Reworked the faq/drivers page.

* faq/drivers.mdwn: I changed the recommended hardware to the T60,
which is currently the only hardware that you can use the Debian
installer cd.  I mentioned that you must use the proprietary BIOS to
run X (libreboot/coreboot won't work).  I removed some unnecessary
details.  I hinted that rump is the Hurd's future for device drivers.
Message-ID: <20241010034138.2275-1-jbranso@dismail.de>

1 files changed, 35 insertions, 27 deletions

diff --git a/faq/drivers.mdwn b/faq/drivers.mdwn
index 6301b7d8..923e3b38 100644
--- a/faq/drivers.mdwn
+++ b/faq/drivers.mdwn
@@ -13,46 +13,54 @@ License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
 
 [[!meta title="what hardware is supported? What drivers does GNU/Hurd have?"]]
 
-As of September 2024, if you want to run the Hurd in real hardware,
-old Thinkpads are known to work well. We recommend the X200, T400, or
-T500 Thinkpads, which support internet connectivity via the ethernet
-port.  Those laptops support a maximum of 8GB of RAM, and you could
-use libreboot with an SSD!  You could probably purchase one of those
-used laptops for about $200 or less.  Be sure to read about the
-[[current status of the Hurd|hurd/status]].  Until we fix the
-libdiskfs/ext2fs issues on the [[64 bit port|faq/64-bit]], we
-recommend you use the 32 bit version of the Hurd.
+As of September 2024, the Hurd runs well on old Thinkpads.  We
+recommend the Thinkpad T60, which supports a maximum of 4GB of RAM,
+and you can use an [[SSD|hurd/rump/rumpdisk]].  If you have difficulty
+installing the Hurd, then try setting your harddrive mode to "legacy"
+in the BIOS.  A cheaper option is the T43 (2GB max RAM).
 
-A cheaper option is the T43 (2GB max RAM) or T60 (4 GB max RAM), which
-one can find for about $50.
+Other working Thinkpads include the X200, T400, or T500 Thinkpads,
+which support internet connectivity via the ethernet port.  You can
+use an [[SSD|hurd/rump/rumpdisk]] on these laptops, which support a
+maximum of 8GB of RAM.  The Debian installer images from 2023 fail to
+boot these machines, but you can install the Hurd via [[Debian's
+CrossInstall|hurd/running/debian/CrossInstall]].  Until we fix the
+libdiskfs/ext2fs issues on the [[64 bit port|faq/64-bit]], we
+recommend that you use the 32 bit version of the Hurd.
 
 Other hardware that is known to work includes the [[Dell Inspiron
 1750|https://logs.guix.gnu.org/hurd/2024-09-28.log]] on i386
 Debian/Hurd.  It won't boot with the current installer (June 2023
-debian-hurd i386 installer iso) because of an FPU issue (fixed
-upstream). I had to remove the optical drive. It Hangs for one minute
+debian-hurd i386 net-install) because of an FPU issue (fixed
+upstream). I had to remove the optical drive. It hangs for one minute
 during boot on ACPI init, but otherwise fine when disabling full tree
 parsing.  The touchpad, keyboard, display, ethernet, and the hard
 drive works (in legacy mode).
 
-Currently, for disks Mach integrates old drivers from Linux through some
-[[community/gsoc/project_ideas/driver_glue_code]], which provide
+The Hurd can run on more recent Intel machines, but with [[no internet
+connectivity|hurd/running/debian/DebianAptOffline]]!  You can always
+use the Hurd via [[qemu|hurd/running/qemu]].
+
+Currently, for disks Mach integrates old drivers from Linux through
+some [[community/gsoc/project_ideas/driver_glue_code]], which provide
 IDE disk support, and we have an AHCI driver which provides [[SATA
-support|faq/sata_disk_drives]].  [[Rumpdisk|hurd/rump]] lets us use
-modern hard drives, like SSDs.
+support|faq/sata_disk_drives]].  [[Rumpdisk|hurd/rump/rumpdisk]] lets
+us use modern hard drives, like SSDs.
 
-For network boards, we use the [[DDE]] toolkit
-to run linux 2.6.32 drivers in userland processes, which provides both long-term
-support for new hardware and safety against driver bugs.  Note however that we
-have of course not tested all drivers, we obviously don't even have all kinds of
-hardware.  So we can not promise that they will all work. What probably
-works for sure is what we usually use: the rtl8139 and e1000 drivers for
-instance. Firmware loading is not implemented yet.
+For network boards, we curently use the [[DDE]] toolkit to run linux
+2.6.32 drivers in userland processes, which we may eventually replace
+with [[rump drivers|hurd/rump]].  Note however that we have of course
+not tested all drivers. We obviously don't even have all kinds of
+hardware.  So we can not promise that they will all work. What
+probably works for sure is what we usually use: the rtl8139 and e1000
+drivers for instance. Firmware loading is not implemented yet.
 
-For graphical mode, Xorg is supported, e.g. with the vesa driver. DRM is not
-supported yet.
+For graphical mode, Xorg is supported, e.g. with the vesa driver. DRM
+is not supported yet.  To run X then, you must use the proprietary
+BIOS, since coreboot/libreboot do not include a working vesa driver.
 
-USB is on its way to getting supported with rumpusbdisk.
+Hurd developers are working on adding USB support with
+[[rumpusbdisk|hurd/rump/rumpusbdisk]].
 
 [[microkernel/mach/gnumach/ports/Xen]] is also supported, both blkfront and
 netfront.