Running HavenDOS

Architecture

HavenDOS has a 32-bit x86 kernel. Any x86 processor or virtual machine that can run 32-bit code is the target; a 64-bit CPU is only needed for the x86-64 UEFI boot path.

Firmware

• BIOS: legacy BIOS or UEFI with CSM enabled.
• UEFI: x86-64 UEFI firmware. Secure Boot compatibility has not been tested — disable it if the ISO does not start.

Memory and disk

• RAM: the suggested QEMU configuration uses 128 MB. A formal minimum has not been published.
• Disk: not needed to run from the ISO. Installing needs an ATA/IDE or VirtIO disk; use an empty virtual disk for tests, because the installer formats its target.

Not supported

• NVMe storage (installation to NVMe SSDs is not possible)
• Modern SATA/AHCI, Intel VMD/RST and USB storage are not guaranteed
• Full USB support

Download HavenDOS-0.8.1.iso from the Downloads page, then run this from the same folder:

qemu-system-i386 -m 128 -cdrom HavenDOS-0.8.1.iso -boot d

This boots the ISO without an installation disk. It is the suggested launch configuration from the project README. Choose Desktop in the boot menu. The menu also offers Shell Mode, Safe Mode (no mouse) and Install to Disk, followed by diagnostic entries.

Testing the installer

Create an empty virtual disk and attach it next to the ISO:

qemu-img create -f raw havendos-disk.img 64M
qemu-system-i386 -m 128 -cdrom HavenDOS-0.8.1.iso -boot d \
  -drive file=havendos-disk.img,format=raw,if=ide

The disk size above is an example for a test disk, not a published requirement.

Plain QEMU BIOS boot does not test the UEFI path. Use an x86-64 VM with UEFI firmware such as OVMF:

# Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install ovmf
qemu-system-x86_64 -m 256 -cdrom HavenDOS-0.8.1.iso -boot d \
  -bios /usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE.fd

The OVMF path differs between distributions. This example follows standard QEMU/OVMF usage and has not been independently tested against this release.

UEFI boot and display were demonstrated on the developer’s HP laptop (UEFI, no CSM). That confirms the boot path on that machine, not general laptop compatibility. Installing to that laptop’s NVMe SSD does not work.

• The display may stay at the top-left; the interface does not yet scale to every panel or framebuffer mode.
• UEFI boot of the ISO does not guarantee a bootable UEFI disk installation.
• Networking (RTL8139, e1000) is still under development; TCP reliability varies.
• The bundled BootChat client needs a running server — the public BootChat server is currently offline.
• Some 0.8.1 screens still say “Beta”.

Report bugs with your VM or computer, boot mode and steps to reproduce on GitHub Issues.

git clone https://github.com/MGKFN/HavenDOS.git

The repository currently contains the licence, README and an archived 0.7.18 source package. That archive is an earlier version, not the source of the 0.8.1 ISO, and there is no top-level build tree — running make after cloning is not a documented way to build. Extract the archive and follow its own instructions. Typical tools are an x86 C toolchain, NASM, GNU Binutils, Make and GRUB image tools.

MorrowOS is a separate project: a Linux distribution built on Kubuntu 24.04 with KDE Plasma, x86-64 only. It runs as a live ISO (live user morrow, no password); there is no disk installer yet. Builds and full instructions are in the MorrowOS repository.

Example from the repository README, using the v1.1 ISO:

# BIOS
qemu-system-x86_64 -m 3072 -smp 2 -cdrom morrowos-v1.1.iso -boot d -vga virtio

# UEFI (needs: sudo apt install ovmf)
qemu-system-x86_64 -m 3072 -smp 2 -cdrom morrowos-v1.1.iso -boot d -vga virtio \
    -bios /usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE.fd

MorrowAI is the set of AI tools on this site — not an operating system. See the AI Lab.