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-rw-r--r--faq/which_microkernel/discussion.mdwn61
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+[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2011 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="Doing a GNU/Hurd System Port"]]
+
+How difficult is it to port the GNU/Hurd system to run on another architecture?
+
+The GNU/Hurd system consists of [[/Hurd]] servers running as user-space
+processes on top of the [[GNU Mach|microkernel/mach/gnumach]] microkernel. The
+system functionality is usually accessed through the
+[[POSIX|posix_compatibility]] interface that is provided by [[/glibc]] and
+[[/libpthread]].
+
+A whole-system port involves touching all these components, with varying
+degree, of course.
+
+For a CPU architecture port, the microkernel is the most involved part,
+followed by glibc and the threading library.
+
+The original [[microkernel/Mach]] microkernel was portable to a number of
+architectures which were a lot more popular at the beginning of the 1990s than
+they are now.
+
+The GNU/Hurd system is currently available for the x86 architecture. This
+includes emulators such as [[hurd/running/QEMU]] (or KVM), or
+[[hurd/running/VirtualBox]]. Besides this, there is a port for the [[Xen
+domU|microkernel/mach/gnumach/ports/xen]] *sub-architecture*.
+
+Further on, there are some [[unfinished porting
+attempts|microkernel/mach/gnumach/ports]] for the Alpha, MIPS and PowerPC
+architectures. These have not been completed due to little developer interest.
+
+Another option is to do the port at a different layer: port the Hurd servers to
+not run on the GNU Mach microkernel, but instead on top of [[another
+microkernel|which_microkernel]]. Or, even by providing a Mach emulation layer
+on top of a monolithic kernel. For example, there could be a port for [[having
+Mach run as a POSIX user-space process|open_issues/mach_on_top_of_posix]], or
+by implementing the [[Mach IPC|microkernel/mach/ipc]] facility (as well as
+several others) as Linux kernel modules. While there have been some
+experiments, no such port has been completed yet.
diff --git a/faq/which_microkernel/discussion.mdwn b/faq/which_microkernel/discussion.mdwn
index 9ef3b915..7ea131e9 100644
--- a/faq/which_microkernel/discussion.mdwn
+++ b/faq/which_microkernel/discussion.mdwn
@@ -1,3 +1,20 @@
+[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2011 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_documentation]]
+
+[[!toc]]
+
+
+# Olaf, 2011-04-10
+
This version mixes up three distinct phases: rewrite from scratch; redesign;
own microkernel.
@@ -31,3 +48,47 @@ to the Coyotos port -- which after all is what the title promises...
All in all, I still think my text was better. If you have any conerns with it,
please discuss them...
+
+
+# IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2011-09-27
+
+ <cjuner> Does anyone remember/know if/why not seL4 was considered for
+ hurd-l4? Is anyone aware of any differences between seL4 and coyotos?
+
+
+## 2011-09-28
+
+ <antrik> cjuner: the seL4 project was only at the beginning when the
+ decision was made. so was Coyotos, but Shapiro promised back then that
+ building on EROS, it would be done very fast (a promise he couldn't keep
+ BTW); plus he convinced the people in question that it's safer to build
+ on his ideas...
+ <antrik> it doesn't really matter though, as by the time the ngHurd people
+ were through with Coyotos, they had already concluded that it doesn't
+ make sense to build upon *any* third-party microkernel
+ <cjuner> antrik, what was the problem with coyotos? what would be the
+ problem with sel4 today?
+ <cjuner> antrik, yes I did read the FAQ. It doesn't mention seL4 at all
+ (there isn't even much on the hurd-l4 mailing lists, I think that being
+ due to seL4 not having been released at that point?) and it does not
+ specify what problems they had with coyotos.
+ <antrik> cjuner: it doesn't? I thought it mentioned "newer L4 variants" or
+ something like that... but the text was rewritten a couple of times, so I
+ guess it got lost somewhere
+ <antrik> cjuner: unlike original L4, it's probably possible to implement a
+ system like the Hurd on top on seL4, just like on top of
+ Coyotos. however, foreign microkernels are always created with foreign
+ design ideas in mind; and building our own design around them is always
+ problematic. it's problematic with Mach, and it will be problematic with
+ any other third-party microkernel
+ <antrik> Coyotos specifically has different ideas about memory protection,
+ different ideas about task startup, different ideas about memory
+ handling, and different ideas about resource allocation
+ <cjuner> antrik, do any specific problems of the foreign designs,
+ specifically of seL4 or coyotos come to mind?
+ <antrik> cjuner: I mentioned several for Coyotos. I don't have enough
+ understanding of the matters to go into much more detail
+ <antrik> (and I suspect you don't have enough understanding of these
+ matters to take away anything useful from more detail ;-) )
+ <antrik> I could try to explain the issues I mentioned for Coyotos (as far
+ as I understand them), but would that really help you?