[9fans] [GUIDE] 9plan in qemu under windows

[9fans] [GUIDE] 9plan in qemu under windows

[ramkromberg]

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I made this little guide out of scrambled notes and general boredom, Its
probably full of bugs and won't work at all, Enjoy :-)
benefits in using qemu: qemu is GPL open source and free, everything
works, sound should also work though this remains untested since I don't
know how...

A quick and dirty guide for running plan 9 under qemu Virtual Machine in
windows xp (2000+ should be ok, xp sp2 tested too):

Required Skill: Advance : Networking experience is mandatory and skillz
will also help a lot ;-)
Risks for even the uber-coder when using ms-windows (to whatever purpose,
but especially in the context of this guide): Your PC shall blaze in
hell's fire fury while shooting its own chips in a direct projectory
toward the nearest elderly / infant / your reproductive organs, obviously
I don't take responsibility for whatever damage that may be caused to
your computer, you, or the nearest elderly / infant in 35m distance from
the machine or any connected to it or not.

*** Pls read through at least twice, also unless you know exactly how
your network is set, its better you skip the networking parts, or better
yet, skip this guide...

01. Download "qemu-0.9.0-windows.zip", "openvpn-2.0.9-install.exe" and
"plan9.iso.bz".
02. Extract "plan9.iso" and "qemu-0.9.0-windows" to the same directory.
03. Install "openvpn-2.0.9-install.exe".
04. Rename the new network connection (found in Network Connections) to
"TAP_OpenVPN".
05. Bridge "TAP_OpenVPN" and your WAN/LAN Connection (usually "Local Area
Connection", should be enabled and has packet changes when downloading) -
This is done by choosing the connections (ctrl+ left mouse button the
one, and then the other without releasing) and then in the properties
menu (right click while still holding ctrl) choosing bridge.
06. Notice your configurations now reside in the new "bridge connection"
instead of "Local Area Connection".
07. Use: "qemu.exe -L -m 128 -cdrom ..\plan9.iso -boot d -net
nic,model=rtl8139 -net tap,ifname=TAP_OpenVPN -soundhw sb16 -localtime"
to start plan9, this command can be inserted into a batch file.
08. In the VM (referred to as "guest machine" : In the boot options
choose to boot from the CD.
09. Guest: You can press "return\enter" for the rest of the questions
presented by in the boot sequence - default will suffice.
10. Done, pls read through the tips...


*. Ctrl+Alt to release the mouse from the qemu window

*. Set networking by dhcp (good with the bridge explained above and if
router supplies ips (dhcp)):
"ip/ipconfig"
"ndb/dns -r"
"ip/ping address"
test by pinging your gateway/router by the ip address, then try a site
like www.google.com you know return icmp(respond to ping).

*. When using acme in qemu with live boot iso, notice that file create is
only possible in /tmp, not even in the /usr/glenda (the user that you log
in as) - this will be resolved if you install to HD.

*. Installing to HardDisk: use "qemu-img.exe create plan9hd.img 1024M" to
set a 1gig Virtual HardDisk, use "qemu.exe -L . -m 128 -hda plan9hd.img
-cdrom .\plan9.iso -boot d -net nic,model=rtl8139 -net
tap,ifname=TAP_OpenVPN -localtime" to boot.
You can install to HD or mount the drive and format it to use as you
wish, plan9 tends to have a very slow install process in VM.

*. If you don't actually know how to use plan9,
http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sys/doc/ has some good info,
plan9.escet.urjc.es/who/nemo/9.intro.pdf will do even better.


*. qemu will emulate sb16 which is supported by plan9, However, I was
unable to verify its functionality.


*. Common Issue: the pc halts in different parts of the network
configuration process: this is due to other VM virtual nics conflicting
with the each other, solutions vary from disabling to deleting the other
VM's nics, worst case plan 9 can run without networking, though to what
use ?

*. Common Issue: High CPU Usage: this is not a problem but the result of
the qemu normal functionality, if a process on the host machine will
require more CPU time, qemu will reduce the load itself - this can be
forced by reducing the process priority using the task manager.

*. Common Issue: "TAP_OpenVPN" always appear to be disconnected: this is
a false readout, ignore it as it has no ill effects.

*. Common Issue: 9P connectivity seems to be broken : firewall, router
firewall...

* Play around with thew res: 800x600x8 and above seems to be more useful
for working with acme...

* for sound see the qemu readme, I never succeeded though it might have
been for lack of trying...

* Less Questions at boot: download plan9.flp and replace plan9.ini that
with the following (use winimage or mount through loopback device):
#**** plan9.ini content starts here *****

*nomp=1
*nodumpstack=1
partition=new
mouseport=ps2
vgasize=800x600x8
monitor=xga
distname=plan9
ether0=rtl8139
audio0=sb16 port=0x220 irq=7 dma=5
bootargs=local!#S/sdD0/data
bootfile=sdD0!cdboot!9pccd.gz
adisk=/dev/sdD0/cdboot
cdboot=yes

#**** plan9.ini content ends here *****

this will reduce the questions to one "press return", the cmd line will
be:
"qemu.exe -L -m 128 -fda plan9.flp -cdrom ..\plan9.iso -boot d -net
nic,model=rtl8139 -net tap,ifname=TAP_OpenVPN -soundhw sb16 -localtime"

this strategy is unnecessary in hd boot.

* Really many things can go wrong, networking issues are common to even
the simplest of tasks so this task should prove to be quite problematic
to many unexperienced users, also qemu itself runs on different machines
with different success rates, it can crash and burn taking your os with
it (whether your running windows or *nix).
- To contrast all the warnings: At this very second I'm running winamp,
notepad, qemu, firefox, add/remove programs, azureus, process explorer,
putty, and stardock on Windows Media Center SP2 AMD Athlon 2600+ GF5600
with build-in sound, three different vm's nics while removing one of them
indirectly through uninstall and having clamwin do a silent scan at the
back...



ToDo:
1. Sound.
2. Boot with no delays.
3. Slow copy to HD.
4. spellcheck, factcheck, sanitycheck, check to self ;-)

I would like someone to test, retest, organize, do the todos,  and post
this in the wiki, I think its rather useful since most of the commercial
VMs fail in different ways to run plan9 (vmware, parallels, virtual
pc...)

Ram Kromberg
ramkromberg@mail.com

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Re: [9fans] [GUIDE] 9plan in qemu under windows

[Jack Johnson]

On 3/24/07, ramkromberg@mail.com <ramkromberg@mail.com> wrote:
> ToDo:
> 2. Boot with no delays.

What kind of delays are you seeing?

> 3. Slow copy to HD.

I've found using fossil/venti under QEMU the setup time is insanely
long, but maybe that's just QEMU.  Post-setup performance is fine.

Also, if you'll eventually need more than a gig of disk space don't
want to allocate it all now, QEMU will handle compressed VMware disk
images just fine (which you can create with the QEMU tools).  Now,
formatting venti arenas in those disk images will negate that space
savings, so be warned.

-Jack

Re: [9fans] [GUIDE] 9plan in qemu under windows

[Uriel]

> > 3. Slow copy to HD.
>
> I've found using fossil/venti under QEMU the setup time is insanely
> long, but maybe that's just QEMU.  Post-setup performance is fine.

This is due to a combination of lack of DMA under Qemu and old venti
versions being very inefficient when formatting arenas. The solution
is very simple: use the new version of venti... hahahaha (I laugh to
avoid crying.)

Best wishes

uriel

[9fans] [GUIDE] 9plan in qemu under windows

[ramkromberg]

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The delay I'm referring to is the q&a: When not installing but rather
using the live boot, you are presented whenever you start the machine
with a series of questions (monitor, res, mouse), I managed to set
plan9.ini in the floppy image so that only one question will be
presented, but that is still one question too much.
Thats should be relevantly easy to those who are more experienced with
plan9 then me - which should be just about anyone in this forum...

The slow copy to HD is, as you said, me referring to the installation
process, this problem is consistent in all VM I tried to install plan 9
onto (vmware, virtual pc, parallels, many many others...) so I'm guessing
it has something to do with how plan9 acts rather then how the different
VMs preform, maybe this can be addressed in form of a kernel patch ? I
wouldn't know as I was yet to successfully diagnose the the exact cause
of the problem... - Thats the Todo part :-)
This requires a programmer that is capable to do what is required and
hopefully incorporate this modifications to the main build (one of the
nightly builds) so this won't require an attachment to this guide but
rather will be specified in the guide as a requirement to an updated
version of plan9.iso.

Their is also the issue of the sound, mp3 playback would be nice, but I
think that at least the /bin/games/* that require sound should work

Though I think this procedure is relatively safe to the experienced user
- without other people testing and feedbacking on it I stick to a strong
warning about hell's minions erupting from your monitor to devour your
souls and so and so...
Obviously the final step would be to upload a corrected and reorganized
version of this guide - again by someone other then me that has access to
the wiki and is less orinted to the random histerical shouting of 
"Beware the Darkness !!! The BSoD shall be its precursor !!!" ;-).

Ram Kromberg
ramkromberg@mail.com

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