BoredOS is cross-compiled from a host operating system (Linux, macOS, or Windows) and targets the generic x86_64-elf platform.

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Table of Contents

• Prerequisites
• Linux (Recommended)
• Linux (Manual Build)
• macOS
• Windows (MSYS2)

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Prerequisites

BoredOS requires the following tools.

x86_64 ELF Cross Toolchain

The BoredOS build system uses a freestanding x86_64 ELF cross-compilation toolchain.

Required components:

• x86_64-elf-gcc — Cross C compiler
• x86_64-elf-g++ — Cross C++ compiler
• x86_64-elf-ld — Cross linker
• x86_64-elf-ar — Static library archiver
• x86_64-elf-ranlib — Archive index generator
• x86_64-elf-objcopy — Binary conversion utility
• x86_64-elf-strip — Symbol stripping utility

These tools target the generic x86_64-elf platform and are completely independent from the host operating system.

NASM

Used to assemble architecture-specific code.

xorriso

Used to create bootable ISO images.

QEMU (Optional)

Recommended for testing and development.

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Linux (Recommended)

The recommended way to install the BoredOS toolchain on Linux is to use the provided installer script.

The installer automatically:

• Detects the Linux distribution
• Checks installed tools
• Installs required dependencies
• Downloads Binutils
• Downloads GCC
• Builds Binutils
• Builds GCC
• Installs the toolchain
• Configures the PATH

Run:

chmod +x tools/install_deps_linux.sh
./tools/install_deps_linux.sh

The installer checks the availability of the following tools before starting.

Cross Toolchain

x86_64-elf-gcc
x86_64-elf-g++
x86_64-elf-ld

Required Build Tools

gcc
g++
make
nasm
xorriso
git
wget
tar
xz
patch

Optional Tools

qemu-system-x86_64

The toolchain is installed by default into:

~/.local/cross

The installer automatically appends the following entry to your shell configuration:

export PATH="$HOME/.local/cross/bin:$PATH"

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Linux (Manual Build)

If you prefer to build the toolchain manually:

Download Sources

wget https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/binutils/binutils-2.45.tar.xz
wget https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/gcc-16.1.0/gcc-16.1.0.tar.xz

Build Binutils

mkdir build-binutils
cd build-binutils

../binutils-2.45/configure \
    --target=x86_64-elf \
    --prefix=$HOME/.local/cross \
    --with-sysroot \
    --disable-nls \
    --disable-werror

make -j$(nproc)
make install

cd ..

Build GCC

mkdir build-gcc
cd build-gcc

../gcc-16.1.0/configure \
    --target=x86_64-elf \
    --prefix=$HOME/.local/cross \
    --disable-nls \
    --enable-languages=c,c++ \
    --without-headers

make -j$(nproc) all-gcc
make -j$(nproc) all-target-libgcc

make install-gcc
make install-target-libgcc

cd ..

Add to PATH

export PATH="$HOME/.local/cross/bin:$PATH"

Verify Installation

x86_64-elf-gcc --version
x86_64-elf-g++ --version
x86_64-elf-ld --version

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macOS

Install Xcode Command Line Tools

xcode-select --install

Install Homebrew

If Homebrew is not already installed:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Install Required Dependencies

brew install \
    gcc \
    gmp \
    mpfr \
    libmpc \
    texinfo \
    wget \
    xz \
    nasm \
    xorriso \
    gnu-tar \
    git

Build the Toolchain

Follow the same Manual Build instructions described in the Linux section.

The resulting toolchain should be installed into:

~/.local/cross

Verify Installation

x86_64-elf-gcc --version
x86_64-elf-g++ --version
x86_64-elf-ld --version

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Windows (MSYS2)

Install MSYS2

Download and install:

https://www.msys2.org/

Launch the MSYS2 UCRT64 terminal.

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Update MSYS2

pacman -Syu

Restart the terminal if requested and repeat until no updates remain.

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Install Required Packages

pacman -S \
    make \
    nasm \
    xorriso \
    git \
    wget \
    tar \
    lz4 \
    xz

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Install QEMU (Optional)

Download:

https://qemu.weilnetz.de/w64/

Add the QEMU installation directory to your PATH.

If image creation fails, you may also need:

export PATH="/c/Program Files/qemu:$PATH"

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Install the x86_64 ELF Toolchain

Recommended

Download a prebuilt x86_64-elf toolchain:

https://github.com/lordmilko/i686-elf-tools/releases

Extract it somewhere convenient.

Add the toolchain to your PATH:

export PATH="/c/path/to/x86_64-elf-tools/bin:$PATH"

To make it permanent:

echo 'export PATH="/c/path/to/x86_64-elf-tools/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

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Verify Installation

x86_64-elf-gcc --version
x86_64-elf-g++ --version
x86_64-elf-ld --version

nasm -v

qemu-system-x86_64 --version

If all commands succeed, the BoredOS development environment is correctly configured and ready for development.