Pintos OS - Installation Guide

Installation

1. Obtain Pintos Source Code

git clone https://github.com/jhu-cs318/pintos.git
cd pintos

2. Check Existing Toolchain

Verify if your system already supports 32-bit x86 architecture:

objdump -i | grep elf32-i386

If this command produces output, you can skip to Step 4 (Emulator). Otherwise, proceed to build the toolchain from source.

3. Build Compiler Toolchain from Source

Install Prerequisites

sudo apt-get install build-essential automake git
sudo apt-get install libncurses5-dev texinfo

Build the Toolchain

SWD=/path/to/setup  # Replace with your desired path, e.g., /home/username/toolchain
mkdir -p $SWD
cd /path/to/pintos/src
misc/toolchain-build.sh $SWD

Update PATH Environment Variable

Add the following line to your ~/.bashrc file:

export PATH=$SWD/x86_64/bin:$PATH

Restart your terminal or run:

source ~/.bashrc

Verify Installation

which i386-elf-gcc
i386-elf-gcc --version  # Should show version 6.2.0

4. Install Emulator

Install QEMU for running Pintos:

sudo apt-get install qemu libvirt-bin

5. Setup Pintos Utility Tools

Build and install the Pintos utilities:

cd pintos/src/utils && make
cp backtrace pintos Pintos.pm pintos-gdb pintos-set-cmdline \
   pintos-mkdisk setitimer-helper squish-pty squish-unix \
   /path/to/swd/x86_64/bin
mkdir /path/to/swd/x86_64/misc
cp ../misc/gdb-macros /path/to/swd/x86_64/misc

Additional Requirements

Required

• Perl 5.8.0 or later

Recommended

• cgdb - Enhanced debugger interface (strongly recommended)
• ctags - Code navigation
• cscope - Code browsing
• NERDTree - File explorer for Vim
• YouCompleteMe - Code completion

Optional

• GUI editors (VS Code, CLion, etc.)

Running Pintos

Test your installation:

cd pintos/src/threads
make
cd build
pintos --

Expected Output

If successful, you should see:

PiLo hda1
Loading...........
Kernel command line:
Pintos booting with 3,968 kB RAM...
367 pages available in kernel pool.
367 pages available in user pool.
Calibrating timer... 838,041,600 loops/s.
Boot complete.

Troubleshooting

"command not found" error for i386-elf-gcc

• Ensure you added the export PATH line to ~/.bashrc
• Restart your terminal or run source ~/.bashrc
• Verify the path is correct with echo $PATH

Build failures

• Ensure all prerequisites are installed
• Check that you have sufficient disk space
• Verify you're using a compatible Ubuntu version

Project Structure

pintos/
├── src/
│   ├── threads/    # Thread implementation
│   ├── userprog/   # User program support
│   ├── vm/         # Virtual memory
│   ├── filesys/    # File system
│   ├── utils/      # Utility scripts
│   └── misc/       # Miscellaneous tools

Contributing

This is an educational project. Follow your course guidelines for submitting modifications and assignments.

License

Refer to the original Pintos distribution for licensing information.

Resources

• Original Pintos Repository
• Course: CS2042 - Operating Systems