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[[meta copyright="Copyright © 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc."]]
[[meta license="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]]."]]

# CPU Architecture

GNU Mach current only supports the `x86` (alias `ia32` or `i386`) architecture.

`amd64`/`ix64` should work in `32-bit` compatibility mode. However, in practice
`amd64` systems seem to be troublesome more often than not. This is probably
related to the same (chipset-related) problems we often see with recent
machines; but it seems that `amd64` ones use problematic chipsets particularily
often. So far we haven't heard of similar problems with Intel's eqivalent
`ix64` (or `EM64T` as it used to be called) -- but maybe that just means fewer
people tried running the Hurd on such machines :-)

Support for running GNU Mach (and a complete GNU/Hurd system) in a
[Xen](http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/srg/netos/xen/) `domU` (again on `x86`
only) is [[being_worked_on|ports/xen]].

Read about further [[ports]].

# Memory

GNU Mach will use a maximum of 1 GiB of RAM.  If your system has more,
the surplus will silently be ignored.  (In past times, this would hinder GNU
Mach from booting at all, but this has been fixed, so you no longer need to
apply GRUB's `uppermem` directive.)

# Video Cards

Debian distributes a version of [X.org](http://x.org/).  If your video card driver
depends on a special kernel interface such as that provided by
the `agpgart` kernel module for the Linux kernel, then your video
card will only be supported by the VESA driver.

# Sound

No sound cards are supported at this time.

# USB 1.1/2.0

USB is not supported at this time.

# IEEE 1394 (Firewire)

IEEE 1394 is not supported at this time

# Storage

All common IDE drives should work.  Some drive geometries do not work,
e.g. drives with hundreds of GiB of storage space.  If you find a specific IDE
drive that does not work, make a note of the model and technical specifications
here.

[[toggle id="SATA" text="SATA drives may work in compatibility mode."]]
<!-- Sure?  --[[tschwinge]] -->

[[toggleable id="SATA" text="""
This is how booting a [[GNU/Hurd_system|hurd]] will typically fail if GNU Mach
couldn't connect to the hard disk, e.g., in a SATA system without IDE
compatibility mode:

    start (hd0,3)/hurd/ext2fs.static: (hd0,3)/hurd/ext2fs.static
    device:hd0s4: No such device or address
"""]]

# Device Drivers

[GNU Mach Reference Manual,
Configuration](http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/gnumach-doc/Configuration.html)
contains a list of device drivers that are included in GNU Mach and elaborates
on the hardware devices they support.

# User Success Reports

These boards are known to work. Gnumach/Hurd has been installed and run on these board successfully. 

* ASUS P2B motherboard with an Intel PII 450MHz CPU with Intel Pro/100 NIC in PCI slot
* Intel SE-440BX motherboard 
* VIA EPIA-M Mini-ITX motherboard with VIA Nehemiah C3 1Ghz processor. Onboard NIC (VIA Rhine) works good.
* Compaq Deskpro ENS, Pentium3 (666 MHz upgraded to 1 GHz), Intel i815 chipset, chipset integrated NIC (detected twice, but works fine with eth0; trying to access eth1 confuses the driver and makes the system unusable), Matrox Mystique 220 (PCI) graphics card. Also works with rtl8029 (NE2000 PCI) NIC when onboard NIC disabled in BIOS setup.
* Abit BX6 Rev. 2.0 with Celeron 400, after disabling "memory hole at 15MB" option in BIOS setup. (Otherwise, Mach detects only 15MiB of RAM, making Hurd run *extremely* slow and instable.) Should also work with PentiumII or Pentium3.

# User Failure Reports

Some people couldn't get these hardware combinations to work with Hurd.

Note: The Debian GNU/Hurd installer actually runs on Linux, so it (almost) always works. The critical bit is booting after installation.

* ASUS P5A motherboard and AMD K6-2 333MHz CPU - doesn't boot
* ASUS P2B-LS motherboard with an Intel PII-MMX 400 MHz CPU - this board had a defective onboard NIC (that could not be disable in BIOS) and working 3COM Etherlink III NIC in a PCI bus slot. This combination worked with GNU/Linux. The 3COM NIC is known to work with the Hurd. However, while gnumach/Hurd will boot on this system, it is confused by the defective onboard NIC and unable to use the 3COM NIC. Attempting to start networking generates a continous stream of eth0 and eth1 reset messages on the console that renders the system unusable.
* ASrock 775Twins-HDTV with a Pentium D 810 (533 MGz FSB/2600GHz core -- information no longer present on intel's site). Doesn't boot.