Re: OSKit & X

[Marcus Brinkmann <Marcus.Brinkmann@ruhr-uni-bochum.de>]

On Mon, Jan 06, 2003 at 11:02:44PM -0600, Georg Lehner wrote:
> While trying to get my basic services (mail+web+dns) up and running I
> could not find documentation about the boot-process (note, that I have
> not read the reference manual yet, maybe I should get some surprises
> there...).  Well, the most informative pointer was one stating that hurd
> init is not equal to SysV init, and in /hurd/init's *sources* I found
> out about /libexec/runsystem ... no manpage, or --help switch supplied.

Well, the "servicable part" is /libexec/rc, just as in BSD.  The whole Hurd
specific part of the bootstrapping is quite complicated, and not documented
yet.
 
> There is a problem, which was mentioned as a interim-version glitch on
> the debian-devel list:  errno is defined in the sources es 
> 
> 	ext int errno;
> 
> which chokes at link time.  Replaceing it with "#include <errno.h>
> works.  However this is not only a DJB-Software problem, the
> amaya-Browser also uses "ext int" in the libraptor library.
> Will this problem go away with a future libc version?

To get the errno variable, you *must* include <errno.h>.  Programs that do
not do this and still reference it will always fail on the GNU/Hurd, and
probably soon on GNU/Linux as well.  The reason is that errno is a macro so
that it can be evaluated per thread.  BTW, POSIX says that if you include
errno.h, you can also write "ext int errno;" somewhere in your program
without having the program fail.  IOW: errno still looks and feels like a
global variable.  The macro is written in a clever way to allow that.
Of course if you include the header, prtotyping it is unnecessary and
slightly wrongish.

> - oskit kernel with X, maybe I just have to specify some option...

This is a somewhat bigger issue.  Just getting it to work on GNU Mach 2 is
actually quite simple.  However, you also want two new things:

* Seamless interaction with the new console, which requires a VC switching
  protocol. 

* PS/2 or serial mouse support.

We have a patch for PS/2 support, but I have not yet positivily confirmed
that it is without bugs, and it raises new issues about integrating the new
console into the boot process.  We don't have any serial drivers in OSKit
(Daniel might be working on it).

Thanks,
Marcus

-- 
`Rhubarb is no Egyptian god.' GNU      http://www.gnu.org    marcus@gnu.org
Marcus Brinkmann              The Hurd http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/
Marcus.Brinkmann@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
http://www.marcus-brinkmann.de/