[9fans] Building a system for Plan 9

[9fans] Building a system for Plan 9

[Jackson]

If one were to building a PC (Intel) to run Plan 9, does anyone here
have any experience/suggestions for motherboard, video cards etc.?
I've read the "Supported PC Hardware", but I was wondering if anyone
had any experience with a P4/Xeon motherboard/Ethernet/Video/Sound....
a combination that is stable and well tested.

Thanks in advance,

Jackson

Re: [9fans] Building a system for Plan 9

[Russ Cox]

Others will correct me I'm sure, but I think the processor and
motherboard just aren't issues anymore.  

Ethernet: here are lots of Intel 8255x-based ether cards out there,
and they work well. In general the ethernet situation isn't that bad either.

Sound: the SB16 (and SB32, SB32AWE, etc.) is the only supported
internal sound card.  USB audio works well as an alternative.
It's extra nice because the audio interface (as well as the
USB hw interface) is standardized, so any standard audio device
should work.  We've used a bunch.

Video: everyone hates video.  The chipsets integrated with
motherboards are basically not supported.  I'd look for an
NVIDIA-based or S3 Savage4-based card.  NVIDIA seems to be
the dominant player these days, and I believe all these work:

		switch(p->did){
		case 0x0020:		/* Riva TNT */
		case 0x0028:		/* Riva TNT2 */
		case 0x0029:		/* Riva TNT2 (Ultra)*/
		case 0x002C:		/* Riva TNT2 (Vanta) */
		case 0x002D:		/* Riva TNT2 M64 */
		case 0x00A0:		/* Riva TNT2 (Integrated) */
			nv->arch = 4;
			break;
		case 0x0100:		/* GeForce 256 */
		case 0x0101:		/* GeForce DDR */
		case 0x0103:		/* Quadro */
		case 0x0110:		/* GeForce2 MX */
		case 0x0111:		/* GeForce2 MX DDR */
		case 0x0112:		/* GeForce 2 Go */
		case 0x0113:		/* Quadro 2 MXR */
		case 0x0150:		/* GeForce2 GTS */
		case 0x0151:		/* GeForce2 GTS (rev 1) */
		case 0x0152:		/* GeForce2 Ultra */
		case 0x0153:		/* Quadro 2 Pro */
			nv->arch = 10;
			break;
		case 0x0200:		/* GeForce3 */
		case 0x0201:		/* some other geforce3's */
		case 0x0202:
			nv->arch = 20;
			break;
		default:
			error("%s: DID %4.4uX unsupported\n",
				ctlr->name, p->did);
		}

Russ

Re: [9fans] Building a system for Plan 9

[Jack Johnson]

Russ Cox wrote:
> Video: everyone hates video.  The chipsets integrated with
> motherboards are basically not supported.

Just to clarify, I'm guessing that most of the integrated solutions 
don't work or work poorly.  I think the i81x video only works at 640x480 
(though onboard LAN works).  Socket 370 is even tougher to find now that 
the new Celerons are out, though I think all the 845-based P4 boards use 
the same video drivers.

Does anyone have anything to add regarding nForce or VIA chipsets on 
motherboards?

-Jack

Re: [9fans] Building a system for Plan 9

[Andrew]

On Thu, Jan 09, 2003 at 08:45:23AM -0800, Jack Johnson wrote:
> Russ Cox wrote:
> >Video: everyone hates video.  The chipsets integrated with
> >motherboards are basically not supported.
> 
> Just to clarify, I'm guessing that most of the integrated solutions 
> don't work or work poorly.  I think the i81x video only works at 640x480 
> (though onboard LAN works).  Socket 370 is even tougher to find now that 
> the new Celerons are out, though I think all the 845-based P4 boards use 
> the same video drivers.

Im not sure of the size of your installation, but...
one thing i started doing was not having the servers bootup into rio,
and just run in 'console' mode, often headless. for that the integrated
video works fine (especially if you are short a few video cards). Im not
sure about the new fs, but the old one didnt have any sort of graphics
anyways so, of course, an integrated video works there as well.

Re: [9fans] Building a system for Plan 9

[Micah Stetson]

> don't work or work poorly.  I think the i81x video only works at 640x480 

I installed a VAIO with i815 (I think) video a few days back,
and it worked fine at 1024x768.  Only problem was that the
cursor was a bright cyan.

Micah