News

01-Sep-2026

Finally, the next Fiwix kernel version will include networking support.

With the invaluable help of Samuel Tyler and after months of work, I have successfully integrated lwIP 2.2.1 —a TCP/IP network stack for embedded systems— into the build of the kernel. This integration also includes the most relevant ioctl calls compatible with the Linux kernel.

To provide a real networking experience, I have also included a driver for RTL8139 network cards. In addition, I've ported the net-tools and inetutils packages to FiwixOS, adding basic networking utilities such as ping, ifconfig and route, to help configure and test the network interfaces.

So, if your QEMU configuration includes an RTL8139 network card, you should see a similar new message during kernel boot:

The following is a short video showing how I configure the eth0 interface with the ifconfig command, followed by some ping tests to different IP addresses:

• 127.0.0.1 (lo interface).
• 192.168.122.1 (virbr0 interface).
• 192.168.1.2 (my home computer).
• 192.168.1.1 (my Internet router).
• 8.8.8.8 Google! :-)

It's not perfect yet, it might show some bugs here and there. An expert hand in lwIP is very welcome.