Re: Newbies questions

[Tom Hart]

Andreas,

Andreas K. Foerster wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I'm curious about HURD and try to install it. But I still have a lot of
> problems with it.
>  
You're not alone, that's why it's 0.2 and not 1.0. :-)

> I have Debian GNU/HURD 0.2. Well, I know that it's not the newest
> version, but it's the only one I can get at the moment.
>
> So far I have installed the main system on my harddrive
> and I can boot it with a diskette. 
>
> How can I get GRUB onto the harddisk?
This is described in your GRUB documentation. You can access it using 
"info grub", or read the manual online.

> Where is a keyboard driver for german keyboards?!
> How can I switch between consoles?
> Is there a scrollback buffer as in BSD or Linux?
>  
Marcus has been working on a new and improved console client, but I 
think you need Hurd 0.3 to use it.

> I've done "MAKEDEV hd1" and it exists, but when I try to 
> "mount /dev/hd1 /cdrom", it always sais "Segmentation
> fault". So how can I mount my CDROM to get my software? 
>  
"Mount" is UNIX. Hurd uses "settrans".

> In your installation guide you wrote something about
> "/etc/apt/sources.list", but I cannot find it on my disk. Is that just
> for later versions?
>  
No, this exists in all Debian distributions, both GNU/Hurd and GNU/Linux.

> I've also tried to do it with dselect, but it also can't mount the CD.
>
> I also began to configure the network. First I always thought, that 
> I've done something wrong, because ping didn't seem to react and I 
> always interrupted it. Then once I let it go, and indeed after a 
> while it runs. Why does that take so long to start up???
> Then it sais, that it takes 10.0 ms, my other OS sais something 
> about 1.0 ms. Both use 64 bytes - can you explain that?
>  
The Hurd is slow because:
1. "Premature optimization is the root of all evil"
2. It's implemented on top of GNU Mach, which isn't the speediest 
microkernel on the planet.

> Can newer versions handle shared IRQs now?
> Is this one gigabyte limitation still valid in newer versions?
>
>  
The shared IRQ's are GNU Mach's fault, and this isn't getting fixed 
anytime soon. The plan is to move to OSKIT Mach, which is much improved, 
but not is being developed by the University of Utah, not the GNU Project.

Andreas, there's a development copy of a new Hurd User's Guide intended 
for absolute newbies on Matt Grant's site at 
http://seinfeld.arrowstreet.com. When its finished, we hope that this 
will become the Hurd's official documentation.

--

Tom Hart
hartte13@brandonu.ca