Ada Bare Bones

Difficulty level
Medium

Kernel Designs
Models
Monolithic Kernel Microkernel Exokernel Nano/Picokernel Cache Kernel Virtualizing Kernel Megalithic Kernel
Other Concepts
Modular Kernel Higher Half Kernel 64-bit Kernel Hybrid Kernel

In this tutorial we will compile a simple Ada kernel and boot it.

WAIT! Have you read Getting Started, Beginner Mistakes, and some of the related OS theory?

Preface

One of the first things people ask on the Ada IRC channel on Freenode is "Can Ada be used for OS development?" to which the answer is a resounding yes. But there are 2 problems:

1. The people asking this question are new to Ada, and
2. GNAT is not the easiest compiler to build.

Therefore these users don't understand what it takes to get the compiler into a useable state.

As you may have seen from other bare bones tutorials on this site, they state that you must have a compiler built which can handle ELF files, the usual way is by building GCC which targets i386-elf or some other similar architecture. The problem here is that GNAT will not build for these targets out of the box without messing with it's makefile.