summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/community/weblogs/ArneBab
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorThomas Schwinge <thomas@schwinge.name>2010-12-13 17:11:51 +0100
committerThomas Schwinge <thomas@schwinge.name>2010-12-13 17:11:51 +0100
commit2d75167da62e3486836e5f1773e5f1ab06e43fe8 (patch)
treee44fc83e0b1419836d1b21652ad1d38b8d0af2c4 /community/weblogs/ArneBab
parent217998d56f5b6424a685f8c87f2c0e924d1c89da (diff)
parent5c5c16e265d8ef56b71f319885f32bf144bdea23 (diff)
Merge branch 'master' into external_pager_mechanism
Conflicts: microkernel/mach/external_pager_mechanism.mdwn
Diffstat (limited to 'community/weblogs/ArneBab')
-rw-r--r--community/weblogs/ArneBab/2008-06-17-latest-changes-in-the-hurd.mdwn18
-rw-r--r--community/weblogs/ArneBab/2008-07-12-codeswarm-movies-for-the-hurd.mdwn29
-rw-r--r--community/weblogs/ArneBab/2008-08-02-gnu_hurd_and_x.mdwn38
-rw-r--r--community/weblogs/ArneBab/Hurd-showcase-qemu-image.mdwn106
-rw-r--r--community/weblogs/ArneBab/What_a_Hurd_release_should_be_able_to_do_for_me.mdwn40
-rw-r--r--community/weblogs/ArneBab/hurd-gsoc2008-code_swarm.mdwn11
-rw-r--r--community/weblogs/ArneBab/niches_for_the_hurd.mdwn340
-rw-r--r--community/weblogs/ArneBab/what_we_need.mdwn39
-rw-r--r--community/weblogs/ArneBab/xkb-woes-trying-to-get-a-german-keyboard-layout.mdwn47
9 files changed, 668 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/community/weblogs/ArneBab/2008-06-17-latest-changes-in-the-hurd.mdwn b/community/weblogs/ArneBab/2008-06-17-latest-changes-in-the-hurd.mdwn
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..111bb640
--- /dev/null
+++ b/community/weblogs/ArneBab/2008-06-17-latest-changes-in-the-hurd.mdwn
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+In the past few months the Hurd got quite many commits.
+
+I want to write a bit about the changes they brought, and what they mean to the Hurd.
+
+If some of my comments seem too 'simple' to you, just ignore them :)
+
+First we got many Bug fixes from Samuel Thibault, mainly in libpthread (multithreading), ext2fs and libdiskfs (both filesystem interaction).
+
+Then hurd-l4 (the port of the Hurd on the L4 kernel) seems to get quite much love by Neal H. Walfield (neal) at the moment.
+Quite much is saying a bit to little: hurd-l4 looks steamingly active in the commits :)
+
+And there is the [PyHurd](http://pypi.python.org/pypi/PyHurd) project. It attempts to create a full binding to the GNU/Hurd API, so people should someday be able to, for example, create translators in Python.
+
+There's been more - a lot more in fact, but much of it is above my coding horizon, and this entry shall end someplace (it's late - too late :) ).
+
+Best wishes,
+Arne
+
diff --git a/community/weblogs/ArneBab/2008-07-12-codeswarm-movies-for-the-hurd.mdwn b/community/weblogs/ArneBab/2008-07-12-codeswarm-movies-for-the-hurd.mdwn
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..54bd0eff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/community/weblogs/ArneBab/2008-07-12-codeswarm-movies-for-the-hurd.mdwn
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+Today (OK, this night) I created some codeswarm movies to visualize the code history of the Hurd.
+
+What's particularly interesting to me in gnumach is the tschwinge - sthibaul effect in march 2008, where development suddenly seems to speed up enormeously.
+
+It clearly shows how much impact just two developers can have - you can have that kind of an impact, too!
+
+The code movies are created from the history of the cvs branches gnumach, hurd-l4 and
+hurd.
+
+The movies:
+
+ - [Gnumach](http://draketo.de/filme/codeswarm/gnumach_code_evolution.avi)
+
+ - [Hurd](http://draketo.de/filme/codeswarm/gnu_hurd_code_evolution_1_min.avi)
+
+ - [Hurd L4](http://draketo.de/filme/codeswarm/hurd-l4.avi)
+
+ - [Hurd wiki](http://draketo.de/filme/codeswarm/hurd_wiki.avi)
+
+in gnumach, red is the "kern", while in "hurd" red is stuff in "release".
+
+.*doc.* is dark blue and any stuff named .*linux.* is shown in a blue-green in
+both. In Hurd-L4 is annotated: It shows libc, gcc, Hurd and L4 kernel commits in
+different colors.
+
+The hurd wiki movie shows all web commits as "web-hurd@gnu.org", and you can clearly see that most changes are being done via the version control system. There's a way to split the web-commits, but since there aren't many, I leave that for another day :) - [article on the ikiwiki page](http://ikiwiki.info/news/code_swarm/).
+
+Best wishes,
+Arne
diff --git a/community/weblogs/ArneBab/2008-08-02-gnu_hurd_and_x.mdwn b/community/weblogs/ArneBab/2008-08-02-gnu_hurd_and_x.mdwn
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d72f4cef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/community/weblogs/ArneBab/2008-08-02-gnu_hurd_and_x.mdwn
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+Getting X to work on the GNU/Hurd
+=================================
+
+This is a try to get X to work in my qemu GNU/Hurd.
+
+*This is a first try, my next one will be with the [[guide_from_this_wiki|Hurd/DebianXorg]].*
+
+Firstoff: I used the following guides:
+
+* [X Under the Hurd from debian-hurd](http://www.kerneltraffic.org/debian-hurd/dh20000112_31.html#3)
+* [GNU/Hurd FAQ](http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/faq.en.html#q4-7)
+
+
+What I did
+----------
+
+I worked as root.
+
+First I installed xorg, x-window-system-code, rxvt and twm:
+
+ apt-get install xserver-xorg x-window-system-core rxvt twm
+
+Then I set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH and DISPLAY
+
+ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/X11R6/lib
+ export DISPLAY=localhost:0.0
+
+After that I set the mouse and keyboard translator.
+
+ settrans /dev/kbd /hurd/kbd /dev/kbd
+ settrans -c /dev/mouse /hurd/mouse --protocol=ps/2
+
+Then I started x
+
+ startx
+
+It didn't work yet - but watch the blog for updates - I'll post once I get it
+working.
diff --git a/community/weblogs/ArneBab/Hurd-showcase-qemu-image.mdwn b/community/weblogs/ArneBab/Hurd-showcase-qemu-image.mdwn
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d55527a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/community/weblogs/ArneBab/Hurd-showcase-qemu-image.mdwn
@@ -0,0 +1,106 @@
+I’m currently preparing a qemu image for the Hurd which allows testing the capabilities of the Hurd with as little effort as possible.
+
+**Work in progress. These are my in-development notes.**
+
+For that I want to use:
+
+* An up to date debian image (no longer online, but I have a copy here).
+* My [Hurd Intro](http://bitbucket.org/ArneBab/hurd_intro),
+* Translators from [hurd-extras](http://www.nongnu.org/hurdextras/) and the [incubator](http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/hurd/incubator.git/), and naturally
+* a lot of apt-get update; apt-get upgrade and apt-get dist-upgrade :) (all worked flawlessly).
+
+## Working
+
+### Generally
+
+ # ssh with public key
+ apt-get install random-egd
+ ssh-keygen
+
+ # build tools
+ apt-get install build-essential
+
+### StoreIO
+
+ # mount an iso image
+ mount foo.iso bar -t iso9660fs
+ # see myfile as device
+ settrans foo /hurd/storeio myfile
+ # so that means I can pack a complete chroot (300MB) into a file with storeio and ext2fs — giselher
+
+ # nfs mount anywhere (TODO: check this with antrik)
+ mount server:/home /home -t nfs
+ settrans /home /hurd/nfs server:/home
+
+## In Progress
+
+### Hurdextras
+
+ hg clone <hurdextras repo>
+
+### httpfs
+
+ # pkg-config is needed to avoid “PKG_CHECK_MODULES syntax error near unexpected token `HTTPFS,'”
+ # pkg-config must be installed before you run autoreconf.
+ apt-get install autoconf autoconf-archive libxml2-dev pkg-config
+ autoreconf -i -f
+ ./configure
+ make
+ make install
+
+ settrans -ac gnu /usr/local/httpfs www.gnu.org/
+ # (breaks, because libxml2 needs pthreads → work to do.)
+ # (what we need: pthreads in translators. → see the [work of Barry](https://savannah.gnu.org/task/?func=detailitem&item_id=5487))
+ # check: for i in `objdump -x /usr/local/bin/httpfs |grep NEEDED| sed s/.*NEEDED//`; do echo $i; objdump -x /usr/lib/$i | grep pthread; objdump -x /lib/$i | grep pthread; done
+
+### Tarfs
+
+ apt-get install zip libz-dev libbz2-dev
+ hg clone http://bitbucket.org/ArneBab/hurd-tarfs tarfs
+ cd tarfs
+ make
+ make install
+ # works, though with warnings.
+
+ settrans -ca new /hurd/tarfs -cz test/intro.tar.gz
+ cp repos/intro/README new/
+ settrans -g new
+ tar -tf test/intro.tar.gz
+ # works
+
+ tar -cf test/intro.tar repos/intro
+ settrans -ac t /hurd/tarfs test/intro.tar
+ # (settrans: /hurd/tarfs: Translator died :( ⇒ more work to do )
+
+### nsmux
+
+ git clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/hurd/incubator.git nsmux
+ cd nsmux/
+ git checkout -b nsmux origin/nsmux
+
+ apt-get install autoconf autoconf-archive
+ autoreconf -i -f
+ ./configure
+ make
+ make install
+
+ cd ../..
+ mkdir test
+ settrans -c test2 /usr/local/bin/nsmux test
+ tar -cf test/intro.tar repos/hurd_intro
+ ls test2/intro.tar,,tarfs
+
+### clisp
+
+ git clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/hurd/incubator.git clisp
+ cd clisp/
+ git checkout -b clisp origin/clisp
+
+ apt-get install texi2html
+ make
+ make install
+
+
+### debugging Translators
+
+ rpctrace
diff --git a/community/weblogs/ArneBab/What_a_Hurd_release_should_be_able_to_do_for_me.mdwn b/community/weblogs/ArneBab/What_a_Hurd_release_should_be_able_to_do_for_me.mdwn
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..51ef2a85
--- /dev/null
+++ b/community/weblogs/ArneBab/What_a_Hurd_release_should_be_able_to_do_for_me.mdwn
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+I thought a bit about what I’d need from Hurd to use it for some of my real life tasks.
+
+My desktop has to be able to do everything it does now, and that under high load, so it currently is no useful target for the Hurd.
+
+But then I have an OLPC XO sitting here, and I use it mostly for work and for clearly defined tasks. As such it seems natural to me to check, what the Hurd would have to be able to do to support my workflow on the OLPC.
+
+### What I need
+
+* Writing text and programming Python with emacs. - *works*.
+* Use Mercurial for my versiontracked stuff. - *works*.
+* Reading websites with emacs and w3m or with lynx. - *works*.
+* Use SSH to go on my desktop and on the university machine. - *should work*.
+* Run X11 with dwm and emacs. - *should work*.
+* Boot Hurd on the OLPC from a USB stick. - *not yet*?
+* Support networking over wlan and wpa_supplicant. - *not yet*? Might DDE kit help?
+* Listen to music with Quod Libet in X11. - *not yet*. Needs audio support.
+
+### What would be nice
+
+* Run a Gentoo system. - not *really* needed, but nice to update my system with the same tools.
+* Watch videos with mplayer. - unlikely. Even with Linux as kernel watching videos pushes my XO to the limit. But this is not essential.
+
+
+So, as soon as Debian GNU/Hurd (or Arch Hurd) supports the things I need, I’ll put it on a USB-stick and use it for coding and writing.
+
+To be frank: I’d likely even use it without audio-support. I have an mp3 player and can feed it via USB. So the essential features for me are:
+
+### Essential features
+
+* Writing text and programming Python with emacs. - works.
+* Use Mercurial for my versiontracked stuff. - works.
+* Use SSH to go on my desktop and on the university machine. - should work.
+* Boot Hurd on the OLPC from a USB stick. - not yet?
+* Support networking over wlan and wpa_supplicant. - not yet? Might DDE kit help?
+
+### Conclusion
+
+The Hurd doesn’t yet do everything I need for my OLPC, but it isn’t that far away either. Grub already gets [ported to OLPC](http://grub.enbug.org/OLPC), so what’s missing to make the Hurd a work system for me are just *booting on OLPC from USB stick* and *wlan-support on OLPC*.
+
+All the rest I need for work is already in place.
diff --git a/community/weblogs/ArneBab/hurd-gsoc2008-code_swarm.mdwn b/community/weblogs/ArneBab/hurd-gsoc2008-code_swarm.mdwn
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..01757867
--- /dev/null
+++ b/community/weblogs/ArneBab/hurd-gsoc2008-code_swarm.mdwn
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+Hurd GSoC 2008 code_swarm
+=========================
+
+I created a code_swarm of the work done in the Hurd project during this years Google
+Summer of Code.
+
+* [Hurd GSoC 2008 code_swarm](http://draketo.de/filme/codeswarm/hurd-gsoc2008.ogv)
+
+I hope you enjoy it!
+
+PS: Now also available [on vimeo](http://www.vimeo.com/2097773) thanks to scolobb!
diff --git a/community/weblogs/ArneBab/niches_for_the_hurd.mdwn b/community/weblogs/ArneBab/niches_for_the_hurd.mdwn
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6f0af07e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/community/weblogs/ArneBab/niches_for_the_hurd.mdwn
@@ -0,0 +1,340 @@
+Niches for the Hurd
+===================
+
+In the bug-hud mailinglist we did a search for niches where the Hurd is *the biggest
+fish in the pond*.
+
+This search was segmented into four distinct phases, three of them major:
+
+- Brainstorm
+- Reality check: can already do vs. could be used for
+- Turn ideas into applications
+- Find a compromise -> About which niches should we talk in the wiki?
+
+
+Brainstorm
+----------
+
+"Which niches could there be for the Hurd?"
+
+### Basic Results
+
+The result is a mix of target groups,
+nice features and options of the Hurd, reasons for running a Hurd and areas where
+the Hurd offers advantages:
+
+#### Nice features and options the Hurd offers
+
+- Give back power to users: arbitrary mounts, subhurds
+- Nice features: dpkg -iO ftp://foo/bar/*.deb
+- Easier access to low-level functions
+- Advanced lightweight virtualization
+- operating system study purposes as its done with minix
+- The possibility to create more efficient and powerful desktop environments
+- Having a _complete_ GNU System
+- All-in-one out-of-the-box distro running a webserver for crash-proof operation.
+
+
+#### Target groups and strong environments
+
+- Tinkerers who like its design.
+- multicore-systems
+
+
+### The keyphrases in more detail or with additional ideas
+
+#### Give back power to users: arbitrary mounts, subhurds
+
+Simpler virtual computing environments - no need to setup XEN, everyone can
+just open up his/her computer for someone else by creating a new user account,
+and the other one can login and easily adapt the system for his/her own needs.
+If most systems just differ by the translators setup on them, people could
+even transfer their whole environment from one computer to another one without
+needing root access or more root interaction than creating a new user account.
+"I want my tools" -> "no problem, just setup your translators".
+
+Also it would be possible to just open an account for stuff like joining the
+"World Community Grid" allowing for easier sharing of CPU time.
+
+
+#### Easier access to low-level functions
+
+*"One important use is for very technical people, who don't always go with
+standard solutions, but rather use new approaches to best solve their
+problems, and will often find traditional kernels too limiting."*
+
+*"Another interesting aspect is application development: With the easily
+customized/extended system functionality, and the ability to contain
+such customizations in subenvironments, I believe that Hurd offers a
+good platform for much more efficient development of complex
+applications. Application developers can just introduce the desired
+mechanisms on a very low level, instead of building around existing
+abstractions. The extensible filesystem in particular seems extremely
+helpful as a powerful, intuitive and transparent communication
+mechanism, which allows creating truly modular applications."*
+
+
+#### Advanced lightweight virtualization
+
+*"There is also the whole area I called "advanced lightweight
+virtualization" (see
+http://tri-ceps.blogspot.com/2007/10/advanced-lightweight-virtualization.html
+), i.e. the ability to create various kinds of interesting
+subenvironments. Many use cases are covered by much bigger fish; but the
+flexibility we offer here could still be interesting: I think the middle
+grounds we cover between directly running applications, and full
+isolation through containers or VMs, are quite unique. This could
+simplify management of demanding applications for example, by partially
+isolating them from other applications and the main system, and thus
+reducing incompatibilities. Creating lightweight software appliances
+sounds like an interesting option.*"
+
+#### The possibility to create more efficient and powerful desktop environments
+
+*"While I believe this can be applied to any kind of applications, I'm
+personally most interested in more efficient and powerful desktop
+environments -- these considerations are in fact what got me seriously
+interested in the Hurd.*
+
+*Even more specifically, I've done most considerations (though by far not
+all) on modular web browsing environments. Those interested can read up
+some of my thoughts on this:*
+
+
+http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_name=20080909073154.GB821%40alien.local
+
+*(Just skip the text mode browsing stuff -- the relevant part is the long
+monologue at the end... I really should put these ideas into my blog.)"*
+
+
+
+#### Nice features
+
+Another example of features which would be easily possible with the Hurd:
+
+* transparent ftp (already possible!):
+ - settrans -c ftp: /hurd/hostmux /hurd/ftpfs /
+ - ls ftp://ftp.gnu.org/
+ - # -> list the files on the FTP server.
+
+
+* media-player translator:
+ - settrans play /hurd/mediaplayer_play
+ - cp song1.ogg song2.ogg play
+ - # -> files get buffered and played.
+
+or even:
+
+* cp ftp://foo/bar/ogg play
+
+that's KDEs fabled network transparency on the filesystem / shell level (where it belongs to be desktop agnostic).
+
+* add temporary filesystems anywhere via `settrans -a NODE /hurd/ext2fs`
+
+* make everything temporarily writeable without really changing it via [[hurd/translator/unionfs]].
+
+* Read tar archives and mbox files via `ls foo.tar.gz,,tarfs` and `ls foo.mbox,,mboxfs`, respectively → [[hurd/translator/nsmux]].
+
+* Use stuff like the new akonady (personal information) framework in KDE more efficiently from the shell.
+
+
+Reality check
+-------------
+
+Check which of the ideas can already be done easily with the Hurd in its current
+state, which ones are a bit more complex but already possible, which ones need a bit
+of coding (could be accomplished in a few months judging from the current speed of
+development), which ones need a lot of work (or fundamental changes) and which ones
+aren't possible.
+
+### Already possible and easy
+
+- Sample translators:
+ * hello world.
+ * transparently bind FTP into the filesystem
+ * hostmux + ftpfs -> connect to FTP automatically via asking for a dir named after the hostname -> fully transparent FTP filesystem: "touch ftp: ; settrans ftp: /hurd/hostmux /hurd/ftpfs / "
+ * bind any filesystem at any place in the directory tree (you have access to) without needing to be root.
+ * elegantly mount iso images and similar as unprivileged user.
+
+- Other useful stuff:
+ * Install deb-packages from an ftp server via 'dpkg -iO ftp://foo/bar/*.deb'
+ * remount a filesystem readonly as regular user: fsysopts /foo -r
+ * give a process additional group and user permissions at runtime:
+ $ groups
+ root
+ $ ps -L # gives me the PID of my login bash -> bashPID
+ ...
+ $ addauth -p bashPID -g mail
+ $ groups
+ root mail
+
+- Having a complete GNU System (but not yet on every hardware, and only about half the software Debian offers has been ported).
+
+### Already possible but complex or underdocumented
+
+- Easier access to low-level functions via translators.
+
+- Operating system study purposes as it's done with minix.
+
+- Tinkering for fun - need documentation about the fun things which can be done.
+
+### Need a few months of coding
+
+- A filesystem-based package manager.
+
+- subhurds for regular users
+ * A framework for confining individual applications is
+ really just one possible use case of the hurdish
+ subenvironments. Writing the tools necessary for that
+ should be quite doable in a few months. It's probably
+ not really much coding -- most of the work would be
+ figuring out how it should be set up exactly.
+ * subusers
+ * "subdo":
+ # Example: Let a virus run free, but any effect vanishes
+ # once the subhurd closes.
+ $ subdo --no-lasting-changes ./virus
+
+- Running parts of the Hurd on different computers, maybe even with shared servers on
+dedicated hardware (Cloud Computing when the servers can be made to migrate from
+between computers). Maybe this should be placed in "need a lot of coding".
+
+- subhurds for quickly adapting the whole system without bothering others.
+
+- Define your personal environment via translators, so you can easily take it with
+you (translators written in scripting laguages can make this easier - they could
+also for example be taken to each computer on USB stick).
+
+- A more powerful alternative to FUSE filesystems: While FUSE is limited to standard
+filesystem semantics, while Hurd translators can implement whatever they
+want.
+It is possible to change the behaviour in any aspect, including the way
+file name lookup works. Admittedly the only specific use case I know is
+the possibility to implement namespace-based translator selection with a
+set of normal translators, without any changes to the Hurd itself.
+It is also possible to extend the filesystem interfaces, adding new RPCs
+and options as needed. This allows using the filesystem for
+communication, yet implementing domain-specific interfaces where
+standard filesystems are too unefficient or cumbersome. A sound server
+would be one possible use case.
+
+- Namespace based translator selection (if you for example want to quickly check the
+contents of an iso image, just look at them via 'ls image.iso,,iso9660fs').
+
+### Need a lot of coding or fundamental changes
+
+- Effective resource management (For example via Viengoos on which Neal Walfield is
+working). The idea is that we could make a virtue out of necessity: Once we have a
+proper resource management framework, we should be able not only to catch up with
+traditional systems in this reagard, but in fact surpass them.
+
+- The possibility to create more efficient and powerful desktop environments.
+
+- Multicore systems (need to fixup Mach for SMP)
+
+- Currently to offer CPU time to some project (like the World Community Grid), it is
+necessary to install a program from them, and they can then do only what that proram
+allows them to - which leads to reinventing a processing environment instead of just
+using the existing OS.
+With the Hurd people could just create a user for them, give that user specific
+permissions (like "you're always lowest priority"), add the public ssh keys of
+the project they want to donate CPU cycles to, and the project could just turn
+the computer into the environment it needs for the specific computation,
+without compromising the main system in any way (needs better resource management).
+
+- A shared MMORPG game world consisting simply of files for levels and person
+descriptions with access rights. All synchronizing is done on the translator
+level. Programs only have to display the given files and quickly update the
+state of their own files, so the programs stay very easy. The translator could
+notify the program when something changes.
+
+
+
+### Unfeasible ideas
+
+
+
+Applications
+------------
+
+A minor phase, which will surely be interleaved with the others: Making the ideas
+tangible to turn them into ways how people can use the Hurd.
+
+*"Hey, look, this is the Hurd. You can use it like this to do that which you can't do
+as well/easily/elegantly in any other way."*
+
+
+### Applications for private use
+
+### Applications for companies
+
+### How an application should be presented so people can easily test and digest it
+
+We need stuff which gets people to say "hey that's cool!"
+
+And it must be readily available.
+If I have to search for arcane command line parameters before I can use it,
+it's too hard.
+
+From what I see, each direct cool application must be about as simple as
+
+$ qemu hurd-is-cool.img
+$ login root
+$ settrans cool /hurd/cool
+$ ls cool
+
+One main focus in this example is: No command line parameters but the ones we
+really need. No "-a", if the example is also cool without it.
+No "--console" if it works otherwise.
+
+Especially no *"qemu --cd livecd --hda hurd.img ..."* - that one is great for
+people who already know qemu or want to learn it, but the goal here isn't to teach people
+better usage of qemu, but to show them that the Hurd is cool, and only that.
+
+All that interesting advanced stuff just gets newcomers confused.
+
+The translator concept in itself is enough news to faze a mind - anything else
+can easily be too much.
+
+If the application isn't as simple as the example above, then the best step
+would be to see if we can make it as simple - if that involves writing trivial
+scripts than be it so. They are trivial only to those who already understand
+the underlying concepts.
+
+And now enough with rambling :)
+
+The Hurd is cool, and the complex to use applications are cool, too.
+But they are hard to present in a way newcomers easily understand.
+
+
+Compromise
+----------
+
+For each niche:
+
+- What do we have to do to conquer the niche?
+- How many additional programmers can the Hurd get in this niche?
+- How does choosing this niche limit the flexibility of further development (for example due to the goals of the people who join up)?
+- Can we easily move on to conquering the next niche once we got this one?
+- What should the Hurd accomplish on the long term (long term goals)? Which possible niches help that?
+
+Each participant:
+
+- Give your personal priorities to the niches:
+ * Must -> all of these of all developers must be included;
+ remember that at most 3 to 4 ideas can be conveyed in any text.
+ * Should -> The number of shoulds can be used for ranking and similar.
+
+("must", because in a community people can do what they perceive as important, and
+telling someone to stop what he's doing is no option (in my opinion))
+
+
+Things to do
+------------
+
+todo-item -> niches for which it is useful.
+
+### Easy
+
+- Port debian packages to the Hurd -> mainly tinkerers, but also any other niche.
+
diff --git a/community/weblogs/ArneBab/what_we_need.mdwn b/community/weblogs/ArneBab/what_we_need.mdwn
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..4511eb64
--- /dev/null
+++ b/community/weblogs/ArneBab/what_we_need.mdwn
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+We created a list of the things we still need for using the Hurd for in our day-to-day activities (work or hobby).
+
+As soon as these issues are taken care of, the Hurd offers everything we need for fullfilling most of our computing needs on at least one of our devices:
+
+- USB (5): Arne, ms, Michael, Emilio, antrik²³
+- Wireless (5): Arne, ms, Carl Fredrik, Michael (netbook), antrik (notebook)
+- Sound (4): ms, Carl Fredrik, Michael, antrik²
+
+- SATA (2): Michael, (Emilio)
+- Tested for modern machines°¹ (2): Emilio, antrik (notebook)
+- Stable Xorg° (2): Emilio, antrik
+- PPPoE (2): Carl Fredrik, antrik²
+
+- Graphical Desktop (1): Emilio
+- Full featured high-resultion console which doesn’t need X (1): antrik
+- Switching between console and X° (1): antrik
+- full-featured browser (i.e. Firefox)°⁵ (1): antrik
+- NFS working for climm, w3m and git (1): antrik⁴
+- mplayer with win32codecs (1): antrik³
+- gnash or alternatives (1): antrik³
+
+°: Very likely needed by more people, but not named as most pressing issue.
+¹: It’s unclear on which processors the Hurd would have problems. Please report it if you have one!
+→ [info](http://www.mail-archive.com/bug-hurd@gnu.org/msg19105.html)
+²: Would be OK to use a router box instead.
+³: Not critical but would be convenient.
+⁴: Only while *not* using Hurd as the only machine.
+⁵: [We’re close to that](http://www.mail-archive.com/bug-hurd@gnu.org/msg19177.html).
+
+So, if one of these issues seems to be interesting for you, or you think “I can do that easily”,
+why not become a Hurd hacker and add your touch? :)
+
+You can reach us in the [[mailing_lists]] and in [[irc]].
+
+The sourcecode is in our [[source_repositories]] (git). When you want to check sources relevant for you, [DDE](http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/hurd/incubator.git/tree/?h=dde) might be a good place to start for wireless and sound. USB on the other hand might need work in [gnumach](http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/hurd/gnumach.git/) ([[hacking_info|microkernel/mach/gnumach]]).
+
+Besides: “The great next stuff” is in the [incubator git repo](http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/hurd/incubator.git/), including (among others) [clisp](http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/hurd/incubator.git/tree/?h=clisp) (translators in lisp) and [nsmux](http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/hurd/incubator.git/tree/?h=nsmux) (dynamically setting translators on files for one command by accessing `file,,translator`).
+
+Happy hacking!
diff --git a/community/weblogs/ArneBab/xkb-woes-trying-to-get-a-german-keyboard-layout.mdwn b/community/weblogs/ArneBab/xkb-woes-trying-to-get-a-german-keyboard-layout.mdwn
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..693168a4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/community/weblogs/ArneBab/xkb-woes-trying-to-get-a-german-keyboard-layout.mdwn
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2008 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]]."]]"""]]
+
+Yesterday I spent a few hours trying to get my german keyboard to let me use my umlauts (and to let me type without having to hunt down the right keys), but without much luck.
+
+I got xkb installed after following this FaQ answer:
+
+- <http://www.gnu.org/s/hurd/faq.en.html#q4-4>
+
+and this info:
+
+- <http://people.debian.org/~mbanck/hurd-console.default>
+
+(you can find the second under /etc/default/hurd-console ).
+
+But I didn't get it to work.
+
+### What I did in short:
+
+
+First I got the needed apt-sources:
+
+- <http://debian.duckcorp.org/>
+
+Then I installed the xkb console:
+
+- `apt-get install console-driver-xkb`
+
+
+And set it in the file /etc/default/hurd-console
+
+
+Sadly it didn't work, but maybe this posts will give You the needed headstart for success :) (I'd be glad to see a guide from you!).
+
+
+Some additional info:
+
+- <http://kerneltrap.org/node/420>
+- <http://www.bddebian.com/~wiki/hurd/console/>
+