programming and computer science theory. The collection focuses on deep technical domains, including C++ language mastery, distributed systems design, and database engineering. It provides detailed material on consensus protocols, cluster coordination, and the architectural differences between SQL and NoSQL implementations. The resour

Goboy is a GameBoy emulator written in Go that allows original handheld game ROMs to run on modern computer hardware. It supports both monochromatic and color display modes. The project includes specialized tools for retro game debugging and graphics inspection. These capabilities allow for the analysis of game logic by stepping through opcodes, profiling processor execution in real time, and inspecting background palettes, sprite data, and map layouts. The emulator provides game state preservation by writing cartridge RAM to local files. It also implements pixel-buffer rasterization for ren

This project is a macOS system camera driver and software plugin that exposes software video streams as hardware-recognized camera inputs. It functions as an OBS virtual camera plugin, allowing the live output of OBS to be utilized as a webcam device within other applications. The tool enables the routing of composited video from a production suite into video conferencing applications such as Zoom or Google Meet. This allows for the streaming of processed scenes instead of a raw webcam feed. The system integrates with macOS using a kernel-level device driver and shared-memory buffer transfer

redb is an embedded key-value store and ACID-compliant storage engine. It functions as a persistent storage system for saving and retrieving data as key-value pairs within a tree structure. The engine is built as an MVCC transactional database, utilizing multi-version concurrency control to manage simultaneous reads and writes without blocking. It employs a single-writer multi-reader model to ensure data consistency while allowing multiple threads to access the store. The system provides persistent state management and atomic transaction management to prevent data corruption during crashes.

XNU is a hybrid operating system kernel that combines a microkernel architecture with a monolithic layer for system services. It provides a foundation for operating system development, incorporating standardized system-call interfaces, a modular device driver framework, and mandatory access control security. The architecture features a Mach-based microkernel and a BSD-based monolithic layer. It utilizes a message-passing inter-process communication bus for secure data exchange between isolated kernel components and user-space processes, alongside an object-oriented driver framework that decou

rpi4-osdev is a project for bare metal operating system development targeting the Raspberry Pi 4. It focuses on creating a custom operating system that runs directly on the hardware without an underlying kernel or abstraction layer. The project provides a codebase and instructional guide for developing a low-level system from scratch. This process involves transitioning from early boot code to kernel execution on the ARM64 architecture. The technical scope covers embedded system bootstrapping and low-level hardware interfacing. This includes managing memory-mapped I/O, physical address mappi

This project provides a customized Linux kernel and driver suite designed to enable hardware compatibility for Surface devices. It focuses on building and patching the Linux kernel to provide driver support for proprietary hardware components that are missing from the upstream source. The system includes a secure boot kernel signing mechanism and a process for enrolling custom keys into the system firmware. This allows the execution of patched kernels while maintaining system security protections. The project covers peripheral driver support for touchscreens, styluses, and keyboards, as well

c3c is the compiler for the C3 programming language, transforming source code into executable binaries, static libraries, or dynamic libraries using an LLVM backend. It implements a system based on result-based error handling, scoped memory pooling, and a semantic macro system. The compiler provides first-class support for hardware-backed SIMD vectors that map directly to processor instructions and enables runtime polymorphism through interface-based dynamic dispatch. The project covers a broad set of low-level capabilities, including manual and pooled memory management, inline assembly inte