[9fans] install floppy

[9fans] install floppy

[David Bulkow]

How is root.vd created?

I am unable to use the floppy for installation since the June 17th update.  The
problem appears to be the use of bootes as the login in nvram rather than
glenda, as /usr/glenda is the only directory in /usr.  The boot complains of
being unable to write in /tmp and cannot find /usr/bootes/lib/profile.  I
suppose the fix might be as simple as creating a new nvram file with glenda as
the login, but I would also like to make changes to the installation.

Re: [9fans] install floppy

[Anthony Sorace]

i, for one, would be very interested in this. i've
got some friends i'm trying to sell on Plan 9, and
it's be nice to have a disk to hand out. the install
disk itself is good for this purpose (having a
kernel, shell, window system, etc.), but it's be
nice to dump the install stuff and add acme or sam.
: anothy;

Re: [9fans] install floppy

[David Bulkow]

I did indeed install a CPU server.  I realized what the problem might be - after sending
the mail of course :-)

I removed the nvram partition and the install is working fine now.

Russ Cox wrote:

> Did you install a CPU server on the machine,
> or change plan9.nvr on the floppy?  I'm pretty
> sure the plan9.nvr on the floppy still has
> glenda in it, but maybe the boot kernel is
> picking up the nvram on the hard disk first.
>
> Russ

Re: [9fans] install floppy

[Russ Cox]

	How is root.vd created?

Root.vd is a vdsqueezed mkfs -a style archive.
The ``kfs'' on the install disk is really vdfs, which
is quite literally a cross between vdexpand
and a lib9p-based ramfs.  The ramfs initializes
itself with the contents of the archive.

Second edition users might remember vdsqueeze
and vdexpand from its installation process as well.
I believe that (as then) we do not have the rights
to distribute the source.

Of course, AT&T has the rights to distribute the
source, and they do.  Vdexpand and vdsqueeze
are part of AT&T Research's mammoth AST package.
You'll never get the whole thing to configure under
Plan 9 (trust me), but you might be successful pulling
out just src/lib/libvdelta and getting it to compile.
Except for some extra #ifdefs, some formatting changes,
and some extra #define's to handle I/O, the code
in the AST package looks approximately like what
we have.

I have a gzfs that serves the same purpose using
/sys/src/cmd/gzip, but gzip -9 does a poorer job
than vdsqueeze does, to the extent that I can't fit
everything I want onto a disk using gzip.  Hence
I used vdsqueeze.

I can probably put all of that up somewhere, modulo
the vd source itself, if you're really interested.

	I am unable to use the floppy for installation since the June 17th update.  The
	problem appears to be the use of bootes as the login in nvram rather than
	glenda, as /usr/glenda is the only directory in /usr.  The boot complains of

Did you install a CPU server on the machine,
or change plan9.nvr on the floppy?  I'm pretty
sure the plan9.nvr on the floppy still has
glenda in it, but maybe the boot kernel is
picking up the nvram on the hard disk first.

Russ