March 2025 - Devel - lists.sel4.systems

Running seL4 on bare-metal x86_64 PC
by saftab.rashid＠gmail.com 11 Apr '25

11 Apr '25

Hi, I am very new to sel4 and I am trying to run it bare-metal on an Intel Xeon x86_64 machine. I am following the instructions here PC99 | seL4 docs. I can run seL4 using the ./simulate script which runs the kernel under QEMU. However, I would like the run seL4 natively on my machine. After the build, I have the following images in the images/ directory. kernel-x86_64-pc99 sel4test-driver-image-x86_64-pc99 I have created a Grub2 menu entry by copying these images under /boot. However, when I boot using the created menu entry I get a black screen and I also see no output on the serial port. My Grub2 menu entry is as follows menuentry “Load seL4 VM” --class os { load_video insmod gzio insmod part_msdos insmod ext2 set root=‘(hd0,msdos2)’ multiboot /boot/kernel-x86_64-pc99 module /boot/sel4test-driver-image-x86_64-pc99 } I have also tried the multiboot2 protocol as I have an UEFI-supported system but it also doesn’t work. After booting into the seL4 VM I get a black screen and there is no output on the serial port. Any Idea what I am doing wrong?

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Question about extensibility
by 1plus.yijia＠gmail.com 01 Apr '25

01 Apr '25

One the advantages of microkernel is the extensibility of user space components; however, doesn't the static system design eliminate this advantage? Do I miss something? I wonder if it possible to only recompile a component and replace an older one; if yes, if it possible to replace it in runtime.

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seL4 developer hangout reminder
by Birgit Brecknell 31 Mar '25

31 Mar '25

Hi all A friendly reminder that the seL4 developer hangout is on again this week. Wed 2 Apr, 7:00am UTC. For your local date and time please see https://sel4.systems/contact/. Zoom link: https://unsw.zoom.us/j/82640784431 Birgit Brecknell seL4 Foundation Project Coordinator Sydney, Australia Mon 9-5 Wed 2-5 Fri 9-5 birgit(a)sel4.systems <mailto:birgit@sel4.systems> bbrcknl(a)gmail.com <mailto:bbrcknl@gmail.com>

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User-level proofs and capability revocation
by Anton Burtsev 28 Mar '25

28 Mar '25

Hi all I have a couple of questions on how user-level proofs are constructed in the seL4 ecosystem. Just to start, can someone point me to an example of a user-level proof, just so I can take a look at how specifications are exported to user processes and how everything is stitched together. But also, I'm a bit confused on what kind of assumptions are needed to build verified user-level code in the face of revocable memory. I.e., it seems that one needs to assume (and trust) that the memory of any verified (or even rather mission critical) process is never revoked. Maybe I'm wrong and missing something and you have a way in mind for how to bypass such trust. Or maybe one can argue that such trust is reasonable, which is probably true for a "flat" system in which the mission critical domain is created right from the trusted boot process or some trusted TCB above it. Yet it seems hard to argue that such trust is reasonable when the recursion is deeper, e.g., the boot process launches Linux, and then Linux tries to start some kind of a mission critical process like a microkernel-protected software TEE or something (out of its memory hence it can later revoke it). And one wants to build a proof about this TCB yet such proof needs to deal with memory that can be revoked at any time or assume that revocation is impossible. Just wandering what is the take on this. I apologize if this all is covered somewhere in seL4 docs and I just didn't dig deep enough. Thank you! Anton

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seL4 libraries compatibility with Microkit
by Julia Royer 22 Mar '25

22 Mar '25

Hi, I understand that Microkit simplifies the seL4 API. However, I would like to know if it is still possible to use seL4 libraries when working with Microkit. If so, is there any benefit to doing so? Thank you in advance for your help. Kind regards, Julia Royer

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seL4 developer hangout reminder
by Birgit Brecknell 17 Mar '25

17 Mar '25

Hi all A friendly reminder that the seL4 developer hangout is on again this week. Tue 18 Mar, 9:00pm UTC. For your local date and time please see https://sel4.systems/contact/. Zoom link: https://unsw.zoom.us/j/82640784431 Birgit Brecknell seL4 Foundation Project Coordinator Sydney, Australia Mon 9-5 Wed 2-5 Fri 9-5 birgit(a)sel4.systems <mailto:birgit@sel4.systems> bbrcknl(a)gmail.com <mailto:bbrcknl@gmail.com>

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Reminder: Call For Presentations for the seL4 Summit 2025
by Birgit Brecknell 14 Mar '25

14 Mar '25

Reminder: Call For Presentations [0] for the seL4 Summit 2025 [1] - Share your seL4 work - Share your seL4 experience - Share your seL4 thoughts Check the full Call For Presentations [0]. To propose a talk, upload an abstract of one page or less by **21 April 2025** to the submission portal [2]. Also note the open invitation for a 5-minute slot to talk about your seL4 deployment [3]. [0] https://sel4.systems/Foundation/Summit/2025/cfp [1] https://sel4.systems/Foundation/Summit/2025/ [2] https://form.jotform.com/250436091673861 [3] https://sel4.systems/Foundation/Summit/2025/cfp#sel4-deployment Birgit Brecknell seL4 Foundation Project Coordinator Sydney, Australia Mon 9-5 Wed 2-5 Fri 9-5 birgit(a)sel4.systems <mailto:birgit@sel4.systems> bbrcknl(a)gmail.com <mailto:bbrcknl@gmail.com>

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Libvmm on Rasperry Pi 4B
by Julia Royer 12 Mar '25

12 Mar '25

Hello, I am currently working on a project aimed at exploring the capabilities of the seL4 microkernel and Microkit. For this purpose, I have chosen the Raspberry Pi 4B board. I noticed that libvmm is not yet supported for this platform. Do you have an estimate on when Raspberry Pi 4B might be supported? Thank you for your time and support. Kind regards, Julia Royer

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Release 2.0.0 of Microkit
by Ivan Velickovic 09 Mar '25

09 Mar '25

Hello everyone, There is a new release of Microkit, version 2.0.0. This release contains various bug fixes, quality-of-life changes, features, and new board support. This is a major version bump due to a breaking change. Below the release notes, there is a section on how to upgrade from Microkit 1.4.1. You can download the pre-built SDK from GitHub: https://github.com/seL4/microkit/releases/tag/2.0.0 Ivan

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seL4 for general purpose/desktop operating systems?
by Isaac Beckett 09 Mar '25

09 Mar '25

Hello! I saw Microkit 2.0 has just been released, and it’s prompted a question I’ve been thinking about since before Microkit, when CaMKes was the main thing: Both Microkit and Camkes are designed for embedded and/or static systems, where there is no detection/configuration of hardware at runtime, and in Microkit no swapping of components such as drivers. Is there any work ongoing to use seL4 for a general purpose operating system? Like, a situation where you may have e.g. PC style hardware that can have all sorts of reconfiguration between power-off and next boot, or even while booted and running. Of course this introduces a lot of attack surface, but it makes a lot more sense for a general purpose computer, rather than an embedded one. Is there any recent work/prior art on using seL4 outside of the context of deeply embedded systems? Thanks, Isaac

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