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+[[meta copyright="Copyright © 2008, 2009 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]]."]]"""]]
+
+[[meta title="Sound Support"]]
+
+The Hurd presently has no sound support.  Fixing this, [[GNU_Savannah_task
+5485]], requires two steps: the first is to port some other kernel's drivers to
+[[GNU_Mach|microkernel/mach/gnumach]] so we can get access to actual sound
+hardware.  The second is to implement a userspace server ([[hurd/translator]]),
+that implements an interface on top of the kernel device that can be used by
+applications -- probably OSS or maybe ALSA.
+
+Completing this task requires porting at least one driver (e.g. from Linux) for
+a popular piece of sound hardware, and the basic userspace server. For the
+driver part, previous experience with programming kernel drivers is strongly
+advisable. The userspace part requires some knowledge about programming Hurd
+translators, but shouldn't be too hard.
+
+Once the basic support is working, it's up to the student to use the remaining
+time for porting more drivers, or implementing a more sophisticated userspace
+infrastructure. The latter requires good understanding of the Hurd philosophy,
+to come up with an appropriate design.
+
+Another option would be to evaluate whether a driver that is completely running
+in user-space is feasible.  <!-- TODO.  Elaborate.  -->
+
+Possible mentors: ?
+
+Exercise: Take a newer driver for a device in one of the subsystems we already
+implement (disk or network) from a newer Linux version, or some other operating
+system, and try to port it so that it runs in the existing driver framework.
+The port needn't be elegant or complete; but it would be nice if you could get
+it to work at least partially...