Re: Installing HURD
Max <tazq@crazy.ml.org> wrote:
> Second, is there any way to install HURD without a linux box. I've
> currently got an empty partition sitting on my Win95 machine. I used
> tomsrtbt (an excellent minilinux) to mke2fs. I got a GRUB boot disk from
> alpha.gnu.org.../hurd/boot (I did manage to get hurd running form a
> floppy, but from there, I was a bit lost. :)
And also:
> Thanks. Wow. 71 megs is a bit excessive, don't you think? :)
> How far is Debian-Hurd to becoming installable? Or is it, and is there a
> paper somewhere to explain how to do it?
Whether you can install without Linux depends on just what you want to
do with the Hurd. If your only goal is to see the command prompt, you
might be able to get there with just the Debian packages and Windows.
You would need a way to "mount" and write files to the ext2
filesystem, as opposed to simply creating it.
Someone (Gordon) posted a way of extracting the main contents of a
.deb file. I believe it involves the `ar' program, which I believe
you can get from the Cygnus Development Kit at http://www.cygnus.com.
That's a fairly hefty download, though, so unless you have a fast
connection, you might be better off with Marcus's tarfile (which I
have not tested). The email where he describes it is archived at
http://www.debian.org/Lists-Archives/debian-hurd-9901/msg00023.html.
Most of us are using Linux or FreeBSD, which enable us to do various
forms of cross-development which I imagine would be impractical under
Windows (though the Cygwin kit might make them possible). If you
really want to use the Hurd before it is officially released, please
consider making another partition for a Debian GNU/Linux system and
working from there.
-John
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