Re: Booting Debian GNU/Hurd

[Rian Hunter]

On Fri, 2004-07-16 at 06:10, Alfred M. Szmidt wrote:
>    >This is too big.  Better use a smaller filesystem.  A 4GB
>    >filesystem only works with a patched Hurd build, which is not easy
>    >to set up when you are new to GNU/Hurd, I think.
> 
>    But GNU Mach 1.3 support file system >2Gb. Am I right?
> 
> Sorta, GNU Mach 1.3 (and later) support _partitions_ that are larger
> than 10gb.  It isn't the kernel that is at fault here, but the ext2fs
> translator in the Hurd which maps the whole drive into memory.  And on
> 32-bit machines you can only map 2gb into memory.

oh that makes a lot of sense now. i remember reading somewhere that the
ext2 translator uses the other 2GB for something else. the ext2
translator maps each byte as a different address? i don't know about how
it works internally, but shouldn't data-addressing be kept in
sector-blocks (512 bytes)? if i sound ignorant please don't confuse it
with arrogance and excuse it. i have some experience with file system
driver writing and HURD translators, and a lot of free time. if the code
isn't too difficult to dig through i'll attempt at patching (or...gulp
rewriting). i know i know, less talking more hacking.
-rian