Could you assist ...

["lanz" <lanzbase@xtra.co.nz>]

Please explain in layman terms ...
-------------------------------------------------
 ( I have read all faq's/howto etc) 


Example
------------

A system with a 2 GB hardrive and following partitions. 

1) 25 mb > dos/fat16
2) 500 mb > win95c/fat32
3) 1393 mb > ext2 (proposed)/(debian/gnu/ --- hurd and/or linux mix/match)
4) 128mb > swapfile  

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--------------------------------

Given the example above:-
--------------------------------------

Q1) I understand debian/gnu/hurd uses a ext2 partition
      Does this have to be a primary partition or can it be a partition
contained
      within a dos/extended partition as a logical partition an ext2 etc
and be
      booted via grub instead,or for some reason must it be
primary,therefore
      why,and for what specific reasons,and also can the swapfile be placed
      within a dos extended logical partition area instead of in the
primary area
      and/or can gnu/linux have a swapfile in such area/partition.

Q2) I understand debian/gnu/hurd can't simply be installed like linux,and
that
      the hurd requires linux to be present to install the hurd in the
nominated
      partition designated/planned for the hurd?.After the hurd is
installed can
      one remove the linux partition which was used to install the hurd in
the
      hurd/ext2/partition?I ask this because I have doslinux using 10 meg
in
      my dos partition and could use this just to install the hurd in it's
area
      or is there/will there be a dependancy between the hurd and
debian/linux.

Q3) Once this Hurd has been installed I need to know if/and/how it
interacts
      with linux,mainly because I wonder if one can then install linux into
the
      same partition that the hurd resides or must linux reside in another 
      seperate ext2/partition instead of sharing same partition with the
hurd.
      How does the hurd handle linux programs/software now/future and can
      you please define the 2 types/linux binaries and how they differ from
      what executables are/and how the hurd interacts with debian/linux and
      applications or is there a factor for recompiling linux stuff to work
with
      the debian/gnu/hurd.

Q4) I understand that if say I have a Debian/linux/ext2 partition running
linux
      I can possibly install/run the hurd in a subdir of the linux
partition? T/F ?
      Perhaps this is only a plan for the future or can they exist in the
same 
      partition but in different directories and I also assume if this is
the case
      installation packages must share libraries for compiling etc too ??? 

 Q5) Currently I run a doslinux version of linux in my dos partition which
uses
      loop principle to boot my doslinux out of it's compressed file, but
there
      exists the option to setup this loop version of linux to boot from a
native
      ext2 partition also,which I thought might, be an interesting option
if also
      possible with the hurd for people using several os's for development
      reasons. 

 Thanks ( in advanace/I'm trying to understand the faqs/howto explanations)
..

Jonathan Larsen-Rask
Lanz (web-nicname)

<lanzbase@xtra.co.nz>
              or
<rask@ihug.co.nz>