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Re: Hurd queries



On Tue, 03 Apr 2001 07:32:00 Ognyan Kulev wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 02, 2001 at 08:03:15PM +0100, Bob Ham wrote:
> > Hi all
> > 
> > I've a few quesitons about the Hurd that I was hoping could have some
> > light shed on them: firstly, has any thought been put into how sound
> > will be handled? If not, does anybody know if it would be possible to
> > port OSS/Lite or ALSA to the Hurd?
> 
> AFAIK There isn't any code for sound yet.  If you have desire you can write
> a sound layer and send patches for GNUMach and/or Hurd to bug-hurd@gnu.org.

Quite obviously there is no sound code. This is not what I was asking.
What I was asking is whether or not there had been any discussion on a
sound layer and whether any developers had given any thought to how the
Hurd should handle a sound layer. It looks as though this is not the
case.

> > Is there going to be a Hurd TCP/IP stack developed? I know pfinet was
> > carved out of Linux, and there's a 'newpfinet' directory in the hurd CVS
> > repository (even though it's empty.)
> 
> pfinet is TCP/IP stack, isn't it?

Yes. However, it was developed for Linux and not the Hurd (or am I
gravely mistaken?) This means that (amongst other things) what looks
like all of linux/include is included with the Hurd sources and so I'd
imagine there will be code that enables the Linux shaped block to fit
into a Hurd shaped hole. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd imagine this
is not a Good Thing.

> But it is tightly integrated with
> ethernet layer, e.g. there is no PPP support yet.  I don't know what the
> plans for newpfinet are.
> 
> > Has anyone looked at GGI's KGI kernel drivers (ie, what fb came from)? I
> > would imagine that the Mach environment would be ideal to host graphics
> > drivers (as opposed to a monolithic kernel.) Or, are people happy with
> > X?
> 
> GGI was mentioned in mailing lists a time ago with the same in mind: as an
> alternative of X.  Again, if you like to implement it in GNUMach/Hurd you
> are welcome.  BTW X is so popular!  But I agree that it's so heavy too.  And
> why GNUMach as microkernel to be ideal for hosting graphics drivers?  

See Niels Möller's comments.

Also, having a graphics driver is not the same as replacing X. You could
run an X server that uses a Hurd graphics translator. This is kind of
thing KGI/fb with the fb X server does. However, there is also the
Berlin project whose aim *is* to replace X. Berlin seems to me to be a
better choice for a GUI for GNU than X. I say this as everybody knows X
is a *big* beast with lots of issues, both technical and otherwise (X
license stuff.) Combined with the suitablity of the Hurd for a KGI style
graphics system and Berlin's use of GGI (and hence KGI), this seems to
me to be a very powerful arguement.

Bob

--
Bob Ham:  bob@ham.org  http://pkl.net/~node/
IRC: 'node' on irc.openprojects.net: #slashdot  ICQ: 4396425 'node'

"The GNU philosophy is about freedom. To be free one must have
personal power. Personal power is an individual thing, difficult to
obtain and quick to perish." --Krisno Pryosusilo




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