Re: GSoc GNU Hurd project

[Philip Charles]

On Monday 24 March 2008, Ali Servet Dönmez wrote:
> Hi,
>
> said that I'm not a GNU Hurd authority or anything closer to that, just
> want to point you out that as for GSoc's rules you cannot (at least you
> shouldn't) apply in group for a single project proposal [0].
>
> My best regards,
> Ali Servet Dönmez

There are three different projects.  The boot-disk (the installer part), 
the tarball, and the CD/DVD.  These can all be used separately.
The boot-disk for preparing GNU/Hurd partitions.
The tarball for cross-install.
The CD/DVD for software installation/upgrading.
So these should be seen as separate projects.

While the current boot-disks are clumsy, out-dated and Linux based, but 
they work.  The challenge here is to create a native Hurd boot-disk and 
then move on to the standard Debian installer as a second stage.

At the present stage of the Hurd's development it is not possible to 
completely automate the tarball's production.  However, it should be 
possible to reduce the amount of manual intervention.  The challenge here 
is to create a tarball on a Hurd system that does not need 
native-install.

The CD/DVD project in effect creates a usable and consistant archive which 
is then built into iso's.  A second aspect is to automate a basic 
installation.
While people install and upgrade from the Debian GNU/Hurd archive this 
says more about the effectiveness of apt than the state of the archive 
its self, which is messy.  As long as optical discs are used the CD/DVD 
project is needed as is.  And improvements need to be made to the build 
system.
An expansion of this project would be to create a fully 
consistant "testing" archive.

Phil.



> [0]:
> http://code.google.com/opensource/gsoc/2008/faqs.html#0.1_group_apply
>
> On Tue, 2008-03-18 at 20:39 -0800, subin surendren wrote:
> > I am a student doing my undergraduate engineering course in
> > Information Technology at MES College of Engineering, Kuttipuram in
> > India.
> >
> > I have just come across the GNU Hurd project being listed as a mentor
> > organisation in Google SoC 2008.
> >
> > I have a proposal to work on the "installer part" of the GNU Hurd. A
> > few of my seniors did work on this project (GNU Hurd LX Installer)
> > last year co-ordinating with Philip Charles of New Zealand. Our work
> > has been listed at http://gnu.ethz.ch/hurd
> >
> > The LX installer project was also listed by Sourceforge at
> > http://sourceforge.net/projects/hurdlx
> >
> > Since GNU Hurd doesn't have a native installer, the LX project made
> > use of a stable surrogate installer for the purpose of installation
> > and went ahead right upto the features of getting X console after
> > installation – which was unique.
> >
> > This time around, our plan is to extend these features further :
> >        (a) incorporate latest stable surrogate installer
> >        (b) get a gui installer part working
> >        (c) work with the latest release of Hurd – equivalent to K16
> > or later
> >
> > Since the guides of this project is here (C K Raju, Raghesh A and
> > Badharudeen P), it would be possible to carry the work forward.
> >
> > The proposed team members (all classmates) are
> >
> >        (1) Subin M
> >        (2) Manoj K M
> >        (3) Binu J Raj
> >
> > We are awaiting to hear from you,
> >
> > Yours truly,



-- 
  Philip Charles; 39a Paterson Street, Abbotsford, Dunedin, New Zealand
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