[9fans] Boot problem

[9fans] Boot problem

[Christian Grothaus]

Hi!

I just installed Plan 9 over internet on an old
Pentium-133 PC. Everything went fine, but when
I now try to log in as glenda (or as none), I get the
message "wrenwrite failed: i/o error". This message
then repeats over and over again and I have no
chance to interrupt it. What causes this error?

Thanks in advance,

Chris

Re: [9fans] boot problem

[Thomas Marcks v W]

when the boot loader shud start it prints out "MBR..." on the secreen and then 
the system hangs. my plan 9 instalation wont install a boot floppydisk for me 
for some reason (it cant detect a floppy drive i think). Bicous im new at 
plan9 i dont know how the partisions and disk handeling works so i falid to 
manualy create a boot disk.



On Friday 10 June 2005 06:30, David Leimbach wrote:
> On 6/10/05, Thomas Marcks v W <tomten@tomten.hopto.org> wrote:
> > Hi, i am having broblem with booting plan9. after the install i reboot
> > and all i get is MBR... how do i solv this problem?
>
> I'm confused by "all I get is MBR".
>
> Can you elaborate a bit.  What do you see?
>
> I've basically gone the route of using a boot floppy nowadays myself.
> It's a bit easier than blowing away my other bootloader configuration
> for the other OSes I run.
>
> Of course if you are on a dedicated plan 9 box you probably do want to
> avoid the floppy [and possibly even the hard disk if that's possible
> depending on BIOS settings]

[9fans] boot problem

[Thomas Marcks v W]

Hi, i am having broblem with booting plan9. after the install i reboot and all 
i get is MBR... how do i solv this problem?

Re: [9fans] boot problem

[David Leimbach]

On 6/10/05, Thomas Marcks v W <tomten@tomten.hopto.org> wrote:
> Hi, i am having broblem with booting plan9. after the install i reboot and all
> i get is MBR... how do i solv this problem?
> 

I'm confused by "all I get is MBR".

Can you elaborate a bit.  What do you see?

I've basically gone the route of using a boot floppy nowadays myself. 
It's a bit easier than blowing away my other bootloader configuration
for the other OSes I run.

Of course if you are on a dedicated plan 9 box you probably do want to
avoid the floppy [and possibly even the hard disk if that's possible
depending on BIOS settings]

Re: [9fans] Boot problem

[Christian Grothaus]

In article <20011122183448.E49EC199E7@mail.cse.psu.edu>, Russ Cox wrote:
[...]
> 	1. boot the install floppy
> 	2. instead of typing at the menus, draw a new window.
> 	3. run "disk/fdisk -p /dev/sdC0/data >/dev/sdC0/ctl"
> 		this sets up /dev/sdC0/dos, /dev/sdC0/plan9, etc.
> 	4. run "disk/prep -p /dev/sdC0/plan9 >/dev/sdC0/ctl"
> 		this sets up the partitions inside the plan9
> 		partition: /dev/sdC0/fs, /dev/sdC0/9fat, etc.
> 	5. run "disk/kfs -f /dev/sdC0/fs"
> 		this starts kfs
> 	6. run "mount /srv/kfs /n/kfs"
> 	7. poke around in /n/kfs

Thanks for these tips! I now understand a bit what's going
on when kfs is mounted. I think this is very useful to know
when boot problems arise, or for diagnostic purposes.

Thanks again!

Chris

Re: [9fans] Boot problem

[Russ Cox]

addendum: if you haven't used plan 9 before, you can
still try those steps, but i expect that "draw a new window"
and the various window manager operations might be a bit
mysterious.  see http://plan9.bell-labs.com/magic/man2html/1/rio
for a good introduction.

russ

Re: [9fans] Boot problem

[Russ Cox]

wrenwrite failed: i/o error means that kfs (the on-disk
file system) is trying to write a disk block and getting
an error for whatever reason.  kfs isn't actually started
until after you type the user name, so it could well
be that it's not making any progress whatsoever.

if you've used plan 9 before (on another machine), you
might try:
	1. boot the install floppy
	2. instead of typing at the menus, draw a new window.
	3. run "disk/fdisk -p /dev/sdC0/data >/dev/sdC0/ctl"
		this sets up /dev/sdC0/dos, /dev/sdC0/plan9, etc.
	4. run "disk/prep -p /dev/sdC0/plan9 >/dev/sdC0/ctl"
		this sets up the partitions inside the plan9
		partition: /dev/sdC0/fs, /dev/sdC0/9fat, etc.
	5. run "disk/kfs -f /dev/sdC0/fs"
		this starts kfs
	6. run "mount /srv/kfs /n/kfs"
	7. poke around in /n/kfs

my bet is that you won't get to step 7, but knowing exactly
what happens will help.  it's easier to debug kfs problems if
you have a full window system at your disposal as well as the
ability to type commands.

russ

[9fans] Boot problem

[Christian Grothaus]

....just solved the problem - it was nothing Plan 9 specific:
the partition map of the harddisk was corrupted by another
program. Stupid mistake!

Sorry for making noise,

Chris