Re: "New" Installation Method of the Hurd, please tes, develop and comment
>>>>> Roland McGrath writes:
> Daniel Burrows:
>> Someone also mentioned that it might be possible to boot the Hurd
>> from a subdirectory of an ext2 filesystem (as if it were in a
>> chrooted environment..)
[...]
>> What's the status of that? (and if support isn't explicitly
>> there..
RM> I'm not sure how well it's been tested, but it is all there.
I've tried it out a few times, and it worked fine as far as actually
running the Hurd. To make Roland's instructions more explicit:
In /boot/grub/menu.lst:
title= GNU/Hurd in /gnu
root= (hd0,0)
kernel= /boot/gnumach root=hd0s3
module= /boot/serverboot
Then, in /dev/hd0s3/boot/servers.boot:
# Root fs is ${root-device}/gnu
/gnu/hurd/ext2fs.static --bootflags=${boot-args}
--host-priv-port=${host-port} --device-master-port=${device-port}
--exec-server-task=${exec-task} -Tdevice ${root-device} --chroot=gnu
$(task-create) $(task-resume)
# Exec server
/gnu/lib/ld.so.1 /hurd/exec $(exec-task=task-create)
# Swap partition
/dev/hd0s2 $(add-linux-paging-file) $(default-pager)
All the other Hurd files are located in the /gnu subdirectory of the
/dev/hd0s3 partition, which is my Linux root partition. As Roland
said, make sure you run `e2os /dev/hda3 hurd' before you try booting.
RM> You should realize that there is substantially more risk to your
RM> existing filesystem this way than giving the Hurd its own
RM> filesystem in one way or another. It has been a very long time
RM> since anyone has seen a Hurd bug that scribbled on a filesystem,
RM> but if the Hurd scribbles on your filesystem it could in theory
RM> get corrupted such that you lose data from the other directories
RM> on the filesystem (your Linux portion).
Back when I was testing it (in November, 1998), I found ext2fs would
sometimes clobber a file and turn it into an unremovable block or
character device. I couldn't figure out how to reproduce it, so I
didn't report it, and soon afterward I started using a separate Hurd
partition. It may already be fixed, but please tell me if you run
into a similar bug.
Here are some examples, that I still have on my filesystem:
ajax:~$ ls -l /lost+found/bin/
total 3873009170
b--sr-Srwx 1 25193 14387 116, 115 Jun 1 2032 cut
br-xr---wT 1 12845 27951 101, 115 Feb 18 1994 esdcat
b--Sr-sr-t 1 30565 28257 49, 46 Mar 12 1995 gnome-help-browser
br-Sr-xr-x 1 14387 11878 99, 114 Nov 29 2031 rgview
br--r-S--- 1 26723 24424 95, 104 Aug 3 2020 tload
ajax:~$ stat /lost+found/bin/*
File: "/lost+found/bin/cut"
Size: 775040355 Blocks: 1751343469Block Device
Access: (6147/b--sr--rwx) Uid: (25193/ UNKNOWN) Gid: (14387/ UNKNOWN)
Device: 770 Inode: 368844 Links: 1 Device type: 29811
Access: Thu Feb 2 13:10:41 1995
Modify: Tue Jun 1 22:00:36 2032
Change: Sat Aug 21 06:17:38 2027
File: "/lost+found/bin/esdcat"
Size: 825110830 Blocks: 1634545512Block Device
Access: (1542/br-xr---w-) Uid: (12845/ UNKNOWN) Gid: (27951/ UNKNOWN)
Device: 770 Inode: 368841 Links: 1 Device type: 25971
Access: Sat Jan 24 18:22:07 2026
Modify: Fri Feb 18 01:47:01 1994
Change: Tue May 20 23:28:12 2025
File: "/lost+found/bin/gnome-help-browser"
Size: 544632074 Blocks: 1667393900Block Device
Access: (7055/b---r-sr-t) Uid: (30565/ UNKNOWN) Gid: (28257/ UNKNOWN)
Device: 770 Inode: 368846 Links: 1 Device type: 12590
Access: Fri Jan 20 19:41:01 1995
Modify: Sun Mar 12 16:15:15 1995
Change: Sat Mar 11 22:15:44 1995
File: "/lost+found/bin/rgview"
Size: 1634545462 Blocks: 757102189 Block Device
Access: (4455/br--r-xr-x) Uid: (14387/ UNKNOWN) Gid: (11878/ UNKNOWN)
Device: 770 Inode: 368843 Links: 1 Device type: 25458
Access: Tue Jan 18 09:50:59 2028
Modify: Sat Nov 29 06:36:56 2031
Change: Mon Sep 21 02:25:05 2020
File: "/lost+found/bin/tload"
Size: 1999052911 Blocks: 1935633267Block Device
Access: (2440/br--r-----) Uid: (26723/ UNKNOWN) Gid: (24424/ UNKNOWN)
Device: 770 Inode: 368845 Links: 1 Device type: 24424
Access: Wed Sep 23 08:53:25 2020
Modify: Mon Aug 3 08:34:27 2020
Change: Fri Oct 15 05:56:17 2021
ajax:~$
--
Gordon Matzigkeit <gord@fig.org> //\ I'm a FIG (http://www.fig.org/)
Committed to freedom and diversity \// I use GNU (http://www.gnu.org/)
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