Re: [9fans] Beginner question and experiences

Re: [9fans] Beginner question and experiences

[Russ Cox]

If your 9fat partition is not on sdC0,
replace /rc/bin/9fat: with the following fixed
version, which will be in the next package.

---
#!/bin/rc

rfork e
part=`{ls /dev/sd*/9fat >[2]/dev/null}
if(~ $#part 0) {
	echo 'no 9fat partition found' >[1=2]
	exit no.9fat
}

part=$part(1)

if(! test -f /srv/dos)
	dossrv >/dev/null </dev/null >[2]/dev/null

unmount /n/9fat >/dev/null >[2]/dev/null
mount -c /srv/dos /n/9fat $part
---

Russ

Re: [9fans] Beginner question and experiences

[Randolph Fritz]

On Tue, Jun 13, 2000 at 09:42:10AM -0500, Simon Epsteyn wrote:
>
> Add this to the end of lilo.conf:
> 	other=/dev/hdb1
> 		label=plan9
> 		table=/dev/hdb
>
> Where /dev/hdb1 is the partition where plan9 is install, you can use
> something ling "fdisk -l /dev/hdb" to list the partitions on the second
> IDE disk.
>

Thanks.  I tried this, and got a complaint saying that the system
couldn't load DOS.  A look at the lilo docs suggests that lilo first
loads a boot loader of its own (chain.b) to load DOS, and that doesn't
work with, at least, my installation of Plan 9.  Has anyone dealt with
this problem?

--
Randolph Fritz
Eugene, Oregon, USA

[9fans] Beginner question and experiences

[rob pike]

	Question two: has anyone tried using Plan 9 to run a rendering farm?

Not to my knowledge.  However, Gerard Holzmann has a rack of 16 PCs
(500MHz machines with .5GB RAM each, connected by 100Mbit ether) each
running Plan 9 that he uses to farm out SPIN jobs (see spin(1)).  A
web page is used to submit and retrieve jobs; rc scripts distribute
the calculations around the farm and cpu and import and of course the
shared file server are used to pass data.  The stats(1) display of all
16 machines running is very pretty.  Works great in practice; it's
used full time to verify software used in telephone and network
switching equipment.

-rob

Re: [9fans] Beginner question and experiences

[Simon Epsteyn]

On Tue, 13 Jun 2000, Randolph Fritz wrote:

> from a primary IDE slave disk (sdC1) with lilo?  I have it working
> from a boot floppy, but having it working from lilo would be really
> cool. :)

This really isn't a Plan 9 question, but try something like this in Linux:

Add this to the end of lilo.conf:
	other=/dev/hdb1
		label=plan9
		table=/dev/hdb

Where /dev/hdb1 is the partition where plan9 is install, you can use
something ling "fdisk -l /dev/hdb" to list the partitions on the second
IDE disk.

Then re-run lilo.

/Simon

--
D0 Computing and Analysis
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

[9fans] Beginner question and experiences

[Randolph Fritz]

When I saw the announcement, I had to take a look at this system (I've
been waiting for years), so I downloaded it, and started to install
it.  After some difficulty I got it going on my home system.  It
fascinates me, and I want to continue to work with it (in my copious
spare time, no doubt. :-) I am writing with two questions question and
an account of several problems.  Question one: how do I boot Plan 9
from a primary IDE slave disk (sdC1) with lilo?  I have it working
from a boot floppy, but having it working from lilo would be really
cool. :)

Question two: has anyone tried using Plan 9 to run a rendering farm?
I am working with Radiance <http://radsite.lbl.gov> on a Beowulf
cluster, and it looks to me like it might work better on Plan 9--has
anyone tried this with any rendering software?

Second: problems encountered on the way up.  I am working with the 6/7
release, and have downloaded the upgrades; it may be that some of
these have already been taken care of.

1. I was never able to successfully read an ext2 partition.  On the
   first system I tried (Mandrake 7.1, Linux 2.2.14), the installer
   saw the partition but would never show me files.  On the second
   system, it didn't even see the partitions because...
2. Apparently DOS extended partitions are opaque to the installer.
   This made a major difficulty for me in installing and led me to
   try...
3. Installing from a CD-R, which could only be seen after I switched
   the drive to the secondary IDE master position (scD0).  Before that
   it was in the technically incorrect, but common, secondary IDE
   slave position (scD1) and was not recognized.  I'd installed my
   CD-ROM drive out of the box in that configuration and I'd never had
   any problems with it before this install.  Before I tried that, I
   tried...
4. Downloading (again) using PPP.  I gave this up when the modem
   refused to connect at more than 9600 bps (I believe the installer
   configures the serial port to 9600 bps, rather than the 230kbps
   needed for best results with a 50kbps modem) and the download would
   probably have taken several days. :)

Once the system was working, I was very happy.  Being a crazed ex-QA
engineer, I also noted the following minor problems:

1. The "9fat:" command assumes that the drive is scC0; mine is scC1.
   Is there a configuration-independent way of resolving this?
2. The Mach 64 driver  produces little jittering horizontal
   lines on the right-hand side of the screen with my Rage IIC .  The system is
   functional with them, but they are distracting.

Anyhow, thanks very much for making this technology available!

--
Randolph Fritz
Eugene, Oregon, USA