Re: [9fans] booting a terminal in qemu

["Steve Simon" <steve@quintile.net>]

I don't know how you would use qemu to netboot plan9 as the server
uses the ethernet address of the client to decide who it is and which
kernel it give it. As this MAC is also assigned to the host machine
then things could get confused, perhaps there is some way of virtualising
MACs?

The cleanst way to boot a terminal is PXE as this means it can be
diskless. Failing this you can boot 9load locally, which will use
DHCP to get an IP address and the name of the kernel to fetch.
Finally you can boot moth 9load and the kernel from the local disk but
fetch your filesystem root from the remote server.

The only difference between these options is the extra hassle required to
keep the terminal's kernel up to date.

To boot from the network you will probably need to put some more detail into
/lib/ndb/local. if you can go the PXE route then put its plan9.ini /cfg/pxe/xxxxxxx
where xxxxxx is the MAC address of the terminal in lower case hex.

here is an example, though is relates to native plan9 rather than
qemu, but hopefully the recipe will be similar.
My file/auth/cpu server is felix, the terminal is glass

contents of /cfg/pxe/0002b31af559

	bootfile=ether0!felix!/386/9pc
	bootargs=tcp
	nobootprompt=tcp
	vgasize=1024x768x8
	monitor=xga
	mouseport=ps2
	ether0=type=i82557 media=100BASE-FX

from /lib/ndb/local

	sys=brick ether=0002b31af559
	ip=192.168.0.7
	bootf=/386/9pxeload

	ipnet=myhome ip=192.168.0.0 ipmask=255.255.255.0
		ipgw=192.168.0.1
		dns=194.168.4.100 dns=194.168.8.100
		dnsdomain=quintile.net
		nntp=news.myisp.com
		smtp=smtp.myisp.com
		ntp=gb.public.ntp.get-time.net
		authdom=home.quintile.net
		auth=felix
		cpu=felix
		fs=felix
-Steve