[Mono-dev] Dynamic bootstrapping

[Ianis G. Vasilev]

First - hello. Second - I wasn't sure where to ask, but I hope I asked in
the right place.

I am about to start a project and I am not sure whether a part of the
project is possible. I want to know if there is any way to launch a new
process in the current operating system which goes through the bootstrapping
cycle in a thread separate from the loaded OS threads. Let me explain it
better.

Imagine we have a loaded operating system, for example Ubuntu Linux, and a
single-core processor. I want to launch a process with Superuser
permissions, which will create a thread in the current OS. That thread
should give BIOS/EFI a command to load a boot image, based on the mono
livecd,  without interfering the OS itself. And, what is more important -
without virtualizing any hardware. Instead of using virtual machines, I want
to access the hardware resources of a computer directly. This should result
in two separate kernels sharing different parts of hardware resources on a
computer. In other words, the goal is to create two simulated computers from
one real with each kernel using its own hardware resources, i.e. dividing
the hardware resources into two parts.

I know it is probably possible by creating two custom kernels which run
asynchronously and each one giving a command to run the other. With more
than one processor cores it should probably be possible to run the kernels
synchronously. The monitor should make a split-screen and the kernel
managing the active screen should accept all the input. But is it possible
to do this without modifying the no kernel?

More simply, can the second OS run as a process in the first OS?

In case I didn't explain it well, I've included an attachment which should
make it clear.

 

Thank you in advance,

Sincerely yours,

Ianis G. Vasilev

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