[9fans] network PC boot

[9fans] network PC boot

[Digby]

Hello all,

I am still working on booting plan9 using a Unix based file server (u9fs).
After my modification to u9fs, my CD is now sucessfully installed.

>From a PC, I can boot 9pc using the 'e!0' argument to b.com, and
thence obtain a boot message that includes 'tcp' as one of the
file service options.

When I try to boot to this server, I get a complaint about not
finding the authentication server and the boot aborts. As I have
not configured an authentication server yet, I accepted the dafault
0.0.0.0 at the appropriate prompt during booting.

Is there some was to boot off a non local file server in the non-
authenticated mode?

If I do need an authentication server, how does this work with a
u9fs based server? The instructions in the install notes for
setting up a pc as cpu and authentication server include instructions
for setting up users and passwords at the file server console, and it is
not obvious what the corresponding action would be for u9fs..
It is also mentioned that the authentication server PC needs a local
disk, so it presumably can't be the cpu/terminal server that I wanted
to boot to the u9fs file system.
Thanks,
DigbyT
-- 
Digby R. S. Tarvin                                              digbyt@acm.org
http://www.cthulhu.dircon.co.uk

[9fans] network PC boot

[forsyth]

>>setting up a pc as cpu and authentication server include instructions
>>for setting up users and passwords at the file server console, and it is

you do add file server users (and empty /usr directories with correct ownership)
at the file server console, but the password you set is for the file
server itself (the authentication domain name and its password),
not for users.

user authentication accounts are created initially on the console of a cpu server
acting as authentication server, including setting an initial password.
(after that, the user can change passwords using the passwd command.)
those accounts are effective on all machines in that authentication domain
(subject to /lib/ndb/auth).

[9fans] network PC boot

[forsyth]

>>It is also mentioned that the authentication server PC needs a local
>>disk, so it presumably can't be the cpu/terminal server that I wanted
>>to boot to the u9fs file system.

any Plan 9 cpu server, on any architecture, can be an authentication server.
the local disc is possibly `required' for the pseudo-nvram (eg, '#H/hd0nvram')
to store the authentication data.  in fact, the system
will prompt for all you need if you have got neither nvram nor disc,
so you can run, and i do run, cpu servers without discs.
the disadvantage is that they require manual intervention on a reboot.
then again, you needn't reboot too often.

note that if you need a cpu server to act as authentication server for your
file server and also want to run a terminal, you'll need at least three machines
(file server, cpu/auth server, and terminal(s)).
in your case, you're apparently using a u9fs server as file server.  fortunately,
someone once posted to this list (a reference to) an implementation of an il/auth
server for unix-like systems.  you could run that to provide basic authentication
on the same machine that runs u9fs.  (as it stands, u9fs doesn't authenticate
fully, although i suppose it could be changed to do so.)
the unix il/auth server might be enough to get you going, though.
i haven't tried it.