From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Message-ID: <4827F7E4.8080105@fh-lausitz.de> Date: Mon, 12 May 2008 09:55:16 +0200 From: bblochl User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.12 (X11/20080226) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net> References: <9f9538eb2b7dc1838abecc950fc5225a@quanstro.net> <48276207.2090909@fh-lausitz.de> <20080511231113.GA941@shodan.homeunix.net> In-Reply-To: <20080511231113.GA941@shodan.homeunix.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: [9fans] bootsetup problem Topicbox-Message-UUID: a4fd7ef8-ead3-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 Martin Neubauer schrieb: > If you don't boot from cd you still need to have access to the data that is > getting installed. So you can either put the cd image somewhere on the > system (this can be a problem if you want to install Plan 9 on the whole > hard disc) or download it during installation. I also couldn't quite get the > network going from the installer, but I didn't depend on that, anyway. If > you boot from cd, just say /dev/sdD0/data. > > Martin, thank you very much for your helpful answer! Indeed it might be somewhat strange to install plan 9 as a standalone system and I am sure that this is seldom done. At least I have plan 9 on the laptop happily now. Let me describe the problem solution for other users eventually fighting with a similar problem. As you pointed out in your mail, the data must be somewhere in the installation process. That clearly is the CD that one has to mount as /dev/sdD0/data at the installation step "mountdist". But the Installation Manual is wrong as it is saying: "When prompted for "distribution disk" the usual value is /dev/sdD0/data - it is not, that never does work. The usual value must be simply "/" for that case of installation from this mounted CD, say sdD0! But there is another very strange problem I could not believe until I had checked it for reproducibility a couple of times: That "/" at the prompt "distribution disk" does not work the first time!! The first time the familiar sequence .................... /bin/mount: can't open srv/dos: '/srv/dos' file does not exist cp: can't create /n/9fat/9load: '/n/9fat/9load' clone failed cp: can't create /n/9fat/9pcf '/n/9fat/9pcf' clone failed /n/9fat/plan9.ini: rc (bootsetup): can't open: '/n/9fat/plan9.ini' clone failed as described in a former mail will appear again. One has to kill the installation, reboot and run the process a second time, then the input "/" will be accepted and the last task "bootsetup" will come to a happy end. (I always wiped the disk befor starting a new test to make shure that there are no rest of a former installation that will adulterate the result of the experiment.) I do not know what kind of moronic error I did make this time on that point? (As I read out of the mails there are no other users installing/using plan 9 as a stand alone system, so it may be that such a problem does not occur with other setup combinations with plan 9 on a separate partition with windows or linux.) There are some more obscurities I would like to add here: 1. With all that trouble in mind I ask myself if it is not very logic to assume that the source of the actual installation will be the source of the distribution? One of the first messages tells me that plan9 is booting from sdD0, so it is clear that this is known to the system. So I ask myself if such a step of mounting an already for the installation necessarily mounted media is not bare of elementary logic? I would expect that that that installation step mostly might be automated. I think only to question the user for an eventually other source of distribution would make sense, as one may install a new source via internet. 2. Why does the install process offer an XGA monitor as default? VESA is save with nearly all hardware nowadays. VESA as adefault would move away another banana skin of the installation process for non-professionals, especially as VESA is not offered to the user so one must know that possibility. (And it is not described in the "Installation Manual".) So I think VESA should be default with an offer of XGA as an option. 3. The task "formatventi" and the task "copydist" will not be prompted as described in the "Installation Manual" but run automatically and that is a good idea. But the point is that the description is wrong and confusing. (In the case of "formatventi" certainly that will only happen if you chose fossli+venti at the prompt "configfs" and copydist will certainly only run if the process described above was successful.) I am not familiar enough with plan 9 to change that installation processes and do not even know where that boot-script is. But I am bored with all that tawdry/clicky Systems and I am interested in the internals of plan 9. Is there any detailed description to compile plan 9 from source? I think that is a good starting point to understand a system to do some useful. Thanks and regards Bernhard