Re: [9fans] IBM X40 installation - long description

[Michal Hajek <hajek1@karlov.mff.cuni.cz>]

Hello, 

thanks for response :)

* tlaronde@polynum.com (tlaronde@polynum.com) [070630 17:17]:

> This means that in this case, launching Plan 9 is done passing by an
> intermediate step: GRUB, that complicates the matter if additional disks
> (removable like USB) are present since this modifies the naming scheme
> in GRUB.

I see. 

> So first, what is your disk layout (partition table)?


# fdisk /dev/hda

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 2432.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
   (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/hda: 20.0 GB, 20003880960 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2432 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1               1         122      979933+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda2   *         123         244      979965   39  Plan 9
/dev/hda3             245         256       96390   83  Linux
/dev/hda4             257        2432    17478720   83  Linux

Command (m for help): 

The idea is to have 1GB swap at the very beginning due to speed. Next I
put a plan9 partition, since according to rumours in 9fans [1] it is
better to have it before 1024 cylinder (and it does not hurt anyway).
After that I keep small linux partition (intedned as /boot, since
otherwise I experience problems with loading linux kernel too - grub
complains about kernel beeing byond cylinder 1024). And finaly, one big
last partition for linux sytem. 

[1] e.g.  http://marc.info/?l=9fans&m=115505125527189&w=2

in the grub command line I have: 

grub> geometry (hd0)
drive 0x80: C/H/S = 1022/240/63, The number of sectors = 32059073, LBA
   Partition num: 0, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x82
   Partition num: 1, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x39 
   Partition num: 2, Filesystem type ext2fs, partition type 0x83
   Partition num: 3, Filesystem type ext2fs, partition type 0x83

I do not know why it says ext2fs even I am sure the partition contains
ext3 filesystem.



> 2) what option did you enter when installing (the installation script
> handles this);

To be honest, this is a bit experimental from my side, since I could not
find any howto or instruction how to do that using only usb-cd/usb-fdd. 

So here is what I did (at least as I remember it): 

1. make /dev/dha2 a DOS partition (type 6 in linux fdisk) and format it
using mkdosfs. 

2. copy files from plan9.flp.gz to /dev/hda2

3. boot from usb-cd using bootable CD created from plan9.iso.bz2

   - here the installer asks about some file, so I satisfy this demand
     by giving !sdC0!dos!9pcflop.gz

   - installation process continues smoothly up to the point of disk
     partitioning. Here the partitioning software says that there is no
     room left. Thus I try do delete /dev/hda2 and create plan9
     partition instead of it. Now I do not understand well, but the
     partitioning software complains, but if I quit it the installation
     proceeds with the very same step (i.e. partitioning) and this time 
     I can see plan9 partition table created. Well once again I try to
     quit the partitioning software and it again complains
     (unfortunately I do not remember the error exactly, but it is
     something about not beiing able to write the partition table). 
     But than I am able to quit partitioning software and the
     installation continues. No complains. 

   - installation process continues with fossil and makes various
     operations on plan9 partition
   
   - it asks about plan9.iso.bz2. I instruct it to use network with
     DHCP. I can see the response from our dhcp server. That is, I
     receive correct IP. The installation sw than says it will download
     the image. After a moment, it asks me again, where it should find
     the image and suggests basicaly /dev/hda2 as 9dos, /dev/hda3 and
     /dev/hda4 as linux. Also it gives me the possibility to browse
     and find the file manualy. Unfortunately, I am not able to locate
     the file. Not only that, I am quite sure it is not there. Since I
     went all over the directories. And also I did not notice any
     increased network activity. 

   - So I hit ctrl-alt-del nad reboot to linux. Here I mount /dev/hda2
     as plan9 partition and copy plan9.iso.bz2 to it. Reboot again and
     start plan9 installatio. Reboot once again and boot using usb-cdrom         and start plan9 installation. 

   - I think now I went through all the process of installation once
     more basicaly same way, except now I see plan9 partition ready and
     also after trying to download the image once again (again not
     successfully) I am able to locate the beforehand prepared
     plan9.iso.bz2. The installation sw is now satisfyed and I can
     proceed. 

   - I guess the image gets unpacked and sw copied to right locations.
   - than I receive question regarding booting. Here there is no linux
     option. Only plan9 and two brands of widnows (a bit of surprise to
     me). No matter wheather I choose to install plan9 to MBR or use
     another bootloader (that is grub). I cannot boot into the system. 
     Actually I have tryied both ways (= going through the process from
     scratch after failure). With plan9 in MBR I get a message that disk
     is not bootable. If I do not use plan9 and use grub with
     "rootnoverify" and "chainloader" options, I get:
     "This is not bootable disk. Please insert a bootable floppy and
     press any key to try again...."
   
   - I reboot and use usb-cd this time. Now I get the question wheather
     I want plan9 release 4 or 3. And also I am informed that
     !sdC0!9dos!plan9.ini was used. 
     After I choose release 4, I can boot into plan9 sytem. Well, first
     I got question about using DMA (Y) and VGA and yet one another
     question which I do not remember right now but is about my hw
     anyway. Than I am left with user [none] question. So I put "glenda"
     and after that I am in window environment and the system seems to
     work well - at least to my newbie experience.  

   - Now I try that disk/format -b /386/pbslba /dev/sdC0/9fat command. 
     Reboot and try to boot using grub. 

   - now I get :
      PBS2...Bad format or I/O error
      press a key to reboot

 
And that is it. Now I can get to plan9 with usb-cdrom, but the drive is
heavy itself and I do not want to carry it with me just for the solely
purpose of being able to boot plan9. I would like to boot plan9 from my
hdd and not use any usb-cd drives. 


> 3) before installing, write down the partition table (starting sector,
> chs values, and so on) since plan9 disk/fdisk may recompute some values
> leading to problems

well, I have the above stated output of fdisk in a file. Than I issued
this command under linux:

dd if=/dev/hda of=/root/mbr.bin bs=512 count=1

But I do not really care about wiping all my hdd since I have backup of
the whole linux partition. The only point is that I do not want to wipe
my harddisk four times everyday :) 

....

Well, I do not insist on using this way of installation. I simply want
to get plan9 installed on my notebook without the necessity to buy a
docking station. I am completely happy with installing from usb-key or
usb-cdrom or network. Unfortunately I was not successfull with these
methods so far, thus I thought for the time-being the easiest way would
be to correct the existing installation to be able to boot form hdd. 

Best regards
Michal