WRITING OPERATING SYSTEMS IN RUST: KERNEL DEVELOPMENT FROM SCRATCH: Bootloaders, Memory Management, and Low-Level System Programming

Build a clearer understanding of operating system development in Rust, from the first bootable kernel to memory management, interrupts, debugging, and next-system design.

Writing a kernel is very different from writing an ordinary application. There is no standard library runtime, no operating system underneath your code, no ready-made heap, no automatic process environment, and very little room for vague assumptions.

Writing Operating Systems in Rust: Kernel Development from Scratch gives you a practical, structured path through the foundations of Rust-based kernel development, with focused explanations of bootloaders, freestanding Rust, x86_64 CPU setup, physical and virtual memory, fault handling, heap allocation, device input, testing, and debugging.

This guide is written for developers who want to understand what the kernel owns, what the bootloader prepares, and how low-level Rust code can be organized into reliable kernel services.

Set up a freestanding Rust kernel project with a custom target, no standard library, panic handling, and a maintainable module structure. Understand BIOS, UEFI, bootloader responsibilities, kernel handoff data, entry points, and QEMU-based inspection workflows. Write early output paths using serial output, VGA text mode, framebuffer concepts, and panic diagnostics. Configure x86_64 execution state, including long mode concepts, the GDT, TSS, interrupt stacks, and control-register inspection. Build and test interrupt and exception handling with IDT entries, breakpoints, page faults, general protection faults, and double-fault recovery. Read boot memory maps, classify usable and reserved regions, design a physical frame allocator, and protect kernel-critical memory. Work with virtual memory concepts such as pages, frames, page tables, address translation, mapping, unmapping, TLB flushes, identity mapping, offset mapping, and higher-half kernel layouts. Enable heap allocation with the alloc crate, then compare bump allocators, linked-list allocators, fixed-size block allocators, unsafe boundaries, global state, and kernel invariants. Configure hardware interrupts through the PIC, handle timer ticks, read keyboard scancodes, build an input buffer, and understand port I/O, MMIO, and volatile access. Create a minimal interactive kernel shell, organize architecture-specific code, run kernel tests with serial output and QEMU exit codes, and debug with QEMU logs, GDB, registers, and stack inspection. Prepare for advanced topics including UEFI loaders, modern boot protocols, ACPI, APIC, SMP, filesystems, userspace, scheduling, and system calls. The book includes many Rust, TOML, Shell, GDB, and configuration snippets that show how the concepts connect to real kernel project structure, controlled testing, and practical debugging workflows.

If you want a grounded guide that explains kernel development in Rust without skipping the difficult parts, this book gives you the foundation to build, inspect, and extend a small operating system with confidence.

Grab your copy today and start building a Rust kernel from the ground up.