some questions on Hurd

As far as I got looking on Hurd-pages I realize, that documentation isn't really going any further.

Though, because I have to talk about this OS in school, I'd like to find something about the basics.

When I got it right, there is now the Mach4- microkernel sitting on top of the hardware, right?

And if I got it right, the device drivers are still in kernelspace.

Also there are servers in userspace, which do the basic parts, like IO (network, fs, etc.).

!! You might look at the picture in the attachement and tell me if I'm right or wrong on that. !!

Could somebody tell me the difference between translators and servers, please. There seems to be a difference, as I read through the http://www.debian.org/ports/hurd-doc-server.html .

Next thing, in the article "Toward a New Strategy of OS Design" [1] Trent Fisher (?) said, on the auth.-server anybody can use its own trusted auth-server. So, how does he know that this specific auth-server is safe or where does he get his own trusted auth-server??

And, there is something I really don't know how to find out (except walking through the whole gnumach-code for months!): What are the main changes to the CMU Mach kernel you made, 'cause somebody said it's a modified CMU Mach-microkernel. Are these differences what's talked about in the article [1] at Part1 or what did you guys do?

I might present in my presentation some datastructures and library functions which mach offers to programmers.

Are you still using the libthreads-library or are you already using POSIX pthreads? Are you using the "Microkernel Object Library" libmom already?

In libports: there are buckets (port sets) and classes (???) what is the difference, how should I interprete classes?

When I looked through the Mch-documentation, there was something about running UNIX in a single-server on top of Mach. How do you do this? Is this the combination of proc- and exec-server and the GNU-C-library? Is this also a single-server or is it a multi-server?

It would be nice if somebody could reply on me, never mind if you want to talk in english or german.

Since documentation I got from the web-sites, is dated something around 1990 til 1996, actual information is what I need.

Oh, almost forgot to ask. I tried to install a Hurd-system, which was on a CD in the freeX-magazin 4/00.

I got GRUB looking on my harddisk an he found the gnumach.gz and the server.gz. After the mach tells me that on the DC390T there is no EPROM to rread from (actually it's a DawiControl DC2974 with AM53C974) he stops

and the system is frozen. Somebody told me that it might be my NE2000-PCI networkcard. Can I somehow tell the kernel not to load somekind of device-driver or do I have to build a new kernel myself?

Thanks in advance

Henning Riedel