There are GNU/Hurd boxes that we're offering shell accounts on. These are generally available for people interested in contributing, and who have already shown some level of involvement in the project. If you simply want to try the Hurd, the easiest way is running it in a virtual machine.

An alternative to online shell access may be using a QEMU image.

Hoster Name Distribution Machine Specs Comments
bddebian blubber Debian GNU/Hurd Celeron 2.2 GHz; 222 MiB Xen domU on zenhost; for experimental stuff; deactivated until needed again (apart from tschwinge, only scolobb has an account, but is not active at the moment)
bddebian clubber Debian GNU/Hurd PIII 1 GHz; 384 MiB
bddebian flubber Debian GNU/Hurd Celeron 2.2 GHz; 666 MiB Xen domU on zenhost
bddebian snubber Debian GNU/Hurd Celeron 2.2 GHz; 243 MiB Xen domU on zenhost
bddebian gnubber Debian GNU/Hurd PII 733 MHz; 384 MiB
bddebian goober Debian GNU/Hurd ?
bddebian grubber Debian GNU/Hurd Celeron 2.2 GHz; 554 MiB Xen domU on zenhost; for experimental stuff
bddebian zenhost Debian GNU/Linux Celeron 2.2 GHz Xen dom0 for several hosts
sceen darnassus Debian GNU/Hurd Xeon E5-1620 3.6 GHz, 1.8 GiB KVM guest on dalaran; public Hurd box; web server
sceen ironforge Debian GNU/Hurd Xeon E5-1620 3.6 GHz, 1.8 GiB KVM guest on dalaran; Debian buildd
sceen exodar Debian GNU/Hurd Xeon E5-1620 3.6 GHz, 1.8 GiB KVM guest on dalaran; Debian porterbox, all Debian Developers have access
sceen dalaran Debian GNU/Linux Xeon E5-1620 3.6 GHz, 64 GiB ECC KVM host
Debian strauss Debian GNU/Hurd Sempron 2800+ all Debian Developers have access
libav x86_32-hurd-gcc-4.7 Debian GNU/Hurd libav instance of the FATE Automated Test Environment

If you are a Debian Developer, you can log into the exodar or strauss machines with your DD account, your public ssh keys are already there. To request a non-DD account on them, please contact admin@{exodar,strauss}.debian.net, with your Alioth account name and a public ssh key.

To request an account on the bddebian or sceen machines, please contact hurd-shell-account@gnu.org (don't forget to include your desired user name and public SSH key). Also use that contact address for requesting support, such as get additional packages installed.

For easy access, you should append your public SSH key(s) to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on the remote machine.

Also, add the following stanza to the ~/.ssh/config file of the machine you're connecting from.

# Stanza from <http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/public_hurd_boxen.html>,
# 2011-11-06.

Host blubber.bddebian.com blubber
  HostName blubber.bddebian.com

Host clubber.bddebian.com clubber
  HostName clubber.bddebian.com
  Port 2251

Host flubber.bddebian.com flubber
  HostName flubber.bddebian.com
  Port 2250

Host gnubber.bddebian.com gnubber
  HostName gnubber.bddebian.com
  Port 2254

Host goober.bddebian.com goober
  HostName goober.bddebian.com
  Port 2255

Host grubber.bddebian.com grubber
  HostName grubber.bddebian.com

Host snubber.bddebian.com snubber
  HostName snubber.bddebian.com

Host zenhost.bddebian.com zenhost
  HostName zenhost.bddebian.com
  Port 2260

Host blubber.bddebian.com blubber grubber.bddebian.com grubber snubber.bddebian.com snubber
  # Tunnel through zenhost.
  ProxyCommand ssh zenhost exec socat - TCP4:%h:%p

Host *.bddebian.com blubber clubber flubber gnubber goober grubber snubber zenhost
  # Don't worry about the IP address (dial-up connection).
  CheckHostIP no
  User [user name]

Host darnassus.sceen.net darnassus
  HostName darnassus.sceen.net

Host *.sceen.net darnassus
  User [user name]