I read this in a different thread:
Hardware support in Mint is amazing compared to Hurd.
The madlad in me read that as: "Install Hurd on real hardware, entirely for the hell of it". Since it's getting to be a bit too long for the original thread anyway, I've decided to start a new thread.
The plan is to install a Hurd-based distro on real hardware. I've decided on
Debian Hurd, mostly because it seems to at least support a GUI out of the box. Since I enjoy not destroying my precious Windows 10 install, I'll go the unconventional route of installing to another USB stick. I only happen to have 16 GB sticks around, so I'll be a bit constrained.
I don't have a capture card, so you'll be seeing pictures taken with my phone. Some pictures were taken out of order, since I completely forgot about documenting the experience at first. Certain bits of experimentation with the BIOS settings removed, because I think it would've been too dull.
Lenovo Legion Y7000 2019 PG0
CPU: i5-9300H
GPU: Intel UHD 630/GTX 1650
RAM: 16 GB DDR4-2666
Using the 20210219-23:25 nightly build(It's new hardware, I figured that I'd get better results on nightly builds.)
Let's see, Debian Hurd only works on i386 (x86, non-64-bit) systems. How about I try with my current settings anyway?
No. Disabling Secure Boot does the same. Legacy boot?
Yes! Enter. I'm at GRUB. Every time I get to GRUB in this build, the computer beeps twice at me.
I'll select graphical install, because I'm a total noob. And...
Blank screen. I'll be seeing this thing a lot of times. To save on bandwidth (and because I don't know which blank screen belongs to which), I'll replace all future instances of a blank screen with a 1536x864 #000000 black image. What if I enable the Intel iGPU, since the only good Nvidia drivers are proprietary?
Again? What about pseudo-graphical mode?
No. Text mode?
Okay, there's something. I'll just power through and select the defaults, hitting Enter at every prompt until I encounter a problem. Here's the first, and pretty much fatal problem:
How does an installer not see the damn thing it booted off off? Uh, sure, load drivers from removable media. (I had another Debian Hurd USB plugged in while taking the next photo, hoping that it would work there, but no, whatever drivers it wants, it sure as hell can't see)
This is pretty much a fatal error. I suppose it doesn't have the drivers to even read off its own USB, so it just stops there. If I answered no to loading drivers, I get this:
In either case, if you continue, you'll see:
(Yes, the timeline's getting a bit fudged. Blame me.)
I suppose the only thing I could do at this point is to abort installation.
It can't even shut down right, it seems, or I'm just really impatient. It was just stuck here, and eventually, I just put it out of its misery and shut it down manually.
That was a bust.
Using the stable 20190705 imageI booted back into Windows (and reverted my BIOS settings) I used Rufus to burn another Debian Hurd USB, but this time using the stable 20190705 build. Maybe this one's actually gonna work. I went back to BIOS and changed the settings back to legacy boot and iGPU enabled.
At least it's seeing it. "Enter" as usual.
Holy crap, that is some tiny text! I'll just go into "Debian GNU/Hurd", just because.
I'm pretty sure "start ext2fs: ext2fs: device hd0s2: No such device or address" is low-level-speak for "I can't find the USB drive that I need to begin installing Debian!". It just hangs here, since it's exactly as if I pulled out the USB stick out in GRUB. It was plugged in the whole time, mind you.
I dunno, try again and go to advanced options?
Recovery mode? Maybe it loads fallback drivers or something.
I'm recycling images, but believe me, it's the same exact text in both instances. It just crashes when trying to find the USB install media.
ConclusionZiusudra, you're right. GNU Hurd's hardware support
sucks. It doesn't even support the USB driver that's needed to read the install data in the first place. If anyone has any ideas of other Hurd-based distros that would work, let me know.