Monorepo for Aesthetic.Computer
aesthetic.computer
1# AC Native OS Dev Wishlist
2
3## Faster Iteration Loop
4
5### Ethernet PXE Netboot (top priority)
6- Two ThinkPads with built-in ethernet (X13, T14, T16, L-series, P-series)
7- One cable between them, `ac-os serve` on the dev machine
8- Target reboots and grabs the new build over TFTP — no USB ever
9- babypat (1.5 KB) downloads in milliseconds, full kernel (89 MB) in ~2s on gigabit
10- Need: 2x ethernet-capable laptops, 1x ethernet cable
11- Already built: `fedac/babypat/netboot.sh` (dnsmasq DHCP + TFTP server)
12- TODO: `ac-os serve` command that wraps netboot for the full kernel
13
14### WiFi Netboot Stub (no ethernet needed)
15- Tiny Linux (~8 MB) on USB that never changes
16- Boots, connects to WiFi, downloads payload over HTTP, kexec into it
17- Dev machine serves builds over WiFi — same edit/rebuild/reboot loop
18- Slower than ethernet but works with any laptop
19- TODO: build the stub (kernel + wpa_supplicant + curl + kexec, ~8 MB)
20
21### Current Pain Points
22- USB stick plug/unplug cycle for every flash
23- X1 Nano (current dev host) has no ethernet — can't PXE boot targets from it
24- Devcontainer can't access /dev directly — needs SSH to docker host for flashing
25- Build artifacts (~89 MB kernel) take time to write to USB
26
27## Hardware Wishlist
28- 2x ThinkPad with ethernet (X13 or T14) for twin dev setup
29- USB-C ethernet adapters as fallback for ultrabooks ($10 each)
30- Ethernet cable (cat6, any length)
31
32## babypat
33- Bare-metal UEFI musical keyboard, 1,536 bytes total
34- Currently: PC speaker square wave (buzzy, not all laptops have one)
35- Want: Intel HDA sine wave synthesis (~15-20 KB extra, real audio output)
36- Want: fits in a single QR code on a card (currently 1.5 KB, QR max ~3 KB)
37- Stretch: paper-encoded bootable OS on a score card
38
39## ac-os Improvements
40- `ac-os serve` — PXE/HTTP server for network boot (replaces `ac-os flash`)
41- `ac-os serve --wifi` — WiFi stub mode (HTTP server, target downloads over WiFi)
42- `ac-os qemu` — already exists, good for testing without hardware
43- Faster kernel builds (incremental, ccache)