Minimal x86 Kernel Zig

A minimal bare-metal kernel written entirely in Zig (zero assembly files).

It boots on an x86 (i386) machine via the Multiboot 1 protocol and prints a

coloured greeting to the VGA text-mode display, then halts the CPU.

The project is designed to be cross-compiled from any host (including Apple

Silicon Macs) and tested instantly with QEMU — no ISO image, no GRUB

installation, no bootloader binaries required.

No other dependencies. Zig bundles its own LLVM back-end and linker, so

cross-compilation to x86-freestanding-none works out of the box on any host

OS and architecture (macOS ARM, Linux x86_64, etc.).

To run QEMU manually with custom flags:

You should see this: