Re: A Hurd release

[Ognyan Kulev]

Daniel Godás wrote:
> Ok, after the presentation. I have taken a look at the archives and
> the dev-hurd list archives are very outdated, why? why is this topic
> beeing discussed in this list and not there? 

You probably mean hurd-devel.  It's only for core developers.

The two active core developers (Marcus and Neal) work on the L4 port and 
you can follow their work by reading l4-hurd mailing list.

> Besides, i havent found any useful docs about L4, what is it? a
> substitute for arch? who is developing it? Now i have my exams but
> from february ill have some free time to work on this and i have some
> questions.

I think it's good question for our FAQ.

> 1) can you make a translator have dependencies? Its very common that
> you need some facilites that are in another translator so i guess its
> possible but how can i do it?

Translators usually reference other translators by using the filesystem 
which will start these other translators, if they are passive.

> 2) from inside a translator how can you obtain information about
> running translators such as the name and the attached file?

You have that information when the translator is started up.

> 3) id like to install the HURD without using debian, im a gentoo user
> and im very happy with it. I have used debian in the past and didnt
> like it at all so my plan was to make a new partition and download and
> install the HURD from my gentoo system, then change the grub config.
> Can it be done that way? I read the best way is to use debian but that
> doc hasnt been updated for a long time.

You can download GNU K8 CD and use its tarball.  More information can be 
found in http://www.nl.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install

> 4) could it be run inside a virtual machine (im thinking of vmware)?
> Has anybody tried it?

Yes, some people us it with success.  qemu is faster but less stable.

> 5) how can i use sockets (or something similar) in the hurd? I havent
> installed it yet but if you tell me what source files i should read
> ill do it when i finish installing it.

Just use the POSIX API.

Regards,
ogi