Arch Hurd For Linux

Arch Hurd is a different operating system forked from the simple and lightweight Arch Linux distribution and ported to the GNU Hurd system, in order to provide users with an Arch-like user environment that includes BSD-style init scripts and a rolling-release model.

The Arch Hurd OS is available for download as a Live CD ISO image of approximately 450 MB in size. It includes software packages optimized only for the 32-bit (i686) instruction set architecture and can be used to install the operating system on a computer.

The Live CD boot menu includes a single option that allows the user to start the live system with the default kernel. You can edit the boot option and add extra kernel parameters in case some of your computer’s hardware components are not recognized by default.

After booting the live system, you will be dropped to a shell prompt where you must login into the live session using the “login root” command (without quotes). If you have some basic Linux knowledge, you will be able to get around Arch Hurd.

Arch Hurd borrowed many interesting features from Arch Linux, such as its easy-to-use text-mode installer and the powerful and unbeatable Pacman package manager system.

To start the installation, execute the /arch/setup command in a terminal and follow the steps on the main menu. Basically, you must prepare the disk drive by creating partitions for format them with a Linux filesystem, select which packages to install, as well as to configure the system.

The best feature by far is the support for third-party software packages. It includes its own AUR (Arch User Repository) software repo, where any user can add packages.