Re: [BLOG] On migration to the Hurd

["Ludovic Courtès" <ludo@gnu.org>]

Hi!

Tanguy Le Carrour <tanguy@bioneland.org> skribis:

> Le 04/01, Jan Nieuwenhuizen a écrit :
>> We are thrilled to have published a post about migrating to the Hurd:
>> 
>>     https://guix.gnu.org/blog/2020/deprecating-support-for-the-linux-kernel/
>
> So, I guess I was not the only one to figure out that it was a joke! A
> good one, but still… a joke!
>
> But anyway, I clicked and read the post! And I couldn't help but feel…
> mmm… nostalgic for the future!? Is that even possible?!
>
> The question is now: if not yesterday, when!?
>
> Thanks to all the people who will help make it a reality!

Yup, it can actually become a reality!

Yesterday led us to hack some more.  The new ‘wip-hurd-vm’ branch is
based on ‘core-updates’, which includes Janneke’s Hurd work, notably
supporting native builds on GNU/Hurd.  On that branch, from a GNU/Linux
box, one can run:

  ./pre-inst-env guix build -f gnu/system/hurd.scm

That gives you a QEMU image containing a cross-built GNU/Hurd system,
which is pretty cool.

Unfortunately, the bootstrap ext2fs.static server currently hangs early
on for reasons that haven’t been elucidated yet.  For anyone who wants
to fiddle with the Hurd, here’s a good hacking opportunity!

The branch is almost mergeable, I think.  With that in place, it’ll be
trivial to provide a “GNU/Hurd VM service” for Guix System running on
GNU/Linux, and we can use that to provide GNU/Hurd build VMs on berlin,
for instance.

Currently, unlike ‘qemu-image’, the new ‘cross-hurd-image’ doesn’t
expect a full-blown <operating-system> but simply a bunch of store
items.  However, we can hopefully use that as a starting point to port
Guix System itself to GNU/Hurd.

Food for thought!

Ludo’.

PS: In the meantime, Linux-libre support remains available, fear not!