Re: Hurd on ppc ?

[B. Douglas Hilton]

Strangely enough, this port may not be all that difficult. I have
pondered it over myself from time to time.

The most critical part of Hurd is currently the microkernel. Hurd
typically depends on a compatible Mach. I am not overly knowledgable
about OS/X and Darwin, but AFAIK MkLinux uses some kind of Mach
microkernel.

If you have a powerpc machine which can run MkLinux, then this would
be your springboard to Hurd. Use the MkLinux microkernel as your start
point, and compile up "the Hurd", and then your base c-libraries, linking
against Mach and Hurd instead of Linux. Then, using lots of black magic, make
some kind of --host=powerpc-linux --target=powerpc-gnu gcc cross compiler.
Finally, using this new compiler reiterate the process until it actually
begins to work?

These are my guesses. I'm sure some of the more senior Hurd'ers have
more information on how to bootstrap compile the OS. The microkernel
is a critical part, and it is very possible that the MkLinux version
of Mach would work with some modification. I think it would be bigger
than a one-man project and you'd need to recruit some helpers.

BTW, I just foolishly bid on a RS/6000-42T on Yahoo :-)  I know
darn well that micro-channel will never work with anything except
AIX, but it does have a Powerdisplay 20 bundled. What was I thinking?
I need to save my dough for one of those Zaurus SL-5500 toys...

Oh well. My first experience ever with unix was a RS/6000 at Penn State
back in 1990. When Linux appeared in '92 I was on it like flys on $h!t :-)


Cheers!


Arlo le Rouge wrote:
> Hi
>
> I have a question : is there a port of the Hurd on powerpc ? Does
> someone ever tried to run Hurd on a ppc ? If not, is there something I
> can do to help... I've heard of such a port several months ago, but
> today I can't find a thing about this.
>
> Jérémie
>
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