Re: Debian GNU/Hurd installation

[Gordon Matzigkeit <gord@fig.org>]

>>>>> Vitaly Lugovsky writes:

 VL> May be I missed something, but I think, that the only way to
 VL> create an installable-by-dummie Hurd distribution is a set of
 VL> installation disks based on some other OS kernel: Linux or
 VL> *BSD. Hurd is a way too big for installation from floppy.

Actually, Miles Bader had Hurd native boot floppies working a long
time ago... it's just that nobody bothered to keep them up-to-date.

Basically, it involves putting grub, a gzipped gnumach, and a gzipped
serverboot on one floppy, and using the `pause' command to make GRUB
wait for the next floppy before booting.  Then you put servers.boot,
ext2fs.static, and ld.so on a second floppy, passing serverboot the
`$(prompt-task-resume)' command to make it wait for the next floppy
before starting ext2fs.static.  Finally comes the gzipped root
filesystem floppy, which ext2fs.static uncompresses, and contains all
the rest of the stuff you need to boot the system.

All this is done in the hurd/release directory.

It may not be pretty, but it works. ;)

-- 
 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/)