[9fans] Help! Installation Problem

[9fans] Help! Installation Problem

[Terry Bayne]

Hi,

Yesterday I attempted my first plan 9 installation.  My system:

	AMD K6/2 @450 MHz
	128 MB of RAM
	Matrox MII
	NE2000 Compatible Network Card
	2 IDE Drives
	1 Floppy Drive
	Adaptec 2940
	SCSI Zip Drive

I downloaded a boot floppy image and used rawrite.exe to make a boot
floppy.  The floppy is ok, because I test booted it on another system
when I had problems.

When I attempt to boot from the installation floppy I see the following:

	PBS... Plan 9 from Bell Labs
	using fd0!dos!plan9.ini
	Boot Devices: fd0, sdc0, sdd0
	boot from:

At the prompt I tried specifying the boot drive and file like so:

	fd0!dos!9pcflop.gz

For which I was rewarded with the message:

	No such fat partition

I have verified (under Windows/Dos) that the floppy does indeed contain
a file called 9pcflop.gz.

I have, using a boot floppy installed BeOS on this system.  And Windows
2000 is currently loaded there as well.  Floppy drive access appears to
work just fine in both BeOS and Windows.

Just as a test I booted a Dos bootable floppy - it works fine.

So any ideas what I should try next?

Thanks
Terry Bayne

gnome@hiwaay.net

[9fans] Re: Help! Installation Problem

[Thijs Rosmalen]

Terry Bayne wrote:
> When I attempt to boot from the installation floppy I see the following:
>         PBS... Plan 9 from Bell Labs
>         using fd0!dos!plan9.ini
>         Boot Devices: fd0, sdc0, sdd0
>         boot from:
>
> At the prompt I tried specifying the boot drive and file like so:
>         fd0!dos!9pcflop.gz
>
> For which I was rewarded with the message:
>         No such fat partition

I copied 9pcflop.gz to my DOS-partition and then typed
`sdC0!dos!9pcflop.gz' at the `boot from:' prompt. vgadb, pan9.ini, etc.
on the floppy are used though.

Kind regards,	Thijs.
--
"A quarter of a century ago the United Nations Organisation was born
bearing the great hopes of mankind. Alas, in an immoral world it too
has grown up immoral"			   -- Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Re: [9fans] Help! Installation Problem

[Andrey Mirtchovski]

Terry Bayne wrote:

>
> At the prompt I tried specifying the boot drive and file like so:
>
>         fd0!dos!9pcflop.gz
>
> For which I was rewarded with the message:
>
>         No such fat partition
>

I had the same problem with my installation. After numerous attempts and
reboots I found out that one of the floppies boots *only* if the machine is
restarted with the reset button and the other floppy boots *only* if the
machine is turned off and then back on.

I suggest experimenting with the network card settings (irq/io) and have
them explicitly set rather than on auto... (Dunno why this would make any
difference but it seemed to do on my machine).

My configuration:

amd k6-2/400
ne2000 card, 1IDE HDD, 1 floppy, ATI Xpert@work (which works very fine,
thank you:)