From bb220d8bc7e19e7673a4fbe79f5935f991995f18 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Thomas Schwinge Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 08:58:08 +0100 Subject: news/2009-11-30: Extend some more. --- news/2009-11-30.mdwn | 46 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------- 1 file changed, 32 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-) (limited to 'news') diff --git a/news/2009-11-30.mdwn b/news/2009-11-30.mdwn index 1f288481..a5b0a2ad 100644 --- a/news/2009-11-30.mdwn +++ b/news/2009-11-30.mdwn @@ -12,24 +12,42 @@ License|/fdl]]."]]"""]] [[!meta updated="2009-11-30 00:00 UTC"]] -A month of the Hurd: *network in userspace* and *grub2 from hurd*. +A month of the Hurd: initial work on *network device drivers in user space*, +*GRUB 2*. [[!if test="included()" then="""[[!toggle id=full_news text="Details."]][[!toggleable id=full_news text="[[!paste id=full_news]]"]]""" else="[[!paste id=full_news]]"]] [[!cut id="full_news" text=""" -> This month Zheng Da ported the pcnet32 driver into user space -> and did some preliminary -> [performance tests](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2009-11/msg00144.html). -> The test results were mostly on par with the in-kernel driver, so they show -> that moving networking on the Hurd into user space can be done -> without losing (much) performance. -> -> Also thanks to Samuel Thibault, the latest grub2 package (1.97+20091130-1) -> [supports native installation](http://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd/2009/11/msg00095.html) -> from GNU/Hurd itself. Grub was originally designed -> [to allow booting of GNU/Hurd systems](http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html#History), -> so this step brings it closer to its original purpose again. -> +> This month [[Zheng Da|zhengda]], our [[former Google Summer of Code student +> working on network virtualization and some related +> topics|community/gsoc/2008]], published the code for the pcnet32 device +> driver that he had modified to run as a user-space process instead of inside +> the kernel, and posted some preliminary [performance benchmark +> results](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2009-11/msg00144.html). +> The test results are mostly on par with the in-kernel driver, so they show +> that moving the lower-layer parts of the networking stack, the device drivers +> themselves, into user space can be done without losing (much) performance. +> Given this encouraging start, work is going on to explore whether the [Device +> Driver Environment](http://wiki.tudos.org/DDE/DDEKit) that has been created +> for L4-based systems can be used for [providing GNU/Hurd systems with device +> drivers](http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2009-11/msg00241.html) +> that (a) are more recent than our current ones, (b) support classes of +> devices that [[we don't support so +> far|microkernel/mach/gnumach/hardware_compatibility_list]], and (c) are +> running as (possibly separate, fault-isolated) user-space processes. +> Thanks to Samuel Thibault, the latest Debian GRUB 2 package (1.97+20091130-1) +> [supports native +> installation](http://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd/2009/11/msg00095.html) from +> GNU/Hurd itself -- booting GNU/Hurd systems with GRUB has always been +> working, but until now it wasn't possible to *install* GRUB from a GNU/Hurd +> system. GNU GRUB has originally been written [for booting GNU/Hurd +> systems](http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html#History), so this +> step completes its original purpose. + +> Samuel also continued to work on preparing the [[Xen branch of GNU +> Mach|microkernel/mach/gnumach/ports/xen]] for being merged with the mainline +> code, as well as he fixed a kernel panic in the kernel's floating point +> support code. """]] -- cgit v1.2.3