There is an ongoing effort to port the Hurd to the L4 microkernel family. This will take time and the port is not in a releasable state -- this is why there is no information about the L4 port on the website for the Hurd project http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd other than this FAQ entry.
The development of Hurd/L4 is being done in the hurd-l4 module of the Hurd
CVS repository. The doc directory contains a design document that is worth
reading for anyone who wishes to learn more about Hurd/L4. If you wish to
follow the development or contribute patches to Hurd/L4, please subscribe to
the l4-hurd mailing list.
The distinction between / and /usr has historical reasons. Back when Unix
systems were booted from two tapes, a small root tape and a big user tape.
Today, we like to use different partitions for these two spaces. The Hurd
throws this historical garbage away. We think that we have found a more
flexible solution called union filesystems, which allow to create virtual
filesystems which are the union of several other filesystems. However, support
for union filesystems is still in early development.
Next year.
Save that, read about the Hurd's status.
Hurd, as an acronym, stands for Hird of Unix-Replacing Daemons. Hird, in turn, stands for Hurd of Interfaces Representing Depth.
We treat Hurd as a title rather than as a proper name: it requires an article, as in the Hurd. For instance: The ext2 filesystem is provided by the Hurd, not by Mach. Note that all of the following are incorrect: Hurd, HURD, The HURD, and the hurd.
We write the GNU Hurd instead of the Hurd when we want to emphasize that the Hurd is a GNU package. Once this has been made clear, we usually use the shorter form, without GNU.
The whole operating system includes not only the kernel and the system servers, but also many more programs. This system is called GNU, or the GNU operating system. The GNU programs can also run on other operating system kernels. We say GNU/Hurd when we want to put emphasis on the fact that this is the GNU system running on top of the Hurd, and to contrast it with the GNU/Linux system which is GNU using Linux as the kernel.
Finally, there is Debian GNU/Hurd. This refers to the distribution of the GNU system as created by the Debian developers. For example: What do you run on your laptop? Debian GNU/Hurd, of course.
The French generally write le Hurd--that is, they treat the name as masculine singular, capitalized as in English.
When we are referring to the microkernel, we say Mach and use it as a proper noun. For example: Mach uses the device drivers found in version 2.0.x of Linux. We sometimes say the Mach microkernel instead of just Mach.
In addition to the general FAQ there are the following typical newbie questions. (There is an updated version which is not official yet.)
If you still have problems, do not hesitate to make use of the mailing lists or the IRC.
You say GNU, don't you mean GNU/Hurd?
- Yes and no. GNU refers to the system as a whole, while GNU/Hurd is more specific, saying that it is the GNU system running on the Hurd -- to differentiate it from the GNU system running on Linux, GNU/Linux. Also see ?GnuNames
What editor can I use?
nanois the default editor on a fresh install, notae.
Why can't I get the answers I need from Hurd hackers?
- This document may help you understand some developers attitudes and social norms.
Where are the virtual consoles I use when running GNU/Linux?
- You need to use screen instead, also available when running GNU/Linux.
- The new console by Marcus Brinkmann could also be used. It supports the Alt-Fn keys for switching like in GNU/Linux. NOTE: that message has an error in the configuration steps, it says
/dev/vtswhen it means/dev/vcs. A more up-to-date howto is console.
What is a translator?
- The official FAQ answers this question by a reference to hurd-doc-translator.
Where's the sauce?
- It's on Savannah. See also the GNU Development Resources, for more information.
What is this "libio" stuff?
- There was an ABI change for glibc0.3. It's recommended you reinstall your GNU/Hurd system if you run a system installed before the summer of 2002. This is a similar cause for the various Linux distributions who changed from libc5 to libc6 or glibc2 around 1998.
What is GNU Mach vs. oskit-mach?
- These are different versions of the Mach microkernel that supports the Hurd that runs on top of it. For more info, see ?Mach
What software is available for GNU?
- Most packages from Debian GNU/Linux which aren't linux-specific (Packages That Won't Be Ported) are expected to work on GNU/Hurd too. See the database in http://packages.debian.org/. Programs which need pthreads, including GNOME, KDE, Mozilla, OpenOffice, SDL, etc. are being worked on currently using Neal Walfields libpthreads. See the ?PortingIssues document for some common build problems and their solutions.
- If you can't fetch a package with "apt-get install ", try building it from source: "apt-get source && cd <package_dir> && debian/rules binary".
- As of January 2007, 50% of Debian packages have been ported on the Hurd. Of course, bug testing is welcome.
How do I initialize a serial console on the Hurd?
- You can try out the Serial Howto at http://www.nongnu.org/thug/serial-howto.txt
- For a real serial console at boot time you need to rebuild your GNUmach 1.x kernel. For more info see the Utah release notes at http://www.cs.utah.edu/flux/mach4-i386/html/mach4-UK22.html#serial_console
Will GNU work in Vmware?
- It's highly recommended and easier to get a full image for Bochs. See ?Distrib
- It didn't use to, Hurd bootstrap fails. Vmware is not free software and it is ?VmWare. We recommend to use free alternatives, like ?BochsEmulator.
- A faster, more widespread and free recent alternative is [QEMU]QEMU. You can find more informations on QEMU.
- If someone prefers using VMWare:
- It works with VMWare Workstation 4.0.5 build-6030.
- Running Debian GNU/HURD in VMWare works for me -- ?MichaelAblassmeier - 03 Mar 2004