Fw: [9fans] some problems

[g.j.kuiper@kpn.com]

Martin Harriss <martin@princeton.edu> schreef in artikel
<3B89644D.7B299843@princeton.edu>...
> geerten kuiper wrote:
> > 
> > The other system isn't currently running. I don't really want to use
DHCP
> > anyway, maybe I should edit the ndb before activating the NIC ??)
> 
> If you're not using (or don't want to use) DHCP then you'll have to
> explicitly supply the IP address of the system.  Try editing termrc and
> change the ipconfig line:
> 
> ip/ipconfig ether /net/ether0 <your-ip-address>
> 
> See the man page for ipconfig(8) for more details.

Yes, I'll keep trying on this. Riight now the networking isn't urgent, but
the other system is an Alpha PC164, which is supposed to run Plan9 as well.
Eventually I will want to try that..

- (skipping problem 2)

> > Problem 3 happens after either of the previous ones: I revert to the
> > original plan9.ini, but any subsequent reboot still hangs after the
line:
> > ndb/dns: can't read my ip address
> > Also in these cases there is a long delay two lines earlier, between:
> > "kfs...boot: nop..." and "time...".
> > Maybe this is caused by some corruption of the 9fat partition, because
the
> > only way I have found to fix this is by booting from the install floppy
and
> > rerunning bootsetup, thus reinitializing the 9fat partition.
> 
> Presumably, once you get the IP address configuration sorted out, this
> will go away.  And if you have a stand-alone system without networking,
> you shouldn't be running dns anyway.

It's a bit more subtle than that I'm afraid. The problem isn't with
networking: the dns line appears exactly the same during a normal boot, and
dns is the last networking thing in termrc.
The strange thing is that this hang occurs with exactly the same config
that worked before. Only difference is that in between I had 
a problem (1 or 2 above, or anything else) which forced me to do an
improper shutdown.
This makes experimenting with the plan9.ini settings rather risky: when
things go wrong it takes up to five (!) reboots just to get back to where I
started.

BTW, I noticed that the original plan9.ini on the install floppy is padded
to exactly 512 bytes. Should I keep it that way ?
 
Geerten