[9fans] New to Plan9

[9fans] New to Plan9

[Roy Miller]

I'm new to Plan 9 and would like to know where to get some information. I've already downloaded the boot disk and distribution package, but I can't figure out how to configure it. I can't get rc to use a smaller font, I can't figure out to use ftp or nfs. I can't even figure out how to give my system a name. I plan on running Plan 9 standalone.

Also, I can't seem to get the boot disk to work with any system I have (except my laptop.) It freezes right after it detects the hdds (or at least I think that's what it did.) All it prints is:

PBS...Plan 9 from Bell Labs
using fd0!dos!plan9.ini
dev A0 port 1F0 config 427A capabilities 2F00 mwdma 0007 udma 0407
dev B0 port 1F0 config 0040 capabilities 0B01 mwdma 0407
dev B0 port 170 config 85C0 capabilities 2F00 mwdma 0007

And then it freezes. The computer is a FIC 503+ w/ a K6-2 and an AGP videocard. It runs FreeBSD, and has windows stuffed on the second hdd. I have a similar system, however, but it only runs windows and has two video cards. It boots fine, but complains about an unknown video card. I'll try to modify the vgadb file later, but why should it boot and not the other?

I have another laptop, it's an old 486 with an old floppy (can't use vfat or ext2, must use fat or minix,) and it stops after this message:

(...)
kfs...boot: nop...kfs 6: suicide: sys trap: fault read addr=blah blah pc=blahdidyblah
boot: read not: file does not exist
panic: boot process dies: unknown
ktrace (...)

Very confusing. Any kind of help would be greatly appreciated.

--Roy Miller
http://www.eightbit.org
AIM: eightbt

The idea is to die young as late as possible.
                -- Ashley Montague

Re: [9fans] New to Plan9

[James A. Robinson]

> Also, I can't seem to get the boot disk to work with any system I have
> (except my laptop.) It fr eezes right after it detects the hdds (or at
> least I think that's what it did.) 

Yes, I'm having the same problem. Jim McKie has been so kind as to offer
his help, and we plan to figure out what's going on in the next week or
so. I'll send updates if something is discovered.


> I'm new to Plan 9 and would like to know where to get some
> information. I've already downloaded the boot disk and distribution
> package, but I can't figure out how to configure it. I can't get rc to use
> a smaller font, I can't figure out to use ftp or nfs. I can't even figure
> out how to give my system a name.

I'm a bit confused about your message. In your message you say you
can't get the boot disk to work with any system you have. So what are
you trying to configure?

If your questions are about how to do such things on an installed system,
most answers can be found in the man pages. You can see an online version
at http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sys/man/. The papers also give a good high
level overview: http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sys/doc/.

You normally could edit your $home/lib/profile file to change the font
that rio(1) uses. You would use ftpfs(1) to mount a remote ftp site on
your local partition (mounted at /n/ftp, unless that's changed from the
2nd ed.). I don't about getting access to remote NFS --  I don't recall
seeing any such support.  I do know that you use u9fs(4) to serve files
off a unix box to the plan 9 machines.

For system name, DNS, etc., you need to edit the /lib/ndb/local file.  There
are lots of instructions given in the man pages and in "Getting Started With
Plan 9" http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sys/doc/start.html. Basically you'll
need to write out what your network is, and then specify the hosts. For
example (and note that while I have DNS working, there may be an error in
this since I have a questionable problem with ipconfig(1)), if I have the
machine spensa on a network in the building galvez on stanford campus,
what I've written is

ipnet=stanford-net ip=171.64.0.0 ipmask=255.255.0.0 ipsubmask=255.255.255.0
	dns=171.64.7.55
	dns=171.64.7.77
	dns=171.64.7.99
	ntp=time-a.stanford.edu
	ntp=time-b.stanford.edu
	ntp=time-c.stanford.edu
	dnsdomain=stanford.edu

ipnet=galvez-net ip=171.64.31.0 ipmask=255.255.255.0
	ipgw=171.64.31.1
	dns=171.64.249.100
	dns=171.64.31.74
	smtp=highwire.stanford.edu

ip=171.64.31.213 sys=spensa ether=00d0b7927b17
	dom=spensa.stanford.edu

I'm not positive of my logic for this configuration, but my reasoning
follows.  As you know, networks are assigned in the following ranges:
	0.0.0.0 to 127.255.255.255 are in Class A
	128.0.0.0 to 191.255.255.255 are in Class B
	192.0.0.0 to 223.255.255.255 are in Class C
Since networks starting with 171.64 are class B, I have to specify that
171.64.0.0 (stanford-net) should be split into class C subnets. The subnet
I'm on is 171.64.31.0 (galvez-net), and it has a gateway, dns, and smtp
servers that should be used. Under galvez-net is an actual host, in this
case spensa. I just specify the ip address, name, and ethernet address.
And the dom=spensa.stanford.edu tells it that stanford.edu is the domain.

Setting my ip address and stuff was more difficult. You use the program
ipconfig(1) (located in your path as ip/ipconfig), and if you have a DHCP
server you should be set.  I would swear that I had read in one of the
docs that ipconfig looked up one's ethernet address in /lib/ndb/local
and used that to set the network if it could find it. It may be that my
/lib/ndb/local is flawed, but ipconfig could not set my ip. I ended up
writing a small hack to set the ip, and I posted it a day or so ago.


Jim

Re: [9fans] New to Plan9

[Douglas A. Gwyn]

"James A. Robinson" wrote:
> ipconfig(1) (located in your path as ip/ipconfig), and if you have a DHCP
> server you should be set.  I would swear that I had read in one of the
> docs that ipconfig looked up one's ethernet address in /lib/ndb/local
> and used that to set the network if it could find it. It may be that my
> /lib/ndb/local is flawed, but ipconfig could not set my ip.

I have noticed that many DHCP servers these days have no concept
of your hostname, expecting you to tell them instead of the other
way around.  This seems to be encouraged by Microsoft and partly
the result of people moving their laptops around the country.

[9fans] Re: New to Plan9

[M.Kollenaar]

Hi Roy,

Have you visited: http://plan9.bell-labs.com/  ?

A lot of information.

Marcel

Roy Miller <e_n_d_e_r@hotmail.com> schreef in berichtnieuws
8nuq17$cdm$0@216.155.62.83...
> I'm new to Plan 9 and would like to know where to get some information.
I've already downloaded the boot disk and distribution package, but I can't
figure out how to configure it. I can't get rc to use a smaller font, I
can't figure out to use ftp or nfs. I can't even figure out how to give my
system a name. I plan on running Plan 9 standalone.
>
> Also, I can't seem to get the boot disk to work with any system I have
(except my laptop.) It freezes right after it detects the hdds (or at least
I think that's what it did.) All it prints is:
>
> PBS...Plan 9 from Bell Labs
> using fd0!dos!plan9.ini
> dev A0 port 1F0 config 427A capabilities 2F00 mwdma 0007 udma 0407
> dev B0 port 1F0 config 0040 capabilities 0B01 mwdma 0407
> dev B0 port 170 config 85C0 capabilities 2F00 mwdma 0007
>
> And then it freezes. The computer is a FIC 503+ w/ a K6-2 and an AGP
videocard. It runs FreeBSD, and has windows stuffed on the second hdd. I
have a similar system, however, but it only runs windows and has two video
cards. It boots fine, but complains about an unknown video card. I'll try to
modify the vgadb file later, but why should it boot and not the other?
>
> I have another laptop, it's an old 486 with an old floppy (can't use vfat
or ext2, must use fat or minix,) and it stops after this message:
>
> (...)
> kfs...boot: nop...kfs 6: suicide: sys trap: fault read addr=blah blah
pc=blahdidyblah
> boot: read not: file does not exist
> panic: boot process dies: unknown
> ktrace (...)
>
> Very confusing. Any kind of help would be greatly appreciated.
>
> --Roy Miller
> http://www.eightbit.org
> AIM: eightbt
>
> The idea is to die young as late as possible.
>                 -- Ashley Montague

[9fans] browser again

[Matt Lawless]

here's an interesting idea particularly suited to a bitmapped terminal

it's an "inline" browser

it can render html and execute javascript AND give you an interactive shell
at the same time

http://xmlterm.com/


Matt

Re: [9fans] browser again

[Boyd Roberts]

From: Matt Lawless <alf@proweb.co.uk>
To: <9fans@cse.psu.edu>
Sent: Saturday, August 26, 2000 12:17 AM
Subject: [9fans] browser again


> here's an interesting idea particularly suited to a bitmapped terminal
> 
> it's an "inline" browser
> 
> it can render html and execute javascript AND give you an interactive shell
> at the same time
> 

to quote rob, i'm going to 'do a boyd' here.  are you out of your
mind?  javascript?  i'd prefer RSTS basic.

Re: [9fans] browser again

[Greg Earle]

>> here's an interesting idea particularly suited to a bitmapped terminal
>> 
>> it's an "inline" browser
>> 
>> it can render html and execute javascript AND give you an interactive shell
>> at the same time
> 
> to quote rob, i'm going to 'do a boyd' here.  are you out of your
> mind?  javascript?  i'd prefer RSTS basic.

<sarcasm>
Yeah, RSTS basic would work *real* well with all those travel sites out there.
</sarcasm>

<--- Convinced that Boyd Roberts must have been a Monty Python fan ... since
     he's now a Knight of NI(H)

Re: [9fans] browser again

[Boyd Roberts]

From: Greg Earle <earle@isolar.DynDNS.ORG>
To: <9fans@cse.psu.edu>
Sent: Saturday, August 26, 2000 3:27 AM
Subject: Re: [9fans] browser again


> >> here's an interesting idea particularly suited to a bitmapped terminal
> >>
> >> it's an "inline" browser
> >>
> >> it can render html and execute javascript AND give you an interactive shell
> >> at the same time
> >
> > to quote rob, i'm going to 'do a boyd' here.  are you out of your
> > mind?  javascript?  i'd prefer RSTS basic.
>
> <sarcasm>
> Yeah, RSTS basic would work *real* well with all those travel sites out there.
> </sarcasm>
>
> <--- Convinced that Boyd Roberts must have been a Monty Python fan ... since
>      he's now a Knight of NI(H)

RSTS basic sucked, but it worked.

and you actually think the browsers can or should support that crap.

for a stir i tried to write DES in javascipt -- no chance.

big arrays?  what are they?

    http://www.planete.net/~boyd/code/des.msg

Re: [9fans] browser again

[Matt Lawless]

> > it's an "inline" browser
> > it can render html and execute javascript AND give you an interactive
shell
> > at the same time

> to quote rob, i'm going to 'do a boyd' here.  are you out of your
> mind?  javascript?  i'd prefer RSTS basic.

well to quote myself "it can"

notice not "it should"

:-)

javascript is not, of course, a requirement. Any language with ECMA bindings
could work.
For instance I use python as my client side scripting language in internet
explorer

the point of xmlterm is that it renders html interactively in your shell
which is a different approach from the monolithic browser model.

I thought people might be interested in different approaches

Matt