[9fans] 2014 hardware overview

[9fans] 2014 hardware overview

[Pierre-Jean]

Hello 9fans !

I've discovered Plan9 several years ago, and time to time,
I read some documentation or walk throught the archive
of this list. And it seems that I'm convinced by plan9
conception.

Now, I'd like to give plan9 a real try. And since I need
some hardware for that task, I'm querying 9fans for a
recent hardware overview. Could you please answer the
following questions ?


1) UEFI bios

I know that 9load and friends can't handle UEFI bios, but
I'm guessing if it's possible to use GRUB and chainload
Plan9 when the bios is UEFI. Is that possible ?

2) Intel atom boards

I know that the supermicro X7SPA-H-D525 works with plan9.
But it becomes hard to find, while for the same price one
can have a last generation supermicro atom board.

Does anyone know if the recent atom processor (such as
C2750, C2550, S1200, N2800, D2700) works with Plan9 ?

What about the C2000 sata3 soc ?
What about the C2000 i354 ethernet controler ?

3) Arm boards

A lot of works has been done on the raspberry pi and the
trimslice, but some other arm boards are sometimes
mentionned on this list. Which are the arm boards know
working actually and does someone is working on a port that
might be soon public ?

4) Obvious hardware

More generally, what do you think is the actual obvious
hardware that one can find to build a file server and a cpu
server for home usage ?

Thanks for the answers !

Pierre-Jean.

Re: [9fans] 2014 hardware overview

[Nick Owens]

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On Sun, Jun 29, 2014 at 11:32:44AM +0200, Pierre-Jean wrote:
> 4) Obvious hardware
> 
> More generally, what do you think is the actual obvious
> hardware that one can find to build a file server and a cpu
> server for home usage ?

the obvious hardware is a thinkpad. hello from 9front on an X301.


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Re: [9fans] 2014 hardware overview

[arisawa]

look http://plan9.aichi-u.ac.jp/hardware/

2014/06/29 18:32、Pierre-Jean <plan9@utroff.org> のメール：

> 4) Obvious hardware
> 
> More generally, what do you think is the actual obvious
> hardware that one can find to build a file server and a cpu
> server for home usage ?

Re: [9fans] 2014 hardware overview

[Ramakrishnan Muthukrishnan]

On Sun, Jun 29, 2014 at 5:25 PM, arisawa <arisawa@ar.aichi-u.ac.jp> wrote:
> look http://plan9.aichi-u.ac.jp/hardware/

Thank you for the list. I have been looking at adding some cheap
hardware to my home as well, to play with venti. It would have been
nice if plan9 is ported to one of those NAS boxes. I will try a hand
myself if I can get hold of a cheap old NAS box like the WD MyBook
world edition.

Ramakrishnan

> 2014/06/29 18:32、Pierre-Jean <plan9@utroff.org> のメール：
>
>> 4) Obvious hardware
>>
>> More generally, what do you think is the actual obvious
>> hardware that one can find to build a file server and a cpu
>> server for home usage ?
>
>



-- 
  Ramakrishnan

Re: [9fans] 2014 hardware overview

[sl]

http://code.google.com/p/plan9front/wiki/KnownWorkingHardware
http://plan9.stanleylieber.com/hardware/

sl

Re: [9fans] 2014 hardware overview

[Jacob Todd]

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The w510 also works with 9front. WiFi works with wpa2 , ethernet works,
native screen resolution of 1366x768 does not currently work, it's
stretched 1024x768. I'll mange a full list when I'm home.
On Jun 29, 2014 3:02 PM, <sl@9front.org> wrote:

> http://code.google.com/p/plan9front/wiki/KnownWorkingHardware
> http://plan9.stanleylieber.com/hardware/
>
> sl
>
>

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Re: [9fans] 2014 hardware overview

[Pierre-Jean]

Hello alls,

> Nick Owens wrote:
> the obvious hardware is a thinkpad.
Using a laptop as a server seems strange, but is effectively a
simple solution.

> Arisawa wrote:
> look http://plan9.aichi-u.ac.jp/hardware/
Very handfull.

> Steve Simon wrote: 
> At home I run...
That confirm the usual list of known working hardware.

Thanks a lot for the various answers. Reading them, I
believe that:

1) It's not possible to chainload plan9 when the firmware is
uefi. But someone wrote me off list that «most uefi firmware
also includes bios», and apparently, that is the case of the
supermicro boards (their documentation seems to mention uefi
boot as an option, and not as the default).

2) C2000 sata soc and i354 ethernet controllers are not
known working yet.

3) There's not so much hope to see a port for another arm
board than the raspberry pi and the trimslice soon.

Cheers,

Pierre-Jean.

Re: [9fans] 2014 hardware overview

[erik quanstrom]

> > Nick Owens wrote:
> > the obvious hardware is a thinkpad.
> Using a laptop as a server seems strange, but is effectively a
> simple solution.

the regular supermicro server boards are known to work well.
the x9 series are better tested than the x10s.  but the x10s should
work.  also the supermicro d5xx work fine.

> > Arisawa wrote:
> > look http://plan9.aichi-u.ac.jp/hardware/
> Very handfull.
> 
> > Steve Simon wrote: 
> > At home I run...
> That confirm the usual list of known working hardware.
> 
> Thanks a lot for the various answers. Reading them, I
> believe that:
> 
> 1) It's not possible to chainload plan9 when the firmware is
> uefi. But someone wrote me off list that «most uefi firmware
> also includes bios», and apparently, that is the case of the
> supermicro boards (their documentation seems to mention uefi
> boot as an option, and not as the default).

that's the case for everything i've tried, but perhaps that's not
a representive sample.

> 2) C2000 sata soc and i354 ethernet controllers are not
> known working yet.

should be working with 9atom.

> 3) There's not so much hope to see a port for another arm
> board than the raspberry pi and the trimslice soon.

that's news to me.

- erik

Re: [9fans] 2014 hardware overview

[Pierre-Jean]

Helped by the various answers and a promotion
on a webstore, I've purchased a supermicro x9SCAA
motherboard.
http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/ATOM/X9/X9SCAA.cfm

That might be working out of the box with one or the other
distribution. I'll make a report here once tested.


erik quanstrom <quanstro@quanstro.net> wrote:

> > 2) C2000 sata soc and i354 ethernet controllers are not
> > known working yet.
>
> should be working with 9atom.

Nice !

Re: [9fans] 2014 hardware overview

[balaji]

On Tue, Jul 1, 2014 at 3:23 AM, Pierre-Jean <plan9@utroff.org> wrote:
>
> Helped by the various answers and a promotion
> on a webstore, I've purchased a supermicro x9SCAA
> motherboard.
> http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/ATOM/X9/X9SCAA.cfm
>
> That might be working out of the box with one or the other
> distribution. I'll make a report here once tested.
>
I've tried booting from usd cdrom, usb stick both 9labs and 9legacy.
it does not recognize them. this is ICH9R that's claimed to be
supported.

I'm going to try one that has IDE support and ICH9R so it can boot
from cdrom and hopefully then recognize the sata chipset, like this
one:
http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon3000/3210/X7SBi.cfm

Re: [9fans] 2014 hardware overview

[balaji]

On Tue, Jul 1, 2014 at 9:20 AM, balaji <balaji.srinivasa+plan9@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 1, 2014 at 3:23 AM, Pierre-Jean <plan9@utroff.org> wrote:
>>
>> Helped by the various answers and a promotion
>> on a webstore, I've purchased a supermicro x9SCAA
>> motherboard.
>> http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/ATOM/X9/X9SCAA.cfm
>>
>> That might be working out of the box with one or the other
>> distribution. I'll make a report here once tested.
>>
> I've tried booting from usd cdrom, usb stick both 9labs and 9legacy.
> it does not recognize them. this is ICH9R that's claimed to be
> supported.
>
the board is
http://www.supermicro.com.tw/products/motherboard/ATOM/ICH9/X7SPE.cfm
part of
http://www.supermicro.com.tw/products/system/1U/5015/SYS-5015A-PHF.cfm

> I'm going to try one that has IDE support and ICH9R so it can boot
> from cdrom and hopefully then recognize the sata chipset, like this
> one:
> http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon3000/3210/X7SBi.cfm

Re: [9fans] 2014 hardware overview

[David du Colombier]

> I've tried booting from usd cdrom, usb stick both 9labs and 9legacy.
> it does not recognize them. this is ICH9R that's claimed to be
> supported.

ICH9R should be supported, but the sdiahci driver is not present
in the installation kernel (pcflop) from the Bell Labs CD image.

You may try this image, which is not ideal, but has the merit
to include the sdiahci driver in the pcflop kernel.

http://9legacy.org/download/9spirit.iso.bz2

--
David du Colombier

Re: [9fans] 2014 hardware overview

[Balaji]

On Tue, Jul 1, 2014 at 10:02 AM, David du Colombier <0intro@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I've tried booting from usd cdrom, usb stick both 9labs and 9legacy.
>> it does not recognize them. this is ICH9R that's claimed to be
>> supported.
>
> ICH9R should be supported, but the sdiahci driver is not present
> in the installation kernel (pcflop) from the Bell Labs CD image.
>
> You may try this image, which is not ideal, but has the merit
> to include the sdiahci driver in the pcflop kernel.
>
> http://9legacy.org/download/9spirit.iso.bz2
>
winrar says unexpected end of archive when extracting...

Re: [9fans] 2014 hardware overview

[David du Colombier]

>> http://9legacy.org/download/9spirit.iso.bz2
>>
> winrar says unexpected end of archive when extracting...

That's surprising, it works fine here with bzip2 on Plan 9 or Linux.

Also, these CD images are generated using the same scripts
as the Bell Labs ones (ie compressed with bzip2 -9).

% hget -o 9spirit.iso.bz2 http://9legacy.org/download/9spirit.iso.bz2
% bunzip2 9spirit.iso.bz2
% sha1sum 9spirit.iso.bz2
a6599db5660b930b5cbb72626947382db0aebd92 9spirit.iso.bz2
% sha1sum 9spirit.iso
f2a5689dbe60fec207bfdce2cb1aa5cd351333d4 9spirit.iso

You should check the sha1 of the downloaded file matches
the one from http://9legacy.org/download/9spiritchecksums.txt.

--
David du Colombier

Re: [9fans] 2014 hardware overview

[Balaji]

ok this download worked, may be problem from my side. however, same outcome:

foidn partition #S/sdE0/data 9 625,142,448
disks: sdE0 .. sdE5
trying sdE<0:5>...dosinit: can't open #S/sdE<0:5>/9fat
dosinit #S/sdE<0:5>/9fat failed

On Wed, Jul 2, 2014 at 10:29 AM, David du Colombier <0intro@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> http://9legacy.org/download/9spirit.iso.bz2
>>>
>> winrar says unexpected end of archive when extracting...
>
> That's surprising, it works fine here with bzip2 on Plan 9 or Linux.
>
> Also, these CD images are generated using the same scripts
> as the Bell Labs ones (ie compressed with bzip2 -9).
>
> % hget -o 9spirit.iso.bz2 http://9legacy.org/download/9spirit.iso.bz2
> % bunzip2 9spirit.iso.bz2
> % sha1sum 9spirit.iso.bz2
> a6599db5660b930b5cbb72626947382db0aebd92 9spirit.iso.bz2
> % sha1sum 9spirit.iso
> f2a5689dbe60fec207bfdce2cb1aa5cd351333d4 9spirit.iso
>
> You should check the sha1 of the downloaded file matches
> the one from http://9legacy.org/download/9spiritchecksums.txt.
>
> --
> David du Colombier
>

Re: [9fans] 2014 hardware overview

[erik quanstrom]

i notice one bit in this thread that doesn't reflect how things really work.
drives get labled C or D if they are blind probed at the usual i/o port locations;
otherwise if they are discovered via pci space (even if at the standard port locations)
they are labled starting with E.  ahci drives also start with E, as they are similar
in spirit to ide drives listed in pci space.

it used to be that the labs iso would not boot from ahci because the cdrom
would never show up as sdD0, for obvious reasons.  it also wouldn't work on
the amd motherboard i got as early as 2006 because the ide-interfaced sata
was listed in pci space, and therefore showed up as sdE0 or some such.

i don't know if this is still true of the labs kernel.

- erik

Re: [9fans] 2014 hardware overview

[erik quanstrom]

> I've tried booting from usd cdrom, usb stick both 9labs and 9legacy.
> it does not recognize them. this is ICH9R that's claimed to be
> supported.
>
> I'm going to try one that has IDE support and ICH9R so it can boot
> from cdrom and hopefully then recognize the sata chipset, like this
> one:
> http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon3000/3210/X7SBi.cfm

that machine should boot from the 9atom usb stick no problems.

- erik

Re: [9fans] 2014 hardware overview

[Steve Simon]

Welcome to a clean and simple OS.

At home I run a supermicro dual 330 atom motherboard which
I use as a combined cpu and auth serevr. I think this is a
X7SPA-H-D525 though I honestly don't remember the part and don't
want to open it up to look.

I have a raspberry pi as a terminal - this works wonderfully well
booting in the time it takes me to move from the power switch on the
wall to the keyboard.

At work I have a single cpu/auth/terminal server which is a dull HP
desktop box but it serves well enough.

sheeva plugs also work well though I don't have one.

-Steve

Re: [9fans] 2014 hardware overview

[cinap_lenrek]

> 1) UEFI bios
>
> I know that 9load and friends can't handle UEFI bios, but
> I'm guessing if it's possible to use GRUB and chainload
> Plan9 when the bios is UEFI. Is that possible ?

yes, this is possible. the plan9 kernel can be made a
multiboot image and loaded by any multiboot loader like grub.
some changes are needed for labs plan9 for this to work tho,
mainly moving the data segment on page boundary when called
from multiboot entry point and using the multiboot memory
map and plan9.ini as initrd module. this works out of the box
with 9front.

--
cinap

Re: [9fans] 2014 hardware overview

[erik quanstrom]

On Sun Jun 29 14:21:20 EDT 2014, cinap_lenrek@felloff.net wrote:
> > 1) UEFI bios
> >
> > I know that 9load and friends can't handle UEFI bios, but
> > I'm guessing if it's possible to use GRUB and chainload
> > Plan9 when the bios is UEFI. Is that possible ?
>
> yes, this is possible. the plan9 kernel can be made a
> multiboot image and loaded by any multiboot loader like grub.
> some changes are needed for labs plan9 for this to work tho,
> mainly moving the data segment on page boundary when called
> from multiboot entry point and using the multiboot memory
> map and plan9.ini as initrd module. this works out of the box
> with 9front.

alternately a bios boot with uefi firmware will work.  :-)
detection should be automatic.

- erik