Installation

Use http://www.easyvmx.com/ web based tool to create vmx configuration files which can be used with VMware player (which is a freeware). If you have a VMware workstation or server you don't have to do this step.

Note: I have tried it with K10 version of Debian GNU/Hurd on VMware running on a Debian GNU/Linux machine.

You can get more information about obtaining Debain GNU/Hurd CDROMS from http://www.us.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-cd.

Insert the first cdrom and proceed with the installation as per the installation guide http://www.us.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install.

VMware specific notes:

You will need a grub floppy image to boot GNU/Hurd. I have attached a copy of it with this document. You can also download it from here http://www.update.uu.se/~ams/home/slask/GNU/grub.img.

When you reboot the machine after the base tar ball is extracted (first reboot) press 'Esc' key while VMware start up and set removable devices as the fisrt boot device.

Select "GNU (Also known as GNU/Hurd)" ie, the first option and press 'e' to edit the grub menu and go to second line and press 'e' again to change /boot/gnumach to /boot/gnumach.gz.

Add a link to /boot/gnumach from /boot/gnumach.gz so that you don't have to edit grub every time you boot.

# ln -s /boot/gnumach.gz /boot/gnumach

Or mount the floppy image and change it.

# mkdir /media/floppy
# mount -o loop <path-to-grub.img> /media/floppy

Edit /media/floppy/boot/grub/menu.lst with your favorite text editor and change /boot/gnumach to /boot/gnumach.gz.

After install tweaks

Start using GNU, here is http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/users-guide/using_gnuhurd.html.