Networking

How NØNOS reaches the network. The entire stack, the NIC driver, the TCP/IP implementation, the socket API, name resolution, runs in capsules, not the kernel. A driver capsule owns the hardware, a stack capsule runs smoltcp over frames it exchanges with the driver by IPC, a sockets capsule exposes a BSD-socket API to applications, and an optional overlay capsule adds anonymity. The kernel's role is the IPC that connects them and the broker that grants the driver its device.

Page	What it covers
stack.md	The net_core capsule: a smoltcp 0.11 interface over a NicDevice bridge, the poll loop, and the consolidated-vs-decomposed forms.
drivers.md	The NIC driver capsules (e1000, RTL8139/8169, virtio-net), broker device access, and the frame path to the stack.
sockets.md	The net.sockets service, the BSD socket op set, and how nonos_std's TcpStream / UdpSocket bind to it.
services.md	DHCP address acquisition (runtime-proven), the DNS resolver, and the optional nym anonymity overlay.

The layering, driver to stack to sockets to application, is the networking expression of the same principle as the storage and input stacks: the kernel holds only the connective tissue, and each layer is a separately-isolated capsule holding only the authority it needs. A NIC driver that parses hostile frames and programs DMA is contained in its own capsule; the TCP/IP stack that parses hostile packets is contained in another; and a program that opens a socket reaches a capability-checked IPC service rather than a kernel that must be trusted to parse the wire. The stack is real, not a stub: it is smoltcp, brought up to a bound DHCP lease on a live boot.

Sources

The stack is userland/capsule_net_core/ (smoltcp interface, device bridge, DHCP, DNS, TCP/UDP), the sockets service is userland/capsule_net_sockets/ with the kernel-side spawn in src/userspace/capsule_net_sockets/, the drivers are src/hardware/*_capsule/ and userland/capsule_driver_virtio_net/, and the overlay is src/userspace/capsule_net_nym/. The spawn plan is src/userspace/init/spawn_plan/network/ and drivers_nic.rs. Every page is verified against those trees with file:line references.