I made this little guide out of scrambled notes and general boredom, Its
probably full of bugs and won't work at all, Enjoy :-)
benefits in using qemu: qemu is GPL open source and free, everything
works, sound should also work though this remains untested since I don't
know how...

A quick and dirty guide for running plan 9 under qemu Virtual Machine in
windows xp (2000+ should be ok, xp sp2 tested too):

Required Skill: Advance : Networking experience is mandatory and skillz
will also help a lot ;-)
Risks for even the uber-coder when using ms-windows (to whatever purpose,
but especially in the context of this guide): Your PC shall blaze in
hell's fire fury while shooting its own chips in a direct projectory
toward the nearest elderly / infant / your reproductive organs, obviously
I don't take responsibility for whatever damage that may be caused to
your computer, you, or the nearest elderly / infant in 35m distance from
the machine or any connected to it or not.

*** Pls read through at least twice, also unless you know exactly how
your network is set, its better you skip the networking parts, or better
yet, skip this guide...

01. Download "qemu-0.9.0-windows.zip", "openvpn-2.0.9-install.exe" and
"plan9.iso.bz".
02. Extract "plan9.iso" and "qemu-0.9.0-windows" to the same directory.
03. Install "openvpn-2.0.9-install.exe".
04. Rename the new network connection (found in Network Connections) to
"TAP_OpenVPN".
05. Bridge "TAP_OpenVPN" and your WAN/LAN Connection (usually "Local Area
Connection", should be enabled and has packet changes when downloading) -
This is done by choosing the connections (ctrl+ left mouse button the
one, and then the other without releasing) and then in the properties
menu (right click while still holding ctrl) choosing bridge.
06. Notice your configurations now reside in the new "bridge connection"
instead of "Local Area Connection".
07. Use: "qemu.exe -L -m 128 -cdrom ..\plan9.iso -boot d -net
nic,model=rtl8139 -net tap,ifname=TAP_OpenVPN -soundhw sb16 -localtime"
to start plan9, this command can be inserted into a batch file.
08. In the VM (referred to as "guest machine" : In the boot options
choose to boot from the CD.
09. Guest: You can press "return\enter" for the rest of the questions
presented by in the boot sequence - default will suffice.
10. Done, pls read through the tips...


*. Ctrl+Alt to release the mouse from the qemu window

*. Set networking by dhcp (good with the bridge explained above and if
router supplies ips (dhcp)):
"ip/ipconfig"
"ndb/dns -r"
"ip/ping address"
test by pinging your gateway/router by the ip address, then try a site
like www.google.com you know return icmp(respond to ping).

*. When using acme in qemu with live boot iso, notice that file create is
only possible in /tmp, not even in the /usr/glenda (the user that you log
in as) - this will be resolved if you install to HD.

*. Installing to HardDisk: use "qemu-img.exe create plan9hd.img 1024M" to
set a 1gig Virtual HardDisk, use "qemu.exe -L . -m 128 -hda plan9hd.img
-cdrom .\plan9.iso -boot d -net nic,model=rtl8139 -net
tap,ifname=TAP_OpenVPN -localtime" to boot.
You can install to HD or mount the drive and format it to use as you
wish, plan9 tends to have a very slow install process in VM.

*. If you don't actually know how to use plan9,
http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sys/doc/ has some good info,
plan9.escet.urjc.es/who/nemo/9.intro.pdf will do even better.


*. qemu will emulate sb16 which is supported by plan9, However, I was
unable to verify its functionality.


*. Common Issue: the pc halts in different parts of the network
configuration process: this is due to other VM virtual nics conflicting
with the each other, solutions vary from disabling to deleting the other
VM's nics, worst case plan 9 can run without networking, though to what
use ?

*. Common Issue: High CPU Usage: this is not a problem but the result of
the qemu normal functionality, if a process on the host machine will
require more CPU time, qemu will reduce the load itself - this can be
forced by reducing the process priority using the task manager.

*. Common Issue: "TAP_OpenVPN" always appear to be disconnected: this is
a false readout, ignore it as it has no ill effects.

*. Common Issue: 9P connectivity seems to be broken : firewall, router
firewall...

* Play around with thew res: 800x600x8 and above seems to be more useful
for working with acme...

* for sound see the qemu readme, I never succeeded though it might have
been for lack of trying...

* Less Questions at boot: download plan9.flp and replace plan9.ini that
with the following (use winimage or mount through loopback device):
#**** plan9.ini content starts here *****

*nomp=1
*nodumpstack=1
partition=new
mouseport=ps2
vgasize=800x600x8
monitor=xga
distname=plan9
ether0=rtl8139
audio0=sb16 port=0x220 irq=7 dma=5
bootargs=local!#S/sdD0/data
bootfile=sdD0!cdboot!9pccd.gz
adisk=/dev/sdD0/cdboot
cdboot=yes

#**** plan9.ini content ends here *****

this will reduce the questions to one "press return", the cmd line will
be:
"qemu.exe -L -m 128 -fda plan9.flp -cdrom ..\plan9.iso -boot d -net
nic,model=rtl8139 -net tap,ifname=TAP_OpenVPN -soundhw sb16 -localtime"

this strategy is unnecessary in hd boot.

* Really many things can go wrong, networking issues are common to even
the simplest of tasks so this task should prove to be quite problematic
to many unexperienced users, also qemu itself runs on different machines
with different success rates, it can crash and burn taking your os with
it (whether your running windows or *nix).
- To contrast all the warnings: At this very second I'm running winamp,
notepad, qemu, firefox, add/remove programs, azureus, process explorer,
putty, and stardock on Windows Media Center SP2 AMD Athlon 2600+ GF5600
with build-in sound, three different vm's nics while removing one of them
indirectly through uninstall and having clamwin do a silent scan at the
back...



ToDo:
1. Sound.
2. Boot with no delays.
3. Slow copy to HD.
4. spellcheck, factcheck, sanitycheck, check to self ;-)

I would like someone to test, retest, organize, do the todos,  and post
this in the wiki, I think its rather useful since most of the commercial
VMs fail in different ways to run plan9 (vmware, parallels, virtual
pc...)

Ram Kromberg
ramkromberg@mail.com