[9fans] network PC boot

[forsyth@caldo.demon.co.uk forsyth@caldo.demon.co.uk]

>>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.