From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Andrew To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Subject: Re: [9fans] Sorry, i'm a novice Message-ID: <20030506215604.GA10387@thefrayedknot.armory.com> References: <20030506205237.76067.qmail@web10302.mail.yahoo.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20030506205237.76067.qmail@web10302.mail.yahoo.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i Date: Tue, 6 May 2003 14:56:04 -0700 Topicbox-Message-UUID: a026dad0-eacb-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 Im a novice too, but I'll share some insight, scattered thoughts, and experience. its a long post, so I apologize. I think the first thing to figure out is what sort of installation are you aiming for? Did you want to stay with just a standalone system or expand out to a multi-system installation? if you are just interested in getting going with plan9 I would just go for a standalone system and later if you want, expand out. When I first installed plan9, I knew from the start that I wanted to grow past a single system. In retrospect I probably spent too little time learning about the system to attack setting up a full distributed system. Most of what I figured out was by doing. The manuals and wiki are enough to get you going, but from then on you just have to play around and break stuff. I think my dad put it best, learning an OS is kind of like wandering around in San Francisco, the way you figure out where things are is to get yourself completely lost, then find your way about out again. Its often not easy, but you learn a lot doing it. Whenever I've had a major problem, such that ive almost given up and asked the list, a solution presented itself a few moments later. I would (like to) imagine many other people have had similiar experiences. The pleasant thing about plan9 is there arent many surprises or hidden traps, everything is simple, when you finally figure something out, you think to yourself 'well of course, that makes perfect sense!' To get going, unless things have changed, get a floppy image from website. Then boot from there. The installer should get you a basic system going. From then, well...try to set up basic services. Try building a kernel, if you're like me your jaw will drop when you see how fast a kernel compile goes compared to most unix kernels. I would play around with factotum, and binding namespaces in creative ways. Learn sam, its like ed, but has some cool features. If you're brave learn ed. Ive learned to use it since most of my 'servers' lack decent video cards and boot to the console. Learn how the boot process works. the plan9.ini file has gotten pretty simple, but its still good to understand the process. You'll also want to get reasonably comfortable with replica, so you can keep your system updated. If you're feeling pretty comfortable and want to expand, try adding a cpu/fossil server. despite what the wiki says, bootstrapping a fossil system is actually pretty easy. The only real glitch I had was getting the system on the network quickly, which involved adding two lines to the boot file. Try making terminals, I usually make them hard-driveless, and boot from the floppy. Andrew On Tue, May 06, 2003 at 10:52:37PM +0200, Oscar Cuadrado wrote: > Hi, 9fans: > > I met plan 9 in a talk in the UAM in Madrid (Spain) > about security in Plan 9 and i was 'flashed' when Russ > Cox introduced some concepts of this OS. > > So here i am, trying to initiate me in Plan 9. My > request is for some instructions about installation, > first steps, plan9 applications programming and > similars... > > I expect you to have any time to spend with a > novice, and thanks very much to all. > > Grettings. > > Square. > > P.D.: i've downloaded some manuals but i prefer the > first-hand information ;) > > ___________________________________________________ > Yahoo! Messenger - Nueva versi?n GRATIS > Super Webcam, voz, caritas animadas, y m?s... > http://messenger.yahoo.es