Re: [PATCH] news/2023-q4.mdwn: new qoth for q4 of 2023.

[jbranso]

January 6, 2024 at 3:20 PM, "Sergey Bugaev" <bugaevc@gmail.com> wrote:



> 
> On Sat, Jan 6, 2024 at 10:47 PM jbranso@dismail.de <jbranso@dismail.de> wrote:
> 
> > 
> > +Luca Dariz worked on adding [[some simple GNUMach user-space tests
> > 
> 
> I've never seen gnumach spelled like that (GNUMach), only GNU Mach or
> gnumach. Is that intentional?

I'll fix that.

> 
> > 
> > +Flavio Cruz [[improved GNUMach's
> >  +IPC|https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2023-11/msg00033.html]]
> >  +by reordering `mach_msg_type_t` fields to byte align `msgt_name` and
> >  +`msgt_size`. He also created a patch series to [[avoid message
> >  +resizing for
> >  
> > +x86_64|https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2023-11/msg00028.html]].
> >  +He also [[removed untyped mach RPC
> >  +code|https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2023-11/msg00026.html]],
> >  +since the Hurd always uses typed Mach RPC.
> > 
> 
> It's not that much that *the Hurd* uses typed IPC, it's that gnumach
> does. The Hurd could easily support either, and in fact this support
> was present (though likely bitrotten), and this is what Flavio has
> removed. This is because going forward, we don't see the Hurd running
> on any other flavor of Mach; but it was originally the goal for it to
> run on non-GNU Machs, IIRC.
> 
> > 
> > +Sergey Bugaev added [[GNUMach entry re-coalescing
> >  
> > +support|https://darnassus.sceen.net/~hurd-web/open_issues/gnumach_vm_map_entry_forward_merging/]].
> >  +Essentially, Mach is not always able to merge two vm entries that are
> >  +made next to each other, which slows down ext2 and bash. Sergey
> >  +allowed GNUMach to merge entries in the common cases, which greatly
> >  +helps ext2fs.
> > 
> 
> Is that actually true though — did it speed anything up?

What can I say?  It was an improvement right?  How?  Lowered memory usage?
 
> > 
> > +Sergey is also working on [[porting the LadyBird web
> >  
> > +browser|https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2023-11/msg00013.html]]
> > 
> 
> We spell Ladybird with a lowercase b. You could also link to
> https://ladybird.dev/ here.
> 
> > 
> > +to the Hurd. The author of this post uses the [[netsurf web
> >  +browser|https://www.netsurf-browser.org/]] on the Hurd, which works on
> >  +simple websites like wikipedia, but it badly renders javascript heavy
> >  +websites, which makes many websites un-useable. If Sergey is
> >  +successful in porting LadyBird, then Hurd users could start using
> >  +sites like Github!
> > 
> 
> Let me show you something (see the attachment :)
> 
> See also [0] for a recent update on Ladybird development; there are
> live demos in the second half of the video.
> 
> [0]: https://youtu.be/jagkQMbfqJY
> 
> > 
> > +Sergey also started [[porting the Hurd to
> >  
> > +AArch64!|https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2023-12/msg00110.html]]
> >  +While a port to RISC-V might be more exciting,
> > 
> 
> What I meant there is that RISC-V itself is more exciting, because
> it's an open architecture and so on. As far as Hurd ports go, both
> ports would be equally exciting to me. In fact, aarch64-gnu might be a
> little bit more exciting exactly because I do have the hardware to run
> it, today.
> 
> > 
> > it is worth mentioning
> >  +that AArch64 is more established. What is interesting is that Sergey
> >  +is already able to build Hurd servers for AArch64! Normally, in order
> >  +to run the binaries, one would port GNUMach to AArch64. Luckily for
> >  +us, Sergey is a genius.
> > 
> 
> I wish :D
> 
> > 
> > He was able to run a 'Hello World' Hurd
> >  +AArch64 binary on Linux in GDB! This helped him fix some bugs along
> >  +the way. We still need to define the ABI and complete the GNUMach
> >  +port, but this is exciting news!
> >  +
> >  +Tobias Platen started [[porting GNUMach to
> >  
> > +Power9|https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2023-10/msg00021.html]].
> > 
> 
> Wait, how did I miss this? And I see that discussion even referenced
> Darling!? (and no one cc'd me *despite* talking about Darling?) If
> that is going somewhere (though it seems stalled?), should I be
> hacking on PPC userland?

Give it a shot if you want.  Definitely reach out to Tobias!
 
> Sergey
>