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+[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 Free Software
+Foundation, Inc."]]
+
+[[!meta license="""[[!toggle id="license" text="GFDL 1.2+"]][[!toggleable
+id="license" text="Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
+document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
+any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant
+Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license
+is included in the section entitled [[GNU Free Documentation
+License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
+
+[[!tag open_issue_gnumach open_issue_hurd]]
+
+This is a collection of resources concerning *user-space device drivers*.
+
+Also see [[device drivers and IO systems]].
+[[community/gsoc/project ideas/driver glue code]].
+
+[[!toc levels=2]]
+
+
+# Open Issues
+
+## IRQs
+
+ * Can be modeled using [[RPC]]s.
+
+ * Security considerations: IRQ sharing.
+
+ * *Omega0* paper defines an interface.
+
+ * As is can be read in the *Mach 3 Kernel Principles*, there is an *event
+ object* facility in Mach that can be used for having user-space tasks react
+ to IRQs. However, at least in GNU Mach, that code (`kern/eventcount.c`)
+ doesn't seem functional at all and isn't integrated properly in the kernel.
+
+ * IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2011-07-29
+
+ < antrik> regarding performance of userspace drivers, there is one
+ thing that really adds considerable overhead: interrupt
+ handling. whether this is relevant very much depends on the hardware
+ in question. when sending many small packets over gigabit ethernet,
+ it might be noticable; in most other cases it's irrelevant
+ < youpi> some cards support interrupt coalescin
+ < youpi> could be supported by DDE too
+
+## DMA
+
+ * Security considerations.
+
+ * I/O MMU.
+
+
+### IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2012-08-15
+
+ <carli2> hi. does hurd support mesa?
+ <braunr> carli2: software only, but yes
+ <carli2> :(
+ <carli2> so you did not solve the problem with the CS checkers and GPU DMA
+ for microkernels yet, right?
+ <braunr> cs = ?
+ <carli2> control stream
+ <carli2> the data sent to the gpu
+ <braunr> no
+ <braunr> and to be honest we're not currently trying to
+ <carli2> well, a microkernel containing cs checkers for each hardware is
+ not a microkernel any more
+ <braunr> the problem is having the ability to check
+ <braunr> or rather, giving only what's necessary to delegate checking to
+ mmus
+ <carli2> but maybe the kernel could have a smaller interface like a
+ function to check if a memory block is owned by a process
+ <braunr> i'm not sure what you refer to
+ <carli2> about DMA-capable devices you can send messages to
+ <braunr> carli2: dma must be delegated to a trusted server
+ <carli2> linux checks the data sent to these devices, parses them and
+ checks all pointers if they are in a memory range that the client is
+ allowed to read/write from
+ <braunr> the client ?
+ <carli2> in linux, 3d drivers are in user space, so the kernel side checks
+ the pointer sent to the GPU
+ <youpi> carli2: mach could do that as well
+ <braunr> well, there is a rather large part in kernel space too
+ <carli2> so in hurd I trust some drivers to not do evil things?
+ <braunr> those in the kernel yes
+ <carli2> what does "in the kernel" mean? afaik a microkernel only has
+ memory manager and some basic memory sharing and messaging functionality
+ <braunr> did you read about the hurd ?
+ <braunr> mach is considered an hybrid kernel, not a true microkernel
+ <braunr> even with all drivers outside, it's still an hybrid
+ <youpi> although we're to move some parts into userlands :)
+ <youpi> braunr: ah, why?
+ <braunr> youpi: the vm part is too large
+ <youpi> ok
+ <braunr> the microkernel dogma is no policy inside the kernel
+ <braunr> "except scheduling because it's very complicated"
+ <braunr> but all modern systems have moved memory management outisde the
+ kernel, leaving just the kernel abstraction inside
+ <braunr> the adress space kernel abstraction
+ <braunr> and the two components required to make it work are what l4re
+ calls region mappers (the rough equivalent of our vm_map), which decides
+ how to allocate regions in an address space
+ <braunr> and the pager, like ours, which are already external
+ <carli2> i'm not a OS developer, i mostly develop games, web services and
+ sometimes I fix gpu drivers
+ <braunr> that was just FYI
+ <braunr> but yes, dma must be considered something privileged
+ <braunr> and the hurd doesn't have the infrastructure you seem to be
+ looking for
+
+
+## I/O Ports
+
+ * Security considerations.
+
+## PCI and other buses
+
+ * Security considerations: sharing.
+
+## Latency of doing RPCs
+
+ * [[GNU Mach|microkernel/mach/gnumach]] is said to have a high overhead when
+ doing RPC calls.
+
+
+## System Boot
+
+A similar problem is described in
+[[community/gsoc/project_ideas/unionfs_boot]], and needs to be implemented.
+
+
+### IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2011-07-27
+
+ < braunr> btw, was there any formulation of the modifications required to
+ have disk drivers in userspace ?
+ < braunr> (which would obviously need something like
+ initrd/initramfs/whatever and may also need the root file system not to
+ be the first task started)
+ < braunr> hm actually, we may not need initrd
+ < braunr> the boot loader could just load more modules
+ < antrik> braunr: I have described all that in my thesis report... in
+ German :-(
+ < braunr> and the boot scripts could be adjusted to pass around the right
+ ports
+ < Tekk_> braunr: yeah, we could probably load a module that kciks us into
+ userspace and starts the disk driver
+ < braunr> modules are actualy userspace executables
+ < Tekk_> ah
+ < Tekk_> so what's the issue?
+ < Tekk_> oh! I'm thinking the ext2fs server, which is already in userspce
+ < braunr> change the file systems to tell them which underlying disk driver
+ to use
+ < Tekk_> mhm
+ < braunr> s/disk/storage/
+
+
+#### IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2012-04-25
+
+ <youpi> btw, remember the initrd thing?
+ <youpi> I just came across task.c in libstore/ :)
+
+
+#### IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2013-06-24
+
+ <youpi> we added a new initrd command to gnumach, to expose a new mach
+ device, which ext2fs can open and unzip
+ <youpi> we consider replacing that with simply putting the data in a dead
+ process
+ <youpi> s/process/task
+ <youpi> and let ext2fs read data from the task, and kill it when done
+ <teythoon> ok
+ <youpi> alternatively, tmps would work with an initial .tar.gz payload
+ <youpi> that would be best for memory usage
+ <youpi> tmpfs*
+ <teythoon> can't we replace the initrd concept with sub/neighbourhood?
+ <youpi> setting up tmpfs with an initial payload could be done with a
+ bootstrap subhurd
+ <teythoon> yes
+ <youpi> but it seems to me that having tmpfs being able to have an initial
+ payload is interesting
+ <teythoon> is there any advantage of the tmpfs translator prefilled with a
+ tarball over ext2fs with copy & bunzip?
+ <youpi> memory usage
+ <youpi> ext2fs with copy&bunzip takes memory for zeroes
+ <youpi> and we have to forecast how much data might be stored
+ <youpi> (if writable)
+ <teythoon> ah sure
+ <teythoon> but why would it have to be in the tmpfs translator? I why not
+ start the translator and have tar extract stuff there?
+ <teythoon> with the livecd I had trouble replacing the root translator, but
+ when using subhurds that shouldn't be a prwoblem at all
+ <youpi> I don't have a real opinion on this
+ <youpi> except that people don't usually like initrd :)
+ <braunr> 12:43 < teythoon> but why would it have to be in the tmpfs
+ translator? I why not start the translator and have tar extract stuff
+ there?
+ <braunr> that sounds an awful lot like an initramfs
+ <teythoon> yes, exactly, without actually having an initramfs of course
+ <braunr> yep
+ <braunr> i actually prefer that way too
+ <teythoon> a system on a r/o isofs cannot do much, but it can do this
+ <braunr> on the other hand, i wouldn't spend much time on a virtio disk
+ driver for now
+ <braunr> the hurd as it is can't boot on a device that isn't managed by the
+ kernel
+ <braunr> we'd need to change the boot protocol
+
+[[virtio]].
+
+
+#### IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2013-06-28
+
+ <teythoon> I'm tempted to redo a livecd, simpler and without the initrd
+ hack that youpi used for d-i
+ <braunr> initrd hack ?
+ <braunr> you mean more a la initramfs then ?
+ <teythoon> no, I thought about using a r/o isofs translator, but instead of
+ fixing that one up with a r/w overlay and lot's of firmlinks like I used
+ to, it would just start an ext2fs translator with copy on an image stored
+ on the iso and start a subhurd
+ <braunr> why a subhurd ?
+ <teythoon> neighbourhurd even
+ <teythoon> b/c back in the days I had trouble replacing /
+ <braunr> yes, that's hard
+ <teythoon> subhurd would take of that for free
+ <braunr> are you sure ?
+ <teythoon> somewhat
+ <braunr> i'm not, but this requires thorough thinking
+ <braunr> and i'm not there yet
+ <teythoon> y would it not?
+ <teythoon> just start a subhurd and let that one take over the console and
+ let the user and d-i play nicely in that environment
+ <teythoon> no hacks involved
+ <braunr> because it would require sharing things between the two system
+ instances, and that's not easy
+ <teythoon> no but the bootstrap system does nothing after launching the
+ subhurd
+ <teythoon> I mean yes, technically true, but why would it be hard to share
+ with someone who does nothing?
+ <braunr> the context isn't well defined enough to clearly state anything
+ <braunr> if you don't use the resources of the first hurd, that's ok
+ <braunr> otherwise, it may be easy or not, i don't know yet
+ <teythoon> you think it's worth a shot and see what issues crop up?
+ <braunr> sure
+ <braunr> definitely
+ <teythoon> it doesn't sound complicated at all
+ <braunr> it's easy enough to the point we see something goes wrong or works
+ completely
+ <braunr> so worth testin
+ <teythoon> cool :)
+
+
+#### IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2014-02-10
+
+ <teythoon> braunr: i have a question wrt memory allocation in gnumach
+ <teythoon> i made a live cd with a rather large ramdisk
+ <teythoon> it works fine in qemu, when i tried it on a real machine it
+ failed to allocate the buffer for the ramdisk
+ <teythoon> i was wondering why
+ <teythoon> i believe the function that failed was kmem_alloc trying to
+ allocate 64 megabytes
+ <braunr> teythoon: how much memory on the real machine ?
+ <teythoon> 4 gigs
+ <braunr> so 1.8G
+ <teythoon> yes
+ <braunr> does it fail systematically ?
+ <teythoon> but surely enough
+ <teythoon> uh, i must admit i only tried it once
+ <braunr> it's likely a 64M kernel allocation would fail
+ <braunr> the kmem_map is 128M wide iirc
+ <braunr> and likely fragmented
+ <braunr> it doesn't take much to prevent a 64M contiguous virtual area
+ <teythoon> i see
+ <braunr> i suggest you try my last gnumach patch
+ <teythoon> hm
+ <teythoon> surely there is a way to make this more robust, like using a
+ different map for the allocation ?
+ <braunr> the more you give to the kernel, the less you have for userspace
+ <braunr> merging maps together was actually a goal
+ <braunr> the kernel should never try to allocate such a large region
+ <braunr> can you trace the origin of the allocation request ?
+ <teythoon> i'm pretty sure it is for the ram disk
+ <braunr> makes sense but still, it's huge
+ <teythoon> well...
+ <braunr> the ram disk should behave as any other mapping, i.e. pages should
+ be mapped in on demand
+ <teythoon> right, so the implementation could be improved ?
+ <braunr> we need to understand why the kernel makes such big requests first
+ <teythoon> oh ? i thought i asked it to do so
+ <braunr> ?
+ <teythoon> for the ram disk
+ <braunr> normally, i would expect this to translate to the creation of a
+ 64M anonymous memory vm object
+ <braunr> the kernel would then fill that object with zeroed pages on demand
+ (on page fault)
+ <braunr> at no time would there be a single 64M congituous kernel memory
+ allocation
+ <braunr> such big allocations are a sign of a serious bug
+ <braunr> for reference, linux (which is even more demanding because
+ physical memory is directly mapped in kernel space) allows at most 4M
+ contiguous blocks on most architectures
+ <braunr> on my systems, the largest kernel allocation is actually 128k
+ <braunr> and there are only two such allocations
+ <braunr> teythoon: i need you to reproduce it so we understand what happens
+ better
+ <teythoon> braunr: currently the ramdisk implementation kmem_allocs the
+ buffer in the kernel_map
+ <braunr> hum
+ <braunr> did you add this code ?
+ <teythoon> no
+ <braunr> where is it ?
+ <teythoon> debian/patches
+ <braunr> ugh
+ <teythoon> heh
+ <braunr> ok, don't expect that to scale
+ <braunr> it's a quick and dirty hack
+ <braunr> teythoon: why not use tmpfs ?
+ <teythoon> i use it as root filesystem
+ <braunr> :/
+ <braunr> ok so
+ <braunr> update on what i said before
+ <braunr> kmem_map is exclusively used for kernel object (slab) allocations
+ <braunr> kmem_map is a submap of kernel_map
+ <braunr> which is 192M on i386
+ <braunr> so a 64M allocation can't work at all
+ <braunr> it would work on xen, where the kernel map is 224M large
+ <braunr> teythoon: do you use xen ?
+ <teythoon> ok, thanks for the pointers :)
+ <teythoon> i don't use xen
+ <braunr> then i can't explain how it worked in your virtual machine
+ <braunr> unless the size was smaller
+ <teythoon> i'll look into improving the ramdisk patch if time permits
+ <teythoon> no it wasnt
+ <braunr> :/
+ <teythoon> and it works reliably in qemu
+ <braunr> that's very strange
+ <braunr> unless the kernel allocates nothing at all inside kernel_map on
+ qemu
+
+
+##### IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2014-02-11
+
+ <teythoon> braunr: http://paste.debian.net/81339/
+ <braunr> teythoon: oO ?
+ <braunr> teythoon: you can't allocate memory from a non kernel map
+ <braunr> what you're doing here is that you create a separate, non-kernel
+ address space, that overlaps kernel memory, and allocate from that area
+ <braunr> it's like having two overlapping heaps and allocating from them
+ <teythoon> braunr: i do? o_O
+ <teythoon> so i need to map it instead ?
+ <braunr> teythoon: what do you want to do ?
+ <teythoon> i'm currently reading up on the vm system, any pointers ?
+ <braunr> teythoon: but what do you want to achieve here ?
+ <braunr> 12:24 < teythoon> so i need to map it instead ?
+ <teythoon> i'm trying to do what you said the other day, create a different
+ map to back the ramdisk
+ <braunr> no
+ <teythoon> no ?
+ <braunr> i said an object, not a map
+ <braunr> but it means a complete rework
+ <teythoon> ok
+ <teythoon> i'll head back into hurd-land then, though i'd love to see this
+ done properly
+ <braunr> teythoon: what you want basically is tmpfs as a rootfs right ?
+ <teythoon> sure
+ <teythoon> i'd need a way to populate it though
+ <braunr> how is it done currently ?
+ <teythoon> grub loads an ext2 image, then it's copied into the ramdisk
+ device, and used by the root translator
+ <braunr> how is it copied ?
+ <braunr> what makes use of the kernel ramdisk ?
+ <teythoon> in ramdisk_create, currently via memcpy
+ <teythoon> the ext2fs translator that provides /
+ <braunr> ah so it's a kernel device like hd0 ?
+ <teythoon> yes
+ <braunr> hm ok
+ <braunr> then you could create an anonymous memory object in the kernel,
+ and map read/write requests to object operations
+ <braunr> the object must not be mapped in the kernel though, only temporary
+ on reads/writes
+ <teythoon> right
+ <teythoon> so i'd not use memcpy, but one of the mach functions that copy
+ stuff to memory objects ?
+ <braunr> i'm not sure
+ <braunr> you could simply map the object, memcpy to/from it, and unmap it
+ <teythoon> what documentation should i read ?
+ <braunr> vm/vm_map.h for one
+ <teythoon> i can only find stuff describing the kernel interface to
+ userspace
+ <braunr> vm/vm_kern.h may help
+ <braunr> copyinmap and copyoutmap maybe
+ <braunr> hm no
+ <teythoon> vm_map.h isn't overly verbose :(
+ <braunr> vm_map_enter/vm_map_remove
+ <teythoon> ah, i actually tried vm_map_enter
+ <braunr> look at the .c files, functions are described there
+ <teythoon> that leads to funny results
+ <braunr> vm_map_enter == mmap basically
+ <braunr> and vm_object.h
+ <teythoon> panic: kernel thread accessed user space!
+ <braunr> heh :)
+ <teythoon> right, i hoped vm_map_enter to be the in-kernel equivalent of
+ vm_map
+
+ <teythoon> braunr: uh, it worked
+ <braunr> teythoon: ?
+ <teythoon> weird
+ <teythoon> :)
+ <braunr> teythoon: what's happening ?
+ <teythoon> i refined the ramdisk patch, and it seems to work
+ <teythoon> not sure if i got it right though, i'll paste the patch
+ <braunr> yes please
+ <teythoon> http://paste.debian.net/81376/
+ <braunr> no it can't work either
+ <teythoon> :/
+ <braunr> you can't map the complete object
+ <teythoon> (amusingly it does)
+ <braunr> you have to temporarily map the pages you want to access
+ <braunr> it does for the same obscure reason the previous code worked on
+ qemu
+ <teythoon> ok, i think i see
+ <braunr> increase the size a lot more
+ <braunr> like 512M
+ <braunr> and see
+ <braunr> you could also use the kernel debugger to print the kernel map
+ before and after mapping
+ <teythoon> how ?
+ <braunr> hm
+ <braunr> see show task
+ <braunr> maybe you can call the in kernel function directly with the kernel
+ map as argument
+ <teythoon> which one ?
+ <braunr> the one for "show task"
+ <braunr> hm no it shows threads, show map
+ <braunr> and show map crashes on darnassus ..
+ <teythoon> here as well
+ <braunr> ugh
+ <braunr> personally i'd use something like vm_map_info in x15
+ <braunr> but you may not want to waste time with that
+ <braunr> try with a bigger size and see what it does, should be quick and
+ simple enough
+ <teythoon> right
+ <teythoon> braunr: ok, you were right, mapping the entire object fails if
+ it is too big
+ <braunr> teythoon: fyi, kmem_alloc and vm_map have some common code, namely
+ the allocation of an virtual area inside a vm_map
+ <braunr> kmem_alloc requires a kernel map (kernel_map or a submap) whereas
+ vm_map can operate on any map
+ <braunr> what differs is the backing store
+ <teythoon> braunr: i believe i want to use vm_object_copy_slowly to create
+ and populate the vm object
+ <teythoon> for that, i'd need a source vm_object
+ <teythoon> the data is provided as a multiboot_module
+ <braunr> kmem_alloc backs the virtual range with wired down physical memory
+ <braunr> whereas vm_map maps part of an object that is usually pageable
+ <teythoon> i see
+ <braunr> and you probably want your object to be pageable here
+ <teythoon> yes :)
+ <braunr> yes object copy functions could work
+ <braunr> let me check
+ <teythoon> what would i specify as source object ?
+ <braunr> let's assume a device write
+ <braunr> the source object would be where the source data is
+ <braunr> e.g. the data provided by the user
+ <teythoon> yes
+ <teythoon> trouble is, i'm not sure what the source is
+ <braunr> it looks a bit complicated yes
+ <teythoon> i mean the boot loader put it into memory, not sure what mach
+ makes of that
+ <braunr> i guess there already are device functions that look up the object
+ from the given address
+ <braunr> it's anonymous memory
+ <braunr> but that's not the problem here
+ <teythoon> so i need to create a memory object for that ?
+ <braunr> you probably don't want to populate your ramdisk from the kernel
+ <teythoon> wire it down to the physical memory ?
+ <braunr> don't bother with the wire property
+ <teythoon> oh ?
+ <braunr> if it can't be paged out, it won't be
+ <teythoon> ah, that's not what i meant
+ <braunr> you probably want ext2fs to populate it, or another task loaded by
+ the boot loader
+ <teythoon> interesting idea
+ <braunr> and then, this task will have a memory object somewhere
+ <braunr> imagine a task which sole purpose is to embedd an archive to
+ extract into the ramdisk
+ <teythoon> sweet, my thoughts exactly :)
+ <braunr> the data section of a program will be backed by an anonymous
+ memory object
+ <braunr> the problem is the interface
+ <braunr> the device interface passes addresses and sizes
+ <braunr> you need to look up the object from that
+ <braunr> but i guess there is already code doing that in the device code
+ somewhere
+ <braunr> teythoon: vm_object_copy_slowly seems to create a new object
+ <braunr> that's not exactly what we want either
+ <teythoon> why not ?
+ <braunr> again, let's assume a device_write scenario
+ <teythoon> ah
+ <braunr> you want to populate the ramdisk, which is merely one object
+ <braunr> not a new object
+ <teythoon> yes
+ <braunr> teythoon: i suggest using vm_page_alloc and vm_page_copy
+ <braunr> and vm_page_lookup
+ <braunr> teythoon: perhaps vm_fault_page too
+ <braunr> although you might want wired pages initially
+ <braunr> teythoon: but i guess you see what i mean when i say it needs to
+ be reworked
+ <teythoon> i do
+ <teythoon> braunr: aww, screw that, using a tmpfs is much nicer anyway
+ <teythoon> the ramdisk strikes again ...
+ <braunr> teythoon: :)
+ <braunr> teythoon: an extremely simple solution would be to enlarge the
+ kernel map
+ <braunr> this would reduce the userspace max size to ~1.7G but allow ~64M
+ ramdisks
+ <teythoon> nah
+ <braunr> or we could reduce the kmem_map
+ <braunr> i think i'll do that anyway
+ <braunr> the slab allocator rarely uses more than 50-60M
+ <braunr> and the 64M remaining area in kernel_map can quickly get
+ fragmented
+ <teythoon> braunr: using a tmpfs as the root translator won't be straight
+ forward either ... damn the early boostrapping stuff ...
+ <braunr> yes ..
+ <teythoon> that's one of the downsides of the vfs-as-namespace approach
+ <braunr> i'm not sure
+ <braunr> it could be simplified
+ <teythoon> hm
+ <braunr> it could even use a temporary name server to avoid dependencies
+ <teythoon> indeed
+ <teythoon> there's even still the slot for that somewhere
+ <antrik> braunr: hm... I have a vague recollection that the fixed-sized
+ kmem-map was supposed to be gone with the introduction of the new
+ allocator?...
+ <braunr> antrik: the kalloc_map and kmem_map were merged
+ <braunr> we could directly use kernel_map but we may still want to isolate
+ it to avoid fragmentation
+
+See also the discussion on [[gnumach_memory_management]], *IRC, freenode,
+\#hurd, 2013-01-06*, *IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2014-02-11* (`KENTRY_DATA_SIZE`).
+
+
+### IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2012-07-17
+
+ <bddebian> OK, here is a stupid question I have always had. If you move
+ PCI and disk drivers in to userspace, how do do initial bootstrap to get
+ the system booting?
+ <braunr> that's hard
+ <braunr> basically you make the boot loader load all the components you
+ need in ram
+ <braunr> then you make it give each component something (ports) so they can
+ communicate
+
+
+### IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2012-08-12
+
+ <antrik> braunr: so, about booting with userspace disk drivers
+ <antrik> after rereading the chapter in my thesis, I see that there aren't
+ really all than many interesting options...
+ <antrik> I pondered some variants involving a temporary boot filesystem
+ with handoff to the real root FS; but ultimately concluded with another
+ option that is slightly less elegant but probably gets a much better
+ usefulness/complexity ratio:
+ <antrik> just start the root filesystem as the first process as we used to;
+ only hack it so that initially it doesn't try to access the disk, but
+ instead gets the files from GRUB
+ <antrik> once the disk driver is operational, we flip a switch, and the
+ root filesystem starts reading stuff from disk normally
+ <antrik> transparently for all other processes
+ <bddebian> How does grub access the disk without drivers?
+ <antrik> bddebian: GRUB obviously has its own drivers... that's how it
+ loads the kernel and modules
+ <antrik> bddebian: basically, it would have to load additional modules for
+ all the components necessary to get the Hurd disk driver going
+ <bddebian> Right, why wouldn't that be possible?
+ <antrik> (I have some more crazy ideas too -- but these are mostly
+ orthogonal :-) )
+ <antrik> ?
+ <antrik> I'm describing this because I'm pretty sure it *is* possible :-)
+ <bddebian> That grub loads the kernel and whatever server/module gets
+ access to the disk
+ <antrik> not sure what you mean
+ <bddebian> Well as usual I probably don't know the proper terminology but
+ why could grub load gnumach and the hurd "disk server" that contains the
+ userspace drivers?
+ <antrik> disk server?
+ <bddebian> Oh FFS whatever contains the disk drivers :)
+ <bddebian> diskdde, whatever :)
+ <antrik> actually, I never liked the idea of having a big driver blob very
+ much... ideally each driver should have it's own file
+ <antrik> but that's admittedly beside the point :-)
+ <antrik> its
+ <antrik> so to restate: in addition to gnumach, ext2fs.static, and ld.so,
+ in the new scenario GRUB will also load exec, the disk driver, any
+ libraries these two depend upon, and any additional infrastructure
+ involved in getting the disk driver running (for automatic probing or
+ whatever)
+ <antrik> probably some other Hurd core servers too, so we can have a more
+ complete POSIX environment for the disk driver to run in
+ <bddebian> There ya go :)
+ <antrik> the interesting part is modifying ext2fs so it will access only
+ the GRUB-provided files, until it is told that it's OK now to access the
+ real disk
+ <antrik> (and the mechanism how ext2 actually gets at the GRUB-provided
+ files)
+ <bddebian> Or write some new really small ext2fs? :)
+ <antrik> ?
+ <bddebian> I'm just talking out my butt. Something temporary that gets
+ disposed of when the real disk is available :)
+ <antrik> well, I mentioned above that I considered some handoff
+ schemes... but they would probably be more complex to implement than
+ doing the switchover internally in ext2
+ <bddebian> Ah
+ <bddebian> boot up in a ramdisk? :)
+ <antrik> (and the temporary FS would *not* be an ext2 obviously, but rather
+ some special ramdisk-like filesystem operating from GRUB-loaded files...)
+ <antrik> again, that would require a complicated handoff-scheme
+ <bddebian> Bah, what do I know? :)
+ <antrik> (well, you could of course go with a trivial chroot()... but that
+ would be ugly and inefficient, as the initial processes would still run
+ from the ramdisk)
+ <bddebian> Aren't most things running in memory initially anyway? At what
+ point must it have access to the real disk?
+ <braunr> antrik: but doesn't that require that disk drivers be statically
+ linked ?
+ <braunr> and having all disk drivers in separate tasks (which is what we
+ prefer to blobs as you put it) seems to pretty much forbid using static
+ linking
+ <braunr> hm actually, i don't see how any solution could work without
+ static linking, as it would create a recursion
+ <braunr> and the only one required is the one used by the root file system
+ <braunr> others can be run from the dynamically linked version
+ <braunr> antrik: i agree, it's a good approach, requiring only a slightly
+ more complicated boot script/sequence
+ <antrik> bddebian: at some point we have to access the real disk so we
+ don't have to work exclusively with stuff loaded by grub... but there is
+ no specific point where it *has* to happen. generally speaking, the
+ sooner the better
+ <antrik> braunr: why wouldn't that work with a dynamically linked disk
+ driver? we only need to make sure all required libraries are loaded by
+ grub too
+ <braunr> antrik: i have a problem with that approach :p
+ <braunr> antrik: it would probably require a reboot when those libraries
+ are upgraded, wouldn't it ?
+ <antrik> I'd actually wish we could run with a dynamically linked ext2fs as
+ well... but that would require a separated boot filesystem and some kind
+ of handoff approach, which would be much more complicated I fear...
+ <braunr> and if a driver is restarted, would it use those libraries too ?
+ and if so, how to find them ?
+ <braunr> but how can you run a dynamically linked root file system ?
+ <braunr> unless the libraries it uses are provided by something else, as
+ you said
+ <antrik> braunr: well, if you upgrade the libraries, *and* want the disk
+ driver to use the upgraded libraries, you are obviously in a tricky
+ situation ;-)
+ <braunr> yes
+ <antrik> perhaps you could tell ext2 to preload the new libraries before
+ restarting the disk driver...
+ <antrik> but that's a minor quibble anyways IMHO
+ <braunr> but that case isn't that important actually, since upgrading these
+ libraries usually means we're upgrading the system, which can imply a
+ reoobt
+ <braunr> i don't think it is
+ <braunr> it looks very complicated to me
+ <braunr> think of restart as after a crash :p
+ <braunr> you can't preload stuff in that case
+ <antrik> uh? I don't see anything particularily complicated. but my point
+ was more that it's not a big thing if that's not implemented IMHO
+ <braunr> right
+ <braunr> it's not that important
+ <braunr> but i still think statically linking is better
+ <braunr> although i'm not sure about some details
+ <antrik> oh, you mean how to make the root filesystem use new libraries
+ without a reboot? that would be tricky indeed... but this is not possible
+ right now either, so that's not a regression
+ <braunr> i assume that, when statically linking, only the .o providing the
+ required symbols are included, right ?
+ <antrik> making the root filesystem restartable is a whole different epic
+ story ;-)
+ <braunr> antrik: not the root file system, but the disk driver
+ <braunr> but i guess it's the same
+ <antrik> no, it's not
+ <braunr> ah
+ <antrik> for the disk driver it's really not that hard I believe
+ <antrik> still some extra effort, but definitely doable
+ <braunr> with the preload you mentioned
+ <antrik> yes
+ <braunr> i see
+ <braunr> i don't think it's worth the trouble actually
+ <braunr> statically linking looks way simpler and should make for smaller
+ binaries than if libraries were loaded by grub
+ <antrik> no, I really don't want statically linked disk drivers
+ <braunr> why ?
+ <antrik> again, I'd prefer even ext2fs to be dynamic -- only that would be
+ much more complicated
+ <braunr> the point of dynamically linking is sharing
+ <antrik> while dynamic disk drivers do not require any extra effort beyond
+ loading the libraries with grub
+ <braunr> but if it means sharing big files that are seldom used (i assume
+ there is a lot of code that simply isn't used by hurd servers), i don't
+ see the point
+ <antrik> right. and with the approach I proposed that will work just as it
+ should
+ <antrik> err... what big files?
+ <braunr> glibc ?
+ <antrik> I don't get your point
+ <antrik> you prefer statically linking everything needed before the disk
+ driver runs (which BTW is much more than only the disk driver itself) to
+ using normal shared libraries like the rest of the system?...
+ <braunr> it's not "like the rest of the system"
+ <braunr> the libraries loaded by grub wouldn't be back by the ext2fs server
+ <braunr> they would be wired in memory
+ <braunr> you'd have two copies of them, the one loaded by grub, and the one
+ shared by normal executables
+ <antrik> no
+ <braunr> i prefer static linking because, if done correctly, the combined
+ size of the root file system and the disk driver should be smaller than
+ that of the rootfs+disk driver and libraries loaded by grub
+ <antrik> apparently I was not quite clear how my approach would work :-(
+ <braunr> probably not
+ <antrik> (preventing that is actually the reason why I do *not* want as
+ simple boot filesystem+chroot approach)
+ <braunr> and initramfs can be easily freed after init
+ <braunr> an*
+ <braunr> it wouldn't be a chroot but something a bit more involved like
+ switch_root in linux
+ <antrik> not if various servers use files provided by that init filesystem
+ <antrik> yes, that's the complex handoff I'm talking about
+ <braunr> yes
+ <braunr> that's one approach
+ <antrik> as I said, that would be a quite elegant approach (allowing a
+ dynamically linked ext2); but it would be much more complicated to
+ implement I believe
+ <braunr> how would it allow a dynamically linked ext2 ?
+ <braunr> how can the root file system be linked with code backed by itself
+ ?
+ <braunr> unless it requires wiring all its memory ?
+ <antrik> it would be loaded from the init filesystem before the handoff
+ <braunr> init sn't the problem here
+ <braunr> i understand how it would boot
+ <braunr> but then, you need to make sure the root fs is never used to
+ service page faults on its own address space
+ <braunr> or any address space it depends on, like the disk driver
+ <braunr> so this basically requires wiring all the system libraries, glibc
+ included
+ <braunr> why not
+ <antrik> ah. yes, that's something I covered in a separate section in my
+ thesis ;-)
+ <braunr> eh :)
+ <antrik> we have to do that anyways, if we want *any* dynamically linked
+ components (such as the disk driver) in the paging path
+ <braunr> yes
+ <braunr> and it should make swapping more reliable too
+ <antrik> so that adds a couple MiB of wired memory... I guess we will just
+ have to live with that
+ <braunr> yes it seems acceptable
+ <braunr> thanks
+ <antrik> (it is actually one reason why I want to avoid static linking as
+ much as possible... so at least we have to wire these libraries only
+ *once*)
+ <antrik> anyways, back to my "simpler" approach
+ <antrik> the idea is that a (static) ext2fs would still be the first task
+ running, and immediately able to serve filesystem access requests -- only
+ it would serve these requests from files preloaded by GRUB rather than
+ the actual disk driver
+ <braunr> i understand now
+ <antrik> until a switch is flipped telling it that now the disk driver (and
+ anything it depends upon) is operational
+ <braunr> you still need to make sure all this is wired
+ <antrik> yes
+ <antrik> that's orthogonal
+ <antrik> which is why I have a separate section about it :-)
+ <braunr> what was the relation with ggi ?
+ <antrik> none strictly speaking
+ <braunr> i'll rephrase it: how did it end up in your thesis ?
+ <antrik> I just covered all aspects of userspace drivers in one of the
+ "introduction" sections of my thesis
+ <braunr> ok
+ <antrik> before going into specifics of KGI
+ <antrik> (and throwing in along the way that most of the issues described
+ do not matter for KGI ;-) )
+ <braunr> hehe
+ <braunr> i'm wondering, do we have mlockall on the hurd ? it seems not
+ <braunr> that's something deeply missing in mach
+ <antrik> well, bootstrap in general *is* actually relevant for KGI as well,
+ because of console messages during boot... but the filesystem bootstrap
+ is mostly irrelevant there ;-)
+ <antrik> braunr: oh? that's a problem then... I just assumed we have it
+ <braunr> well, it's possible to implement MCL_CURRENT, but not MCL_FUTURE
+ <braunr> or at least, it would be a bit difficult
+ <braunr> every allocation would need to be aware of that property
+ <braunr> it's better to have it managed by the vm system
+ <braunr> mach-defpager has its own version of vm_allocate for that
+ <antrik> braunr: I don't think we care about MCL_FUTURE here
+ <antrik> hm, wait... MCL_CURRENT is fine for code, but it might indeed be a
+ problem for dynamically allocated memory :-(
+ <braunr> yes
+
+
+# Plan
+
+ * Examine what other systems are doing.
+
+ * L4
+
+ * Hurd on L4: deva, fabrica
+
+ * [[/DDE]]
+
+ * Minix 3
+
+ * Start with a simple driver and implement the needed infrastructure (see
+ *Issues* above) as needed.
+
+ * <http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/user-drivers/>
+
+ Some (unfinished?) code written by Robert Millan in 2003: PC keyboard
+ and parallel port drivers, using `libtrivfs`.
+
+
+## I/O Server
+
+### IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2012-08-10
+
+ <braunr> usually you'd have an I/O server, and serveral device drivers
+ using it
+ <bddebian> Well maybe that's my question. Should there be unique servers
+ for say ISA, PCI, etc or could all of that be served by one "server"?
+ <braunr> forget about ISA
+ <bddebian> How? Oh because the ISA bus is now served via a PCI bridge?
+ <braunr> the I/O server would merely be there to help device drivers map
+ only what they require, and avoid conflicts
+ <braunr> because it's a relic of the past :p
+ <braunr> and because it requires too high privileges
+ <bddebian> But still exists in several PCs :)
+ <braunr> so usually, you'd directly ask the kernel for the I/O ports you
+ need
+ <mel-> so do floppy drives
+ <mel-> :)
+ <braunr> if i'm right, even the l4 guys do it that way
+ <braunr> he's right, some devices are still considered ISA
+ <bddebian> But that is where my confusion lies. Something has to figure
+ out what/where those I/O ports are
+ <braunr> and that's why i tell you to forget about it
+ <braunr> ISA has both statically allocated ports (the historical ones) and
+ others usually detected through PnP, when it works
+ <braunr> PCI is much cleaner, and memory mapped I/O is both better and much
+ more popular currently
+ <bddebian> So let's say I have a PCI SCSI card. I need some device driver
+ to know how to talk to that, right?
+ <bddebian> something is going to enumerate all the PCI devices and map them
+ to and address space
+ <braunr> bddebian: that would be the I/O server
+ <braunr> we'll call it the PCI server
+ <bddebian> OK, that is where I am headed. What if everything isn't PCI?
+ Is the "I/O server" generic enough?
+ <youpi> nowadays everything is PCI
+ <bddebian> So we are completely ignoring legacy hardware?
+ <braunr> we could have separate servers using a shared library that would
+ provide allocation routines like resource maps
+ <braunr> yes
+ <youpi> for what is not, the translator just needs to be run as root
+ <youpi> to get i/o perm from the kernel
+ <braunr> the idea for projects like ours, where the user base is very small
+ is: don't implement what you can't test
+ <youpi> bddebian: legacy can not be supported in a nice way, so for them we
+ can just afford a bad solution
+ <youpi> i.e. leave the driver in kernel
+ <braunr> right
+ <youpi> e.g. the keyboard
+ <bddebian> Well what if I have a USB keyboard? :-P
+ <braunr> that's a different matter
+ <youpi> USB keyboard is not legacy hardware
+ <youpi> it's usb
+ <youpi> which can be enumerated like pci
+ <braunr> and USB uses PCI
+ <youpi> and pci could be on usb :)
+ <braunr> so it's just a separate stack on top of the PCI server
+ <bddebian> Sure so would SCSI in my example above but is still a seperate
+ bus
+ <braunr> netbsd has a very nice way of attaching drivers to buses
+ <youpi> bddebian: also, yes, and it can be enumerated
+ <bddebian> Which was my original question. This magic I/O server handles
+ all of the buses?
+ <youpi> no, just PCI, and then you'd have other servers for other busses
+ <braunr> i didn't mean that there would be *one* I/O server instance
+ <bddebian> So then it isn't a generic I/O server is it?
+ <bddebian> Ahhhh
+ <youpi> that way you can even put scsi over ppp or other crazy things
+ <braunr> it's more of an idea
+ <braunr> there would probably be a generic interface for basic stuff
+ <braunr> and i assume it could be augmented with specific (e.g. USB)
+ interfaces for servers that need more detailed communication
+ <braunr> (well, i'm pretty sure of it)
+ <bddebian> So the I/O server generalizes all functions, say read and write,
+ and then the PCI, USB, SCIS, whatever servers are contacted by it?
+ <braunr> no, not read and write
+ <braunr> resource allocation rather
+ <youpi> and enumeration
+ <braunr> probing perhaps
+ <braunr> bddebian: the goal of the I/O server is to make it possible for
+ device drivers to access the resources they need without a chance to
+ interfere with other device drivers
+ <braunr> (at least, that's one of the goals)
+ <braunr> so a driver would request the bus space matching the device(s) and
+ obtain that through memory mapping
+ <bddebian> Shouldn't that be in the "global address space"? SOrry if I am
+ using the wrong terminology
+ <youpi> well, the i/o server should also trigger the start of that driver
+ <youpi> bddebian: address space is not a matter for drivers
+ <braunr> bddebian: i'm not sure what you think of with "global address
+ space"
+ <youpi> bddebian: it's just a matter for the pci enumerator when (and if)
+ it places the BARs in physical address space
+ <youpi> drivers merely request mapping that, they don't need to know about
+ actual physical addresses
+ <braunr> i'm almost sure you lost him at BARs
+ <braunr> :(
+ <braunr> youpi: that's what i meant with probing actually
+ <bddebian> Actually I know BARs I have been reading on PCI :)
+ <bddebian> I suppose physicall address space is more what I meant when I
+ used "global address space"
+ <braunr> i see
+ <youpi> bddebian: probably, yes
+
+
+# Documentation
+
+ * [An Architecture for Device Drivers Executing as User-Level
+ Tasks](http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=665603), 1993, David B. Golub,
+ Guy G. Sotomayor, Freeman L. Rawson, III
+
+ * [Performance Measurements of the Multimedia Testbed on Mach 3.0: Experience
+ Writing Real-Time Device Drivers, Servers, and
+ Applications](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.40.8685),
+ 1993, Roger B. Dannenberg, David B. Anderson, Tom Neuendorffer, Dean
+ Rubine, Jim Zelenka
+
+ * [User Level IPC and Device Management in the Raven
+ Kernel](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.57.3733),
+ 1993, D. Stuart Ritchie, Gerald W. Neufeld
+
+ * [Creating User-Mode Device Drivers with a
+ Proxy](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.26.3055),
+ 1997, Galen C. Hunt
+
+ * [The APIC Approach to High Performance Network Interface Design: Protected
+ DMA and Other
+ Techniques](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.56.1198),
+ 1997, Zubin D. Dittia, Guru M. Parulkar, Jerome R. Cox, Jr.
+
+ * [The Fluke Device Driver
+ Framework](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.4.7927),
+ 1999, Kevin Thomas Van Maren
+
+ * [Omega0: A portable interface to interrupt hardware for L4
+ system](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.21.5958),
+ 2000, Jork Löser, Michael Hohmuth
+
+ * [Userdev: A Framework For User Level Device Drivers In
+ Linux](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.3.4461),
+ 2000, Hari Krishna Vemuri
+
+ * [User Mode Drivers](http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/5442), 2002, Bryce
+ Nakatani
+
+ * [Towards Untrusted Device
+ Drivers](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.13.1725),
+ 2003, Ben Leslie, Gernot Heiser
+
+ * [Encapsulated User-Level Device Drivers in the Mungi Operating
+ System](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.6.1531),
+ 2004, Ben Leslie Nicholas, Nicholas FitzRoy-Dale, Gernot Heiser
+
+ * [Linux Kernel Infrastructure for User-Level Device
+ Drivers](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.10.1408),
+ 2004, Peter Chubb
+
+ * [Get More Device Drivers out of the
+ Kernel!](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.59.6333),
+ 2004, Peter Chubb
+
+ * <http://gelato.unsw.edu.au/IA64wiki/UserLevelDrivers>
+
+ * [Initial Evaluation of a User-Level Device
+ Driver](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.59.4531),
+ 2004, Kevin Elphinstone, Stefan Götz
+
+ * [User-level Device Drivers: Achieved
+ Performance](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.59.6766),
+ 2005, Ben Leslie, Peter Chubb, Nicholas FitzRoy-Dale, Stefan Götz, Charles
+ Gray, Luke Macpherson, Daniel Potts, Yueting Shen, Kevin Elphinstone,
+ Gernot Heiser
+
+ * [Virtualising
+ PCI](http://www.ice.gelato.org/about/oct06_presentations.php#pres14), 2006,
+ Myrto Zehnder, Peter Chubb
+
+ * [Microdrivers: A New Architecture for Device
+ Drivers](http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~vinodg/papers/hotos2007/), 2007, Vinod
+ Ganapathy, Arini Balakrishnan, Michael M. Swift, Somesh Jha
+
+ * <http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.109.2623>
+ [[!tag open_issue_documentation]]
+
+ * <http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.146.2170>
+ [[!tag open_issue_documentation]]
+
+
+# External Projects
+
+ * [[/DDE]]
+
+ * <http://ertos.nicta.com.au/research/drivers/uldd/>
+
+ * <http://gelato.unsw.edu.au/IA64wiki/UserLevelDrivers>
+
+
+## The Anykernel and Rump Kernels
+
+ * [Running applications on the Xen
+ Hypervisor](http://blog.netbsd.org/tnf/entry/running_applications_on_the_xen),
+ Antti Kantee, 2013-09-17. [The Anykernel and Rump
+ Kernels](http://www.netbsd.org/docs/rump/).
+
+
+### IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2014-02-13
+
+ <cluck> is anyone working on getting netbsd's rump kernel working under
+ hurd? it seems like a neat way to get audio/usb/etc with little extra
+ work (it might be a great complement to dde)
+ <braunr> noone is but i do agree
+ <braunr> although rump wasn't exactly designed to make drivers portable,
+ more subsystems and higher level "drivers" like file systems and network
+ stacks
+ <braunr> but it's certainly possible to use it for drivers to without too
+ much work
+ <curious_troll> cluck: I am reading about rumpkernels and his thesis.
+ <cluck> braunr: afaiu there is (at least partial) work done on having it
+ run on linux, xen and genode [unless i misunderstood the fosdem'14 talks
+ i've watched so far]
+ <cluck> "Generally speaking, any driver-like kernel functionality can be
+ offered by a rump server. Examples include file systems, networking
+ protocols, the audio subsystem and USB hardware device drivers. A rump
+ server is absolutely standalone and running one does not require for
+ example the creation and maintenance of a root file system."
+ <cluck> from http://www.netbsd.org/docs/rump/sptut.html
+ <braunr> cluck: how do they solve resource sharing problems ?
+ <cluck> braunr: some sort of lock iiuc, not sure if that's managed by the
+ host (haven't looked at the code yet)
+ <braunr> cluck: no, i mean things like irq sharing ;p
+ <braunr> bus sharing in general
+ <braunr> netbsd has a very well defined interface for that, but i'm
+ wondering what rump makes of it
+ <cluck> braunr: yes, i understood
+ <cluck> braunr: just lacking proper terminology to express myself
+ <cluck> braunr: at least from the talk i saw what i picked up is it behaves
+ like netbsd inside but there's some sort of minimum support required from
+ the "host" so the outside can reach down to the hw
+ <braunr> cluck: rump is basically glue code
+ <cluck> braunr: but as i've said, i haven't looked at the code in detail
+ yet
+ <cluck> braunr: yes
+ <braunr> but host support, at least for the hurd, is a bit more involved
+ <braunr> we don't merely want to run standalone netbsd components
+ <braunr> we want to make them act as real hurd servers
+ <braunr> therefore tricky stuff like signals quickly become more
+ complicated
+ <braunr> we also don't want it to use its own RPC format, but instead use
+ the native one
+ <cluck> braunr: antti says required support is minimal
+ <braunr> but again, compared to everything else, the porting effort / size
+ of reusable code base ratio is probably the lowest
+ <braunr> cluck: and i say we don't merely want to run standalone netbsd
+ components on top of a system, we want them to be our system
+ <cluck> braunr: argh.. i hate being unable to express myself properly
+ sometimes :|
+ <cluck> ..the entry point?!
+ <braunr> ?
+ <cluck> dunno what to call them
+ <braunr> i understand what you mean
+ <braunr> the system specific layer
+ <braunr> and *againù i'm telling you our goals are different
+ <cluck> yes, anyways.. just a couple of things, the rest is just C
+ <braunr> when you have portable code such as found in netbsd, it's not that
+ hard to extract it, create some transport between a client and a server,
+ and run it
+ <braunr> if you want to make that hurdish, there is more than that
+ <braunr> 1/ you don't use tcp, you use the native microkernel transport
+ <braunr> 2/ you don't use the rump rpc code over tcp, you create native rpc
+ code over the microkernel transport (think mig over mach)
+ <braunr> 3/ you need to adjust how authentication is performed (use the
+ auth server instead of netbsd internal auth mechanisms)
+ <braunr> 4/ you need to take care of signals (if the server generates a
+ signal, it must correctly reach the client)
+ <braunr> and those are what i think about right now, there are certainly
+ other details
+ <cluck> braunr: yes, some of those might've been solved already, it seems
+ the next genode release already has support for rump kernels, i don't
+ know how they went about it
+ <cluck> braunr: in the talk antii mentions he wanted to quickly implement
+ some i/o when playing on linux so he hacked a fs interface
+ <cluck> so the requirements can't be all that big
+ <cluck> braunr: in any case i agree with your view, that's why i found rump
+ kernels interesting in the first place
+ <braunr> i went to the presentation at fosdem last year
+ <braunr> and even then considered it the best approach for
+ driver/subsystems reuse on top of a microkernel
+ <braunr> that's what i intend to use in propel, but we're far from there ;p
+ <cluck> braunr: tbh i hadn't paid much attention to rump at first, i had
+ read about it before but thought it was more netbsd specific, the genode
+ mention piked my interest and so i went back and watched the talk, got
+ positively surprised at how far it has come already (in retrospect it
+ shouldn't have been so unexpected, netbsd has always been very small,
+ "modular", with clean interfaces that make porting easier)
+ <braunr> netbsd isn't small at all
+ <braunr> not exactly modular, well it is, but less than other systems
+ <braunr> but yes, clean interfaces, explicitely because their stated goal
+ is portability
+ <braunr> other projects such as minix and qnx didn't wait for rump to reuse
+ netbsd code
+ <cluck> braunr: qnx and minix have had money and free academia labor done
+ in their favor before (sadly hurd doesn't have the luck to enjoy those
+ much)
+ <cluck> :)
+ <braunr> sure but that's not the point
+ <braunr> resources or not, they chose the netbsd code base for a reason
+ <braunr> and that reason is portability
+ <cluck> yes
+ <cluck> but it's more work their way
+ <braunr> more work ?
+ <cluck> with rump we'd get all those interfaces for free
+ <braunr> i don't know
+ <braunr> not for free, certainly not
+ <cluck> "free"
+ <braunr> but the cost would be close to as low as it could possibly be
+ considering what is done
+ <cluck> braunr: the small list of dependencies makes me wonder if it's
+ possible it'd build under hurd without any mods (yes, i know, very
+ unlikely, just dreaming here)
+ <braunr> cluck: i'd say it's likely
+ <youpi> I quickly tried to build it during the talk
+ <youpi> there are PATH_MAX everywhere
+ <braunr> ugh
+ <youpi> but maybe that can be #defined
+ <youpi> since that's most probably for internal use
+ <youpi> not interaction with the host