Build and run Linus Torvalds's Linux 0.01 kernel on a modern macOS or Linux host with Docker and QEMU.
Linux 0.01 booted successfully and reached an interactive shell in QEMU.
- Small and approachable: the generated bootable image is only about 108 KiB (110,721 bytes), making it practical to inspect an early kernel without navigating a modern multi-million-line source tree.
- One-command build and run:
make -f mvp.mk buildcreates the image andmake -f mvp.mk runstarts it in QEMU. - Modern-host friendly: the Docker workflow works on modern Linux and on
macOS, including Apple Silicon hosts with
linux/amd64emulation. - Minimal, reviewable compatibility work: the build applies a separate compatibility patch to a temporary copy instead of hiding extensive changes throughout the historical source tree.
- Verifiable inputs: the Ubuntu base image, compatibility source revision, and runtime filesystem checksum are recorded explicitly.
- Observable result: the kernel boots to an interactive shell rather than stopping at a successful compiler exit code.
- Learning early x86 boot, memory management, process scheduling, system calls, terminal handling, and filesystem implementation from a compact codebase.
- Classroom demonstrations and operating-system workshops.
- Linux kernel history and source-code archaeology.
- Studying how old C and assembly code can be adapted to modern compilers, containers, and emulators with a constrained compatibility layer.
- Reproducible demonstrations of a complete build-to-boot workflow.
This project is intended for education and historical study. It is not a modern operating system, a secure runtime, or a base for production workloads.
Linux 0.01 was written by
Linus Torvalds and published in 1991. This repository began in 2012 as a copy
of that source. The 88 program files in the
initial source import
match the official linux-0.01.tar.gz archive byte for byte.
The repository maintainer recalls copying the source from a CD bundled with a Chinese-language book. The exact edition has not been verified; one likely candidate is Lu Jun's 2004 book Linux 0.01内核分析与操作系统设计——创造你自己的操作系统, which was sold with a CD-ROM.
Whatever the physical source, the file comparison establishes that the initial program files came from the official Linux 0.01 source release.
The repository was originally named linux-0.0.1; it was later renamed to
linux-0.01 to match the official release number. After the initial import, a
small 2012 compatibility commit
changed six tracked files. The current Docker workflow leaves those tracked
files untouched during each build and applies further GCC-compatible changes
as a separate patch to a temporary copy. This project does not attempt to
modernize Linux 0.01 or claim a bit-for-bit reproduction of its original GCC
1.40/Minix build environment.
The following compatibility path lets modern macOS and Linux hosts build and run the historical source tree with Docker.
- Docker with
linux/amd64emulation enabled (Docker Desktop or OrbStack on Apple Silicon) make
make -f mvp.mk buildThe bootable kernel image is written to build/Image.
make -f mvp.mk runQEMU opens in the current terminal. To stop it, run make -f mvp.mk stop in a
second terminal. Linux 0.01 uses a Finnish keyboard map; some punctuation keys
differ from a modern US keyboard.
The 1991 Makefile expects Minix, GCC 1.40, 16-bit as86/ld86, and an i386
host. A direct build on an Apple Silicon host sends i386 assembly to the ARM
assembler and fails immediately.
The container applies compat/linux-0.01-gcc-port.patch to a temporary copy of
this source tree. The tracked source files are not overwritten. The patch is
derived from the GCC-compatible port at commit
13b1afcf93135ee72e5feb8c2d64fb086e40c029 of
OS-LAB-DaejinUniv/oslab-linux. The runtime root filesystem is fetched from
that same revision and verified with SHA-256
1c4ac3fc6e38ab55731b2e1c1ec268c095cdd4c1329f6e523606483510b76078.
This is a practical, modified Linux 0.01 build—not a bit-for-bit reproduction of Linus Torvalds's original GCC 1.40/Minix build environment.