Re: Informations about Gnu/Hurd

[Wojciech Aniszewski]

Hi
I'm also running the Hurd on bare metal (using a Thinkpad T61).
To follow up on Almudena's post (which is very comprehensive so not much to 
add!),
I'll just give some observations:
- unlike in the virtual machines, here you'll have a mechanical disk (a tad 
slower);
  now, when halting the system, it'll have to cleanly unmount all partitions, 
should
  that *not* happen (e.g. you powered down abruptly), Hurd will check all 
partitions
  upon next restart. This takes forever and a day - easily 20 minutes for me if 
it
  wants to check all partitions. So remember to always power down clean.
- I actually never got around to changing apt sources (after installation) to 
online
  ones, and load missing packages from the installation DVD if possible.
- I run XFCE4 as a desktop manager, works flawless. (no login manager just 
startx).

I use the Hurd system for real-life work, mainly ssh to supercomputers to 
remotely
administer computer simulations. Also some light LaTeX, gimp, etc. I set up some
translators for the ftp access to some accounts.

I find the system very stable.

I miss the ALSA (for background music) and wifi. Not the one to complain though,
maybe one day I can help implementing all that...

cheers
Voitek

On Sun, Oct 13, 2024 at 04:13:02PM +0200, Almudena Garcia wrote:
> Hi:
> 
> To install Debian GNU/Hurd in real hardware as easiest way, you needs:
> 
> - A x86 or x86_64 (in 32-bit) previous to 2012.
> - A SATA interface with a "compatibility mode" to emulate SATA, or a
> machine with IDE harddisk.
> - CD/DVD reader (alternatively you can connect the HDD to a Qemu Virtual
> Machine, using a SATA-USB adapter, and install from this)
> - If the machine is a desktop, you need a PS/2 interface for mouse and
> keyboard
> - CPU with integrated graphics
> - Ethernet cable connection
> - BIOS legacy
> - HDD (not SSD)
> 
> Currently, the best supported machines seems the Thinkpad laptops previous
> to 2012, in special T60. I got good results with T410 too.
> In desktop, sometimes I had some problems to connect the monitor.
> 
> The latest stable image is here:
> https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/latest/hurd-i386/current/iso-cd/
> I recommends to enable sudo, keeping in blank the root password (as this
> way, the root password is disabled, and sudo is installed) and doesn't
> select any desktop in tasksel step.
> Could be a little warning about /dev/random, but this is not a problem for
> the installation.
> 
> Once installed, you must edit /etc/apt/sources.list, adding the
> repositories indicated in this web (in  Installing More Packages section)
> https://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install
> Maybe you had to add some of this with [trusted=yes] to avoid key problems.
> After adding the repositories, I recommends to upgrade the system with
> 
> sudo apt update
> sudo apt upgrade
> sudo apt full-upgrade
> 
> Reboot the system if gnumach package is upgraded.
> And, to halt the machine, sometimes is better use the command halt-hurd
> than simply halt
> 
> If you want to install a desktop environment, you need to follow the steps
> from previous guide to enable the Xorg permissions, and run startx to start
> the desktop.
> About desktop managers, only XDM is supported.
> 
> And, this is all!!
> Try Debian GNU/Hurd in your testing machine and report us the results.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> El dom, 13 oct 2024 a las 9:32, p db (<id3rfix@gmail.com>) escribió:
> 
> > Sorry too much for the disturb, I was always interested to the operating
> > system Gnu/Hurd, but i never found informations about the hardware
> > supported from it,
> >
> > I would like to know which:
> >
> > Motherboard, which Cpu, How many Ram, which Hard Disk, which Svga, which
> > Sound Card, which Cd or DVD, which mouse is supported!
> >
> > I would to install Gnu/Hurd on a computer,
> > X86 32 bits, X86 64 bits on Arm, Sparc 64.
> >
> > Awaiting your reply,
> >
> > Best Regards,
> >
> > Paolo Del Bene IU0NIO
> >
> > from Italy (Rome)
> >

-- 
  /^..^\      
 ( (••) )    Wojciech (Voitek) ANISZEWSKI
 (|)_._(|)~
OrcId   : https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4248-1194
Scholar : https://tinyurl.com/y28b8gfp
RG      : https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Wojciech_Aniszewski
Mastodon: @wa@fediscience.org
Twitter : @echo_dancers3
GPG ID  : AC66485E

signature.asc
Description: PGP signature