Re: Gentoo GNU/Hurd thread in Gentoo Forums

From:

Sergiu Ivanov

Subject:

Date:

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:34:23 +0200

Sergiu Ivanov ha scritto:

> It might be interesting to you, that it's a trial to introduce the
> translators
> concept to NetBSD and the final goal is to provide binary
> compatibility with
> GNUMach to be able to use the Hurd on top of the NetBSD kernel.
> In case you want to ask the question "Why on a monolithic kernel?",
> the answer
> is that translators seem a cool thing even there.
>
> Some things already work (but they're not yet integrated and
> stable), you can
> check the status on:
> http://netbsd-soc.sourceforge.nAh, I see.

> et/projects/hurdt/ <http://netbsd-soc.sourceforge.net/projects/hurdt/>

>
>
> Thank you for the information :-) I heard something about this, but I
> never read anything on this matter. I wonder whether Hurd community
> should feel happy about translators on NetBSD or not...

I think it should. Being a user, for me it means the Hurd running on a
*production-ready kernel*.
Sound. Up-to-date drivers. Architectures support. It is wonderful news.

Well, I wonder whether porting Hurd to NetBSD kernel would take less
effort than it should have taken to port it to L4 or Coyotos. Still,
both attempts failed, and I am strongly inclined to think that it is
just infeasible (or near infeasible) to port the Hurd on a
*monolithic* kernel, though you had better ask Hurd guys smarter than
me.

And I wonder -does it mean that a top-down approach can be taken to the
microkernel? Is it conceivable to start from the NetBSD monolithic, and
than "modularize" it piece by piece, until there is a BSDish
microkernel, NetBSD-derived but standalone drivers, and the Hurd?