Since a few people requested them Ill post them here.

Getting the install scripts to run without rio present is
not a major task but it requires a bit of ed or sed to
prune the scripts.

The install scripts seem to live in /rc/bin/dist and I had
to hack 4 or 5 of them to get plan9 to install with the
plan9.9gz file located on my windows c: drive but it should work
for any local disk install. If you install via network you might
need to prune the network install scripts as well.

The two things you need to do are remove any lines that send commands
to /dev/wctl (there are two in defs) as there is no rio to service these
requests. You also need to remove any redirection of output that goes to
/srv/log, I just removed the >>/srv/log and >>[2]/src/log bits from the
scripts so that they echo to the screen where I can see whats going on.
I think /srv/log is provided by a process rio runs so that it can have
a log window for the install.

The files I hacked were

configlocal
defs
mountfs
reamfs
unpack

And then you can run mainloop which will guide you through the process
of installing almost like if rio was running.

I have attatched an rc script that might make the changes I have discussed
here to the right files and then run mainloop. However I have not tested this.
It should give you an example of the sed code I used however.

You can copy the script to your c: drive if you have windows  and mount it
by typing c: at the rc prompt and then accessing the script from /n/c: or
you could try copying it to the plan9 install floppy and mounting it from
there using a: at the rc prompt and then use /n/a: to access it.

I hope that this help people install without rio. However the system is
a pain to use without rio as there is no real terminal handleing. I'm
starting to be able to use ed for a few things now which is quite worrying.
I must recomend the b command though under ed as the install disks dont
include p for viewing scripts. So load the scripts in ed and use 1b to
start viewing the file a screen at a time.

You could try exporting the scripts to your c: drive and then editing
them there which might be easier.

Hope this helps

Robin