[9fans] Can't install Plan9 on VMWare

[9fans] Can't install Plan9 on VMWare

[Philip Silva]

Hi!

I've downloaded the Plan9 iso from
http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9/download.html and tried to test the live
cd. It wasn't really possible, at first the boot manager won't really react
(the trick seems to wait a long time...) and then some error appears.
But since I decided to install it on VMWare on Linux, this doesn't matter so
much.
There in the installation menu (textinst) I select all the default options
and I end up (when doing copydist) with:
cacheAllocBlock: xxx1 disk is full
and so on...
I also made a test doubling each partition's size (exept for nvram) and I
ended up with some error that told me IIRC that for my large disc FAT16
doesn't work out, so I would have to use FAT32. Trying to increment each
partition lowly (starting from the default size) doesn't help either -
moreover the error can even occur early with larger sizes. BTW the VMWare
image has a size of 800MB (initially the image size was smaller) and the -
default - partition sizes are the following:
9fat 100 MB
nvram 512 Bytes
fossil 200 MB
swap 100 MB
Can anyone help me?

Philip

Re: [9fans] Can't install Plan9 on VMWare

[erik quanstrom]

> I also made a test doubling each partition's size (exept for nvram) and I
> ended up with some error that told me IIRC that for my large disc FAT16
> doesn't work out, so I would have to use FAT32. Trying to increment each
> partition lowly (starting from the default size) doesn't help either -
> moreover the error can even occur early with larger sizes. BTW the VMWare
> image has a size of 800MB (initially the image size was smaller) and the -
> default - partition sizes are the following:
> 9fat 100 MB
> nvram 512 Bytes
> fossil 200 MB
> swap 100 MB

i would imagine 200mb is too small, given the size of the current
dist.

you don't need to increase the size of 9fat, either and you
don't need a swap partition at all.  with 800mb i would partition
the disk like:

	9fat	20mb
	nvram	512 bytes
	fossil	700 mb

the only thing that usually goes in 9fat is the kernel, 9load and
plan9.ini.  i use a 10mb 9fat, but the kernels i use are 650k
compressed.

- erik

Re: [9fans] Can't install Plan9 on VMWare

[Philip Silva]

> you don't need to increase the size of 9fat, either and you
> don't need a swap partition at all.  with 800mb i would partition
> the disk like:
>
> 9fat  20mb
> nvram 512 bytes
> fossil        700 mb
Thank you for your help! This worked out...

But now there's a new problem: After installing it and rebooting the
computer, everything seems normal until the message "init:
starting /bin/rc". Nothing happens then although the computer does not
freeze (keyboard input is shown on the screen).

Philip

Re: [9fans] Can't install Plan9 on VMWare

[erik quanstrom]

> Thank you for your help! This worked out...
>
> But now there's a new problem: After installing it and rebooting the
> computer, everything seems normal until the message "init:
> starting /bin/rc". Nothing happens then although the computer does not
> freeze (keyboard input is shown on the screen).
>
> Philip

good deal.

can you enter commands.  if you type "echo hi" does
it echo hi?  if this is the case, you need to configure
vga so you can start rio.

- erik

Re: [9fans] Can't install Plan9 on VMWare

[john]

>> you don't need to increase the size of 9fat, either and you
>> don't need a swap partition at all.  with 800mb i would partition
>> the disk like:
>>
>> 9fat  20mb
>> nvram 512 bytes
>> fossil        700 mb
> Thank you for your help! This worked out...
>
> But now there's a new problem: After installing it and rebooting the
> computer, everything seems normal until the message "init:
> starting /bin/rc". Nothing happens then although the computer does not
> freeze (keyboard input is shown on the screen).
>
> Philip

Remove the CD-ROM drive from your VMware configuration and boot.

John

Re: [9fans] Can't install Plan9 on VMWare

[Philip Silva]

> Remove the CD-ROM drive from your VMware configuration and boot.
>
> John
Thanks a lot! Problem solved... Still weird :-)

Philip

Re: [9fans] Can't install Plan9 on VMWare

[Federico G. Benavento]

> But now there's a new problem: After installing it and rebooting the
> computer, everything seems normal until the message "init:
> starting /bin/rc". Nothing happens then although the computer does not
> freeze (keyboard input is shown on the screen).

you either remove the cdrom from the virtual machine or make it to
emulate scsi.
if you're iso is more than 2 days old, you'll have to do
% echo hwaccel off > /dev/vgactl
to get vga working well.

Federico G. Benavento

---
/bin/fortune
Anyone who understands my music will never be unhappy again. -L. Van Beethoven

Re: [9fans] Can't install Plan9 on VMWare

[Philip Silva]

> you either remove the cdrom from the virtual machine or make it to
> emulate scsi.
> if you're iso is more than 2 days old, you'll have to do
> % echo hwaccel off > /dev/vgactl
> to get vga working well.
I see, well I removed the cdrom. But when installing plan9 I entered ega (or
was it cga?!) in order to not start rio. Maybe I should just run through the
installation process again - which is extremely slow here.
Anyways, text mode now works fine, but when I'm changing /dev/vgactl
with "echo type vesa > /dev/vgactl" and "echo hwaccel off > /dev/vgactl"
after a reboot the file turns out to be the old one looking like this:
type cga
bland time 30 idle 0 state on
hwaccel on
hwblank off
panning off
addr p 0x0 v 0x0 size 0x0

BTW: When I enter "echo type vga > /dev/vgactl" i get
echo: write error: bad VGA control message "type vga". And it seems that
I cannot edit the file with ed.

Philip Silva

Re: [9fans] Can't install Plan9 on VMWare

[Antonin Vecera]

On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 10:30 AM, Philip Silva <p.silva@gmx.net> wrote:
>> you either remove the cdrom from the virtual machine or make it to
>> emulate scsi.
>> if you're iso is more than 2 days old, you'll have to do
>> % echo hwaccel off > /dev/vgactl
>> to get vga working well.
> I see, well I removed the cdrom. But when installing plan9 I entered ega (or
> was it cga?!) in order to not start rio. Maybe I should just run through the
> installation process again - which is extremely slow here.

VMware is the fastest PC emulator i ever run.

> Anyways, text mode now works fine, but when I'm changing /dev/vgactl
> with "echo type vesa > /dev/vgactl" and "echo hwaccel off > /dev/vgactl"

only "echo hwaccel off > /dev/vgactl" should be sufficient

> after a reboot the file turns out to be the old one looking like this:
> type cga
> bland time 30 idle 0 state on
> hwaccel on
> hwblank off
> panning off
> addr p 0x0 v 0x0 size 0x0
>
> BTW: When I enter "echo type vga > /dev/vgactl" i get
> echo: write error: bad VGA control message "type vga". And it seems that
> I cannot edit the file with ed.
>
> Philip Silva
>

1. create virtual machine
2. boot from CD
3. if your graphics isn't readable, create with mouse new window and
type "echo hwaccel off > /dev/vgactl" + Enter, "exit" + Enter
4. screen will not refresh immediately, but you can type Enter and
prompt will be refreshed
5. go on with installation
6. after that, before you reboot, edit your VMware configuration file
(*.vmx) and change    ide1:0.present = "TRUE"    to false.
   (I suppose ide1:0 is your cd-rom)
7. save and boot

Here is my VMware config file (you could change ethernet connection
type to bridge or whatever you use), maybe it helps you:


config.version = "8"
virtualHW.version = "6"
virtualHW.productCompatibility = "hosted"

displayName = "Monty"

extendedConfigFile = "Monty.vmxf"

guestOS = "other"

memsize = "256"

numvcpus = "2"

nvram = "Monty.nvram"

floppy0.present = "FALSE"

ide0:0.present = "TRUE"
ide0:0.fileName = "Monty.vmdk"
ide0:0.redo = ""

ide1:0.present = "FALSE"
ide1:0.fileName = "..\plan9.iso"
ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-image"

ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
ethernet0.pciSlotNumber = "16"
ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:14:4b:0a"
ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"
ethernet0.connectionType = "custom"
ethernet0.vnet="VMnet1"

tools.remindInstall = "TRUE"
tools.upgrade.policy = "manual"

logging = "FALSE"

uuid.location = "56 4d fe 9e 4d 1f ee a5-09 ec c7 eb 59 da e6 09"
uuid.bios = "56 4d 01 b5 ac 72 1c dd-02 da c4 2a 37 14 4b 0a"