CentOS co-founder reports building Linux-compatible kernel with AI in 11 days
The Ginux research project can boot Rocky Linux 10, but operates only in a virtual machine and has not received an independent security audit.
Gregory Kurtzer, a CentOS co-founder who later launched Rocky Linux, says an AI agent performed most of the coding for Ginux, a new operating system kernel developed in 11 days. The prototype boots Rocky Linux 10 without relying on Linux code.
Kurtzer's technical report describes a workflow in which he established the architecture, development milestones and criteria for passing tests. An agent running through OpenAI Codex with GPT-5.6 Sol then programmed, booted and tested the kernel, addressing failures along the way. The extended task generated about 139,000 lines covering code and tests, with more than 1,000 commits.
Ginux is written mainly in Rust and reproduces Linux's application binary interface, allowing Linux applications to run without modification. Its coverage is incomplete: among the 375 system calls in the Linux 6.12 x86-64 interface, 82 are fully implemented, 245 have partial implementations and 48 are intentionally blocked.
Programs run within isolated domains that maintain separate processes, memory and filesystems. Standard OCI container images supply the files for those domains. Tests involving distributions such as Rocky Linux revealed faults that synthetic testing had not detected.
The project remains experimental, with execution limited to a QEMU virtual machine. Physical hardware, GPUs and NVMe drives are unsupported, and no independent security audit has been conducted. Kurtzer identifies compatibility, security and maintenance over the long term as unresolved challenges. Ginux's code is available through GitHub under the Apache 2.0 license.
