Thread 106210523

Debian GNU/Hurd 2025 released!

https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2025-08/msg00008.html

It is with huge pleasure that the Debian GNU/Hurd team announces the release of Debian GNU/Hurd 2025.

This is a snapshot of Debian "sid" at the time of the stable Debian "Trixie" release (August 2025), so it is mostly based on the same sources.

The installation ISO images can be downloaded from
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/13.0/hurd-i386/ or
https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/13.0/hurd-amd64/
in the NETINST Debian flavor. Besides the friendly Debian installer, a pre-installed disk image is also available, making it even easier to try Debian GNU/Hurd. The easiest way to run it is inside a VM such as qemu:
https://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install

Please make sure to read the configuration information
(https://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install), the FAQ
(https://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/faq.html) (or it latest version (http://darnassus.sceen.net/~hurd-web/faq/), and the translator primer
(https://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd/documentation/translator_primer.html) to get a grasp of the great features of GNU/Hurd.

We would like to thank all the people who have worked on GNU/Hurd in the past (https://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/history.html).
There were not many people at any given time (and still not many people today, please join!
(https://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/contributing.html)), but in the end a lot of people have contributed one way or the other.

Thanks everybody!

* 64bit support is now complete, with the same archive coverage as i386
(actually a bit more since some packages are 64b-only)
* This 64b support is completely using userland disk drivers from NetBSD
thanks to the Rump layer.
* We now use xattr by default for recording translators, allowing to
bootstrap seamlessly from other OSes, with mmdebstrap for instance
* Rust was ported to GNU/Hurd.
* Support for USB disk and CD-ROM was added through Rump
* Packages are now available for SMP support, which is quite working
* The console is now using xkb for keyboard layouts, and supports
multiboot-provided framebuffer
* Various other support were added (acpi, rtc, apic, hpet, ...)
* Some documentation improvement was achieved
* Various fixes have been included (irqs, nfsv3, libports, pipes corner
cases, ...)

Better than GNU/Linux(tm)

>no bootable device
It's probably my hardware, since the only distros that work for me are Gentoo and Hyperbola.

>>106210523 (OP)
Followed the readme but couldn't get my image to work. I downloaded debian-hurd-amd64-20250807.img.tar.xz

https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/13.0/hurd-amd64/YES_REALLY_README.txt

How do I install this on my M4 MacBook Air?

>>106210523 (OP)
How blessed!

why is this project taking so long? they are using rump kernels from netbsd so it shouldn't be much work to glue the rest together

>>106213631
they have like 5 active developers

>>106210523 (OP)
who hurd you?

>>106213750
who turd you?

HOLY SHIT I THOUGHT GNU/HURD WAS DEAD I'M SO FUCKING HAPPY RIGHT NOW

>>106213631
>why is this project taking so long
they don't have a leadership,
they don't have a plan
there are a few retards who give their spare time and "fix" things like
>>>106210805
>* Rust was ported to GNU/Hurd.
they didn't even bother to write drivers, they copy-pasta from other projects.
imagine informing someone "hey, here's a project I am developing in 2025, it doesn't have amd64 support, it doesn't have drivers, but we are going to have rust"

>>106210854
>Better than GNU/Linux(tm)

Not a particularly difficult yardstick...

>>106213822
it does have amd64

>>106213631
>why is this project taking so long?
the mouthbreather who was in charge of the project back when it was hot shit decided to rewrite it from scratch like 10 times and eventually all attention and development effort was diverted to Linux.

>>106210523 (OP)
What kind of games can I run with this?

For me it's Guix GNU/Hurd
https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2024/hurd-on-thinkpad/

>>106210805
>64bit support is now complete, with the same archive coverage as i386
Holy based

>>106213132
Use virtualbox, or start porting all drivers by yourself

>>106210523 (OP)
Does it have USB support?

>>106215902
nethack and the infocom games

>>106210805
Exclusion of certain people is a test, we don't know what evil does with failswitches

>>106216403
Ok I got it in a VM, now what?

>>106210523 (OP)
I cant believe it is still up
Remember studding kernel design by reading Hurd's source in 2023.
Let's find some bugs

>>106216563
it has support for usb disks. i don't think it supports all usb peripherals yet

>>106210523 (OP)
Other option is Plan9.

>>106217508
why not both?
https://github.com/9fans/plan9port/pull/259

so the whole OS is based off of client, server protocols? like the different layers of the OS? I dropped out before I got to operating systems. I dont know OSI layers or if thats even in the kernel or not or anything. what does gnu hurd have as far as survival and continued development?

>>106217553
>https://github.com/9fans/plan9port/pull/259
very based

Cool

>>106218148
>what is microkernel

>>106220022
A: Mach

>>106217473
>>106216563
Adding support for libusb based drivers in user space should be a trivial addition

>>106220619
GNUmach! The system rely heavily on new functionality that were introduced in this version and are not present in XNU, for instance. Specifically the “protected payload” functionality that is fundamental for performances

>>106213631
Linux became free software in 1992 and its' monolithic design worked better, whereas the Hurd couldn't even start at all.
It was the first time you could run a computer with only free software and it made more practical sense to contribute to and improve Linux, rather than keep going with the Hurd.

>>106220689
> usb drivers
This is Windows brain-rot thinking.
There should be one usb driver, and you can read/write it from regular user mode programs and interpret the results like COM1: ports except usb is a block oriented if like a hard disk.

>>106220863
USB is more similar to a network card then a com port or an hard disk. It works with packets

>>106221035
typical example is wireshark capturing USB.

https://wiki.wireshark.org/CaptureSetup/USB

would be cool if the Hurd would implement that all in userspace.

>>106220823

maybe you like went library got os/2 product and forgot to remove it as returning

>>106221848
to be fair, it’s more like if your boss sold your work for cheap to the competition

>>106211713
Works for me

>>106222863

was not that good chinamen are better but maybe usefull within next foreseeable future

>>106221687
>https://wiki.wireshark.org/CaptureSetup/USB
Interesting

>>106217508
How so?

Guys, we need people trying it on real hardware and people fixing it to run on more real hardware. Many things are missing but also most of it is low hanging fruits that just require a bit of hacking. Focus on making the cpu, console, network interface and hard disk work first, then play with other devices. Don’t refrain from asking questions!

irc: #hurd on freenode, logs at https://logs.guix.gnu.org/hurd

So is this GNU/Turd thing usable yet?