Robert Allan JamesandClaude Sonnet 5
cd2fda4351
Traced what a "Block NNNN" collision actually means before designing a fix for it: capsule_loader.c's block-write path routes through the generic block-subsystem API, which kernel_main.c registers as two devices in a fixed order -- the volatile ramdrive first (LBN 2048-3071), then Artemis's real virtio-blk device immediately after (LBN 3072+, backed by disk/artemis.img). Every capsule this project has lands in Artemis's persistent range, not the ramdrive, and blk_update()'s dirty-marking + repl.c's idle-loop flush write that content through to the real disk file on every boot. A block-number collision is therefore a silent, persistent overwrite of real disk content surviving reboots, not a transient RAM mixup. The existing collision gate (check_block_conflicts(), already a hard non-interactive build failure) already catches capsule-vs-capsule collisions across the whole flat range. The real gap: zero visibility into blocks something other than a capsule owns (Artemis's own non-capsule persistent data), and no device-boundary/capacity awareness at all. Added, scoped step by step before writing any code: - tools/capsule-claims.txt -- derived, auto-created/regenerated, git-ignored. Lets --resolve tell "this capsule's own content changed" apart from "genuinely new collision with something else." - tools/capsule-reserved.txt -- human-authored, git-tracked, seeded with nothing yet rather than guessed at. Checked by both the plain build gate (new check_reserved_conflicts()) and --resolve. - tools/patches/ -- git-tracked, one file per accepted interactive renumber; a structured old->new block list, not a generic diff, since that's the only thing a renumber ever changes. - mkcapsule --resolve <dir> -- the only interactive mkcapsule mode, a deliberate separate invocation from the plain build path (which stays non-interactive so CI never blocks on a prompt). Suggests a renumbering that preserves a capsule's own existing block spacing, prompts y/N, rewrites the .4th source in place on acceptance. Found and fixed a real bug during verification: the registry's empty-block-list case (workload-5.4th, zero Block headers) serialized with a stray trailing space that the reader parsed back as a phantom block 0, causing spurious re-registration every run -- caught by testing idempotency directly, not assuming a clean first run meant it worked. Verified: isolated collision tests confirm both accept and reject paths, confirm a resolved collision doesn't re-prompt the other side, confirm reserved-range collisions are caught by both --resolve and the plain build gate. Full 3-architecture rebuild via the real Makefile.starkernel succeeded clean; amd64 boots with an unchanged dict_hash/capsule_hash from every prior boot this session. Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01EXieurDfDSsDFdnSyusuWo
LithosAnanke v2.0.1
UEFI-bootable FORTH microkernel. Boots from firmware, initialises memory and interrupts, then runs the StarForth VM as its sole userspace runtime. No libc. No OS. Just stone and necessity.
Lithos (foundation) + Ananke (necessity) — the kernel under StarshipOS.
Status — M7.1 (Capsule System · Multi-VM Fleet)
| Milestone | Status | |
|---|---|---|
| M0–M6 | UEFI boot · PMM · VMM · IDT · APIC · heap · framebuffer VT100 console (v1.5.1-FINAL) | ✅ Complete |
| M7 | StarForth VM integration + parity validation | ✅ Complete |
| M7.1 | Capsule birth protocol · Mama FORTH vocabulary · Tripod multi-VM fleet (Hermes/Artemis) · Word-level ACL (Phases 1–7) | 🔄 In Progress |
| M8 | REPL — keyboard input, interactive Forth | Planned |
| M9 | Block storage — AHCI driver | Planned |
POST at boot: parity hash verified across amd64/aarch64/riscv64 · Mama capsule dictionary: 453 words
What's live in M7.1
- Tripod — a named multi-VM fleet (Hera the Mama VM, Artemis, two Hermes instances) births, runs, and re-births independently, verified booting live pre-REPL on all three architectures.
- Hermes — a 17-block inter-VM messaging/channel layer between fleet members, with async delivery and channel negotiation.
- Artemis — a Block Allocation Map (BAM) storage subsystem with Q48.16
block-heat tracking and cooldown/reclamation (
ART-COOL/ART-REAP). - Word-level ACL — every dictionary entry carries a TTL/allow/mode/pin
access-control record. Strict, TTL, and pinned modes; two console layers
(emergency
ok>and superuserzuse)ok>). Phases 1–7 complete (C infrastructure, FORTH policy layer,zusebootstrap superuser, Isabelle proof stubs, kernel parity); Phase 8 (Ed25519 PKI / thumbdrive challenge-response) is the only item remaining. Measured overhead once active on every check: +0.0054%–+0.0088%, CV = 0.000%, across a 3×3 Latin-square DoE campaign (architecture × seed × 30 replicates) — three orders of magnitude below the measurement floor. - VM Fleet Attractor physics — the L8 Jacquard mode selector now has a real per-VM heat channel into fleet-wide tuning, replacing hardcoded compudynamics constants with a dynamically-inferred rate.
- Kconfig build configuration — every physics/heartbeat/pipelining/ kernel-only tuning knob (~40 total) is now a discoverable, optional Kconfig symbol shared with the hosted VM build. See Quick Start below.
Quick Start
# Build kernel (requires cross-compilation toolchain, or native gcc)
make -f Makefile.starkernel ARCH=amd64
# Run in QEMU with OVMF
make -f Makefile.starkernel qemu
# Other architectures
make -f Makefile.starkernel ARCH=aarch64 qemu
make -f Makefile.starkernel ARCH=riscv64 qemu
Artifacts: build/amd64/kernel/starkernel_loader.efi · build/amd64/kernel/starkernel_kernel.elf
For the hosted VM by itself (Linux, no cross-compiler needed, no bare-metal tooling): see
the separate StarForth repository — LithosAnanke used to be a branch inside that repo,
now it's its own project with its own master.
Build configuration (optional)
Every kernel-only knob (STARFORTH_ENABLE_VM, PARITY_MODE, the shared
physics/heartbeat family, etc.) is an optional Kconfig symbol — a plain
make -f Makefile.starkernel uses the same defaults it always has unless
you opt in:
make -f Makefile.starkernel ARCH=amd64 menuconfig
make -f Makefile.starkernel ARCH=amd64 kernel_amd64_defconfig
Documentation
| System Architecture | Full kernel + VM design |
| HAL Reference | Hardware abstraction layer interfaces |
| Capsule System — M7.1 | Capsule birth protocol design |
| VM Fleet Attractor design log | Tripod/Hermes/Artemis physics + build-system history |
| Getting Started / Kconfig reference | Full symbol reference for both build targets |
| Changelog | Milestone-level history |
| Roadmap | Milestone plan through self-hosting |
License
Starship License 1.0 (SL-1.0) — free for personal, research, and educational use. Commercial use requires a separate agreement. Attribution to R.A. James (Captain Bob) must be preserved in all distributions.
Patent pending. USPTO provisional filed December 2025 — physics-grounded self-adaptive runtime system. This license does not grant patent rights. Licensing inquiries: rajames440@gmail.com
Robert A. James (Captain Bob) · Systems Engineer · Hacking since 1973