[9fans] Plan9 boot error

[9fans] Plan9 boot error

[Angelo Castigliola]

Hi,

I'm installing Plan9 on a typical old 486. When it boots I get this.
PBS...
ELCR: 0000
panic: floopyinitdev

I have made a few different boot disks on two different computers so I'm
ruling out its a bad disk.

I also tested the diskette drive and booted other boot disks and it seems to
be working fine as well.

I can not find anything on the Plan9 site about this error and the only
thing I can dig up is this posting in which the author is having the same
error on a old 486 computer.

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=plan9+floppyinitdev&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=722224617%40snellwilcox.com&rnum=1

 I emailed the author of this post to see if he ever got passed it or just
gave up.

Also I read that debugging info is written to the bootdisk. Perhaps there is
something I can use to help me get this to boot. I'm not sure if it is
getting that far in the boot process.

Thanks in advance,
Angelo Castigliola III

Re: [9fans] Plan9 boot error

[John Stalker]

I am not really competent to diagnose this, but I may be able to suggest
a workaround.  If the plan9 compiler depends on having 586 instructions
then you are out of luck.  Other people will be able to answer that.
If not, then there is a very ugly workaround.  You can do the install
under emulation (bochs) to a disk image and then write the image to
your hard disk.  If you are running bochs on a 486 this will take
forever.  If you have a fast machine running some form of unix you
can do it there and then NFS mount the directory containing the
resulting disk image.  I should say that I once started to do this and
then lost patience and interest.  The bit about writing a disk image
directly to my hard disk also frightened me.  Good luck.

> Hi,
>
> I'm installing Plan9 on a typical old 486. When it boots I get this.
> PBS...
> ELCR: 0000
> panic: floopyinitdev
>
> I have made a few different boot disks on two different computers so I'm
> ruling out its a bad disk.
>
> I also tested the diskette drive and booted other boot disks and it seems to
> be working fine as well.
>
> I can not find anything on the Plan9 site about this error and the only
> thing I can dig up is this posting in which the author is having the same
> error on a old 486 computer.
>
> http://groups.google.com/groups?q=plan9+floppyinitdev&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=U
TF-8&selm=722224617%40snellwilcox.com&rnum=1
>
>  I emailed the author of this post to see if he ever got passed it or just
> gave up.
>
> Also I read that debugging info is written to the bootdisk. Perhaps there is
> something I can use to help me get this to boot. I'm not sure if it is
> getting that far in the boot process.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Angelo Castigliola III
>

--
John Stalker
Department of Mathematics
Princeton University
(609)258-6469

Re: [9fans] Plan9 boot error

[John Stalker]

If you do decide to try what I suggested, please write me first.  There
are a few pitfalls.

> Hi,
>
> I'm installing Plan9 on a typical old 486. When it boots I get this.
> PBS...
> ELCR: 0000
> panic: floopyinitdev
>
> I have made a few different boot disks on two different computers so I'm
> ruling out its a bad disk.
>
> I also tested the diskette drive and booted other boot disks and it seems to
> be working fine as well.
>
> I can not find anything on the Plan9 site about this error and the only
> thing I can dig up is this posting in which the author is having the same
> error on a old 486 computer.
>
> http://groups.google.com/groups?q=plan9+floppyinitdev&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=U
TF-8&selm=722224617%40snellwilcox.com&rnum=1
>
>  I emailed the author of this post to see if he ever got passed it or just
> gave up.
>
> Also I read that debugging info is written to the bootdisk. Perhaps there is
> something I can use to help me get this to boot. I'm not sure if it is
> getting that far in the boot process.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Angelo Castigliola III
>

--
John Stalker
Department of Mathematics
Princeton University
(609)258-6469

[9fans] Plan9 boot error

[pat]

> I'm installing Plan9 on a typical old 486. When it boots I get this.
> PBS...
> ELCR: 0000
> panic: floopyinitdev

Try disabling all but one floppy in the BIOS, then boot from that floppy.

Pat