Re: [9fans] recent plan9.iso on hosted kvm/qemu

[Jack Norton <jack@0x6a.com>]

Stanley Lieber wrote:
>> On Sun Mar  6 22:33:33 EST 2011, stanley.lieber@gmail.com wrote:
>>>> 9atom's 9load prints "%d e820 entries" on boot.  is that number 0?
>>> found 7 e8s0 entries
>>>
>>> Then it freezes.
>> it's not the e820 code, then.  it's either falling over initializing the
>> console, or it's falling over probing devices for the .ini file.
>>
>> after e820, 9load starts up the console and probes devices looking
>> for a .ini file.
>>
>> i would think the odds are good that 9load has found an i/o port
>> that should not be touched.  devices are probed in this order
>> 	floppy. ether, cd, sd.
>>
>> i don't really have a kvm setup, but if it's possible, you might try
>> removing devices (espeically ethernet devices) from a copy of 9load
>> until you find something that boots, then add 'em back in till it doesn't.
>>
>> sounds tedious, no?  :-)
>
> I'm perfectly willing. Two main problems at this point:
>
> - I don't have immediate access to amd64 hardware to setup my own KVM/qemu.
> I learned the hard way that KVM inside another qemu or VMware guest doesn't
> work.
> - Changing out the CD-ROM image on the hosted VPS requires sending an e-mail
> to technical support and waiting up to 24 hours for a response. I've been told
> allowing users to dynamically change CD-ROM images is not an option.
>
> Jack:
>
> If you reading this, do you want to try this with your cron-swapped floppy images?
>
> -sl
>
>
I would be willing, definitely.  However, I am committed to finishing
the setup of a cpu/auth server in the VPS right now (I've got it
installed, just need to find time to make the migration from terminal to
cpu/auth -- probably lunch break today).  I want to reach the milestone
of serving a page over http (which is the primary purpose of this VPS in
the first place).
Once that is done, I can bring it down and start playing around with
9loads and kernels loaded on my floppy image.

Also, see about setting up the floppy cron job on your vps.  If
anything, having a floppy there makes things so much easier to quickly
play with a new kernel.  No need to master a new install cd and have
them waste all that bandwidth.

Also, I noticed that the "probing plan9.ini" step in the loader looks at
the floppy first even if booting off the hd.  Since I couldn't remove
the floppy all together, I have my install's plan9.ini merged into the
plan9.ini of the floppy.
Just a minor annoyance I had no idea existed :).  Although it is a great
little feature to rescue the system if I bork my plan9.ini...

Also, I really need to thank fgb as he gave me a little tip on irc about
his modified 9load that allows you to pass new plan9.ini variables at
boot.  I got disconnected before I could acknowledge.  I haven't tried
it yet, but it could be useful.

-Jack