WinX

About WinX

Working in coordination with Dr. Dennis Brylow a senior design project was set up to create a piece of software to allow the direct inclusion of Windows based computers in the development and testing of XINU operating systems. The goal is to create a front end program that has all the functionally of current shell based front end tied into a graphical user interface. The project codename, WinX, was installed at the beginning of the implementation phase; ultimately the software may be released under a different name for various legal reasons.

• Working Objective Statement
  • Design and implement a Windows program to allow Windows-based computers to participate directly in the MSCS Systems Lab for remote testing and execution of embedded operating system kernels by 28 April 2008 at a cost of $0.

• Current developers include:
  • Adam Koehler
  • Nicholas McMillan
  • Matthew Thomson
  • Christopher Swiderski

Phases of WinX

• Design
  • The design phase spanned the whole first academic semester starting in September 2007 and ending in December 2007.

• Implementation
  • The implementation stage will span the whole second academic semester starting in January 2008 and ending in late April 2008.

• Major Implemenation Phases
  • Internal: January - Alpha Stage
  • Alpha: March 12, 2008
  • Beta: April 9, 2008
  • Live: April 28, 2008

WinX Development

WinX implementation is an ongoing process and members of the software development team can access the subversion repository at http://xinu.mscs.mu.edu/svn/winx/ to view the current status of the software.

WinXINU Testing

The team has uploaded several files for external beta testing of WinXINU.

• Step 1: Copy the contents of WinXINU install folder from http://mscs.mu.edu/~ncmillan/WinXINU-Installer/
• Step 2: Go into Cygwin Install Folder
  • 2a) Run Setup.exe
  • 2b) Select Install from Local - Folder is the only fold in Cygwin Install directory
  • 2c) Click ALL to set it to Uninstall at top of package selection
  • 2d) Click Devel to set it to Install in the package listings
• Step 3: Change the first line of the compiler/makeVars file to the location of the WinXINU cross compiler bin

  Example:
   MIPS_ROOT = "C:\Documents and Settings\nmcmilla\Desktop\winx\compiler\cross\bin"

• Step 4: Run WinXINU executable
• Step 5: Navigate to config tab, change location of cygwin\bin to location on local machine
• Step 6: Navigate to config tab, change location of compile directory where the Makefile is located for final image build

WinXINU Testing Feedback

  Use a structure similar to the following:
   *name
   **Error/Comment Title
   ***Description of error/comment