OOS Software Distribution Files

Section 1: What is OOS?

Welcome to OOS. OOS is an acronym for Ozzy's Operating System; It is named after the epic heavy metal singer, Ozzy Osbourne, because of the Developer's love and devotion to Ozzy. OOS is a simple C++ "Operating System" that was started quite a while ago, although under a different name. It was called SimpleOSv0.3. That's as far as I got with that. After v0.3 was finished, I realized that I could not boot from this code. Note that BasicOS was never released to the public. Quite a while later, I started a new project. I had foolishly scrapped the old code and had to start from scratch again. Of course, the new code is much "better" than the old stuff. The old stuff was all functions; this new version is Object-Oriented (aka OO). I began a while ago (Saturday, May 26, 2012 to be exact) and pretty much copied the old version; then I began implementing New features. Soon, OOS grew to be what it is today. It is now an Open-Source, almost fully-functional standalone Shell in the style of UNIX, of course with its little twists and spices of Ozzy. It is currently developed and maintained by one 13-year-old boy, which coded the entire thing from the ground up, and is now 885 lines long, just in the shell! This is quite an achievement for Jonathan, the developer, and an even bigger one because he began this project at 12 years old. 


Section 2: Why?

I started OOS mainly because I was bored. I had run out of ideas of things to program, and decided that I needed to revive my old project, although this time the ultimate goal was to get it to the point that it could be released to the public. Being my first program ever released, I wanted it to be sort of high-quality. As time went by, it became even better and more modular, and soon it grew to this point. It is now pretty configurable, Open-Source, and a complete software package of all the interesting things that Jonathan has ever programmed!


Section 4: Developer or Standard Edition?

OOS is currently released in 2 versions; Both are Free and Open-Source. Both are Free in the sense of Liberty and Freedom, as well as Free as in Free Beer. The 2 Versions are the Standard and the Developer editions. Most of the time, you would want to go with a Developer version just because it has some new features that are superior to the Standard edition; Although, these features are not fully tested, and may contain a few bugs. This is why the Developer edition is Open-Source; If you are a Beta-Tester as I shall call you and you find a bug in the Developer Edition, and you have knowledge in C/C++, you can patch/fix it yourself. You can even redistribute the compiled code to other users, or (preferably) send it straight to me and I shall release it as the next Developer edition. The developer edition also comes with a simple, 19-line program called CommandAdder. It is simply a convenience tool; Essentially what it does is asks you for the path on your Hard Drive for a program (must be a CLI/Terminal/CMD program, no graphical programs yet) that you'd like to enter in to OOS, and it adds it in. When you go into OOS and type the name of the program you put in, your program will execute inside of OOS. Sort of like moving a similar program to the Bin section of your Hard Drive. Oh yeah, and if I mentioned that all of the source code to OOS included, I'll just say it again. The other version is the Standard version: You'd want this mainly if you're standard. This version only contains thoroughly tested code, so I can assure you that it is bug-free. This is targeted at the standard user, so it does not include the CommandAdder program. This is basically the Stable version, because it is fully stable, there are no crashes, and it is bugless. All in all, if you want the latest features, go Developer, and if you want the best performance, go Standard. If you don't want to deal with bugs/problems, go Standard, otherwise Developer should be sufficient. If you ARE a developer, then I STRONGLY encourage you to get the developer edition, and email me what you've changed. Also, feel free to let the community see your work, as long as it includes the Source Code, and meets the requirements of the GPL (included inside the OOS folder under GPL.txt). 



Section 5: How do I install OOS?


Some people I find have trouble installing my program. Well, here are instructions for Mac, Windows, and Linux versions of the Binary.

Mac Instructions:
Ok, mac users, you guys have got it good. Since OOS is a native Mac program, and was developed on the mac, you get all of the advanced stuff. Download the .zip file that you prefer (Standard or Developer Edition) and unzip it (double-click it). A folder that says OOS-Mac or OOS-Mac-Developer will appear wherever you've downloaded it at. You will see 2 programs; these are both Applescript scripts that install the bare minimum of the components to your HD. Well, one of them does that, and the other one Uninstalls it. Simple enough? All you have to do is open the program called OOS_v1.0_Mac_Setup. The program will ask you whether or not to install OOS; press "yes" to install. About a tenth of a second later, it will say "Installed to /Applications/OOS". Press "ok" to close the window, and navigate to your Applications folder, then locate the new folder called "OOS". This is where most people have trouble; Odds are, you have already done everything prior to this, because you are reading the readme, which is located in /Applications/OOS. Inside the folder you shall see this Readme, the OOS binary, and if you have the Developer Edition, a program called CommandAdder and a folder called sourcefiles. Open the OOS program, and you will be presented with a (fake) GRUB bootloader. OOS attempts to mimic Linux in mostly every way that it can, including the boot screen. Most people do Linux Boot because they automatically perceive that the OS is already installed; that is not the case. There are a few configurations that must take place before you can go ahead and boot up. Now, this is another problem people are having: They can't boot into anything. As if it is not clear enough, right on top it states "Please type the number of which option to boot from:"; Basically, the Menus in OOS are laid out in this way: it gives you the options, with numbers next to them. In this context, you press 1 and enter to boot into Recovery Mode, or 2 and enter to boot into Linux. In order to fix the problem where it says that no OS is installed, you must install Linux first. To install, you must press 1 and Enter to enter recovery mode. It will ask you for a password. Enter "abc", the default root password, to boot into Recovery mode. Of course, when you install Linux, abc will no longer be the root password. You are now presented with yet another menu; Simply press 1 and Enter to enter the Linux Installer. Answer the questions prompted, and now you will be in ANOTHER menu. This is the login menu; Press 3 to login. Enter your first name (which will now be your username) and your password, or root as the username and your root password as the password. You have now successfully installed OOS. Type "help" or "?" at the prompt to see a list of commands, or "nonbuiltins" to see a list of non shell built-in commands. I know that this "guide" was not quite as clear as you would have probably liked, but it's the best that I can give.
Windows Instructions:
Coming Soon!
Linux Instructions:
Coming Soon!



Section 6: Troubleshooting



Alrighty then, people. There are always those times that problems occur. Since OOS Attempts to mimic Linux in every way, an issue that even myself has run into is an error that outputs when you are trying to boot into Linux; This error states the following: "Error 479: Hard Disk Volume 2 Corrupted!" This is probably because you didn't properly shut down Linux right, or if something when wrong when shutting down. This is why I say, ALWAYS SHUT DOWN THE PROGRAM! Never close the window. This program has necessary files that it must save to the HD before shutting down (just like Linux!) and if the files are not saved, the OS will not function correctly. This is why I implemented this error message, because if the system continued to boot, it would not function properly. To fix this issue, boot into recovery mode and select the 9th option: "Fix HD Errors." This will attempt to repair the data, or replace it with new data to allow a safe boot. You can continue booting. There is another, rarer error that I have put in place, due to a programming limitation. When attempting to reset your password, you may come upon this error: "INTERNAL SYSTEM ERROR: SEGMENTATION FAULT AT 0X1042 GOING DOWN FOR SHUTDOWN NOW!!!!!!" There is nothing wrong with your system, it is simply a programming limitation. But this will cause the first error I described. Use that information to diagnose. The final problem, which I mentioned in Section 5, is when booting. The classic "System Not Installed!" error. Go into Recovery Mode and install Linux. 



Section 7: Credits






Developer/Head of project: Jonathan Heinz
Website:CaptainCPU.wordpress.com
email:captaincpu@ymail.com
Supporter/Alpha Testers: Seth Dubridge and Madison Dozier
Supporter/Beta Testers: Seth Dubridge, Madison Dozier, My Father.