Overview

What is L⁴Linux?

L⁴Linux is a port of the Linux kernel to the L4 microkernel API. It is a para-virtualized Linux kernel running on top of a hypervisor, completely without privileges.

L⁴Linux runs in user-mode on top of the µ-kernel, side-by-side with other µ-kernel applications such as real-time components. It is binary-compatible with the normal Linux/x86 and ARM kernel and can be used with any Linux distribution.

Motivation

The DROPS operating system project supports running time-sharing and real-time applications applications concurrently on one computer. The L⁴Linux server has been originally created to support time-sharing applications on the DROPS system.

Nowadays L⁴Linux is a feature-rich workhorse to bring applications and features, such as drivers, to the L4Re system. It is a possible building block to be used in modular operating system frameworks and complements other virtualization technology.

Current release

The currently supported release of L⁴Linux is based on Linux-6.10. Older releases starting with 2.4 onwards are available in the repositories of L4Re and L4Env. Versions of L4Linux based on Linux-2.0 and Linux-2.2 have been archived.

For details, please see the download page and the status page.

Mailing List

Please consider subscribing to our public developer's mailing list at <l4-hackers-request@os.inf.tu-dresden.de> .
The discussion language for this mailing list is English.

Before posting to the mailing list, you may want to check out the mailing list archive and the L4 FAQ. Due to the amount of spam received on the list address, the list is moderated. Valid posts will be approved by the moderator.