From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: Corey <corey@bitworthy.net>
To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net>
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:31:03 -0700
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Subject: Re: [9fans] a few misc. questions...
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On Tuesday 21 July 2009 22:59:49 Josh Wood wrote:
> > How do I enable hd dma?  There's a dmamode=ask in my plan9.ini, but
> > I don't
> > see that option mentioned in the plan9.ini man.
>
> echo dma on > /dev/sdXY/ctl
>
> see in sd(3).
>

Excellent - thanks.

As a further question on that point, where would you say would be the
best place to persist that command?

As far as I'm aware, my likely choices would be one of (in order of
execution):

/rc/bin/termrc
/rc/bin/termrc.local
/cfg/$sysname/termrc

... but which would be considered the most logical place to deal with
things such as setting hd parameters for the machine on bootup like
the 'echo dma on > /dev/sdC0/ctl' example above?

I"m guessing it's best to execute hd params asap, so I'd put it in
'/rc/bin/termrc' or '/rc/bin/termrc.local'.

What's the conventional wisdom regarding which of those scripts
are used for what purposes? i.e., when to prefer one over the
others?  ( cpurc(8) doesn't really provide any advice, other than
describing the execution order )

( I'm enjoying Plan 9's man pages -  quality stuff )

( by the way, what to do when I find errors in the man pages? .e.g., in
the interest of correcting them upstream )


> Kfs is the older disk file system for standalone terminals and the like.
> For most purposes, fossil replaces it. Fossil is user-mode, while kfs
> is a "kernel file system." See in kfs(4).
>

Ok, so I may simply generally disregard any mention of kfs in any docs or
scripts and config files I might happen upon? Since fossil has effectively
deprecated kfs?


> > "can't initialize venti /dev/scd0/arenas: arena header or trailer
> > corrupted"
>
> My first guess is to ensure you haven't overlapped partitions or
> something.
>

I just went ahead and reformated, and reran the install; solved the
problem.  I eventually noticed that the install script acts differently if it
detects there's already a plan 9 partition layout on the disk. I had
to completely delete then reformat the prior partition then restart
the install.


Thanks for the assistance!