[9fans] plan9 on vmware

[9fans] plan9 on vmware

[jmk]

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The new ATA driver which we hope to have in the coming release
doesn't attempt to set read-ahead. It's also more careful about
dealing with errors.

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Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1999 18:54:42 -0500
From: David Bulkow <dbul@earthlink.net>
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Subject: [9fans] plan9 on vmware
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I have finally managed to boot Plan9 in a VMware configuration.  The problem I
ran into was the IDE driver attempting to set "read ahead mode".  After the
command to set the feature, the IDE device status register indicates an error -
the error register indicates Abort.  Once the abort error is posted, the driver
can no longer access the device and the boot fails.

I did not attempt to fix the problem correctly, but instead took a short cut and

commented out the call which sets read ahead mode.  Performance appears
acceptable.

In boot/pc/hard.c comment out the call to hardsetbuf().  In 9/pc/devata.c
comment out the call to atafeature().

My next goal is to get ethernet working so I can have the VMware machines
participate in the rest of the Plan9 environment.

dbul@earthlink.net

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[9fans] plan9 on vmware

[David]

I don't believe this is a VMware bug.  According to the draft ATAPI spec the proper
response to a feature request - when the feature is not available - it is put the
controller into an Abort error state.  It is the driver's responsibility to dig its
way out of this condition.

I may dig into the code and make the error handling more robust, but I would rather
wait and see what sort of SCSI support VMware cooks up.

Has anybody made any headway on the ethernet support?

John Orthoefer wrote:

> Coolness dude!
>
> I tried it once it wouldn't boot.  So I put it on the back burner.  Did
> you report the problem to the VMWare people?
>
> johno

[9fans] plan9 on vmware

[David]

I have finally managed to boot Plan9 in a VMware configuration.  The problem I
ran into was the IDE driver attempting to set "read ahead mode".  After the
command to set the feature, the IDE device status register indicates an error -
the error register indicates Abort.  Once the abort error is posted, the driver
can no longer access the device and the boot fails.

I did not attempt to fix the problem correctly, but instead took a short cut and

commented out the call which sets read ahead mode.  Performance appears
acceptable.

In boot/pc/hard.c comment out the call to hardsetbuf().  In 9/pc/devata.c
comment out the call to atafeature().

My next goal is to get ethernet working so I can have the VMware machines
participate in the rest of the Plan9 environment.

dbul@earthlink.net