Re: [9fans] [GSOC] plan9 which arch code to use?

[erik quanstrom <quanstro@quanstro.net>]

On Tue May  6 18:26:58 EDT 2014, ccuiyyan@gmail.com wrote:

> Dear all,
>
>      I was confused by one experiment which is done today.
> My machine is x86_64 and I run Plan9 inside KVM. According to my
> understanding, operating system should detect which hardware platform it is
> running (x86, sparc, etc) and automatically invoke
> corresponding arch-dependent codes. But, when I echo $cputypes,
> it is 386! I also browse some kernel config file in /sys/src/9/pc, it seems
> that plan9 forces to use 386 for Intel cpus (right?). Please tolerate if I
> made stupid mistakes, I just wonder how to make a amd64 kernel? (My
> hardware already supports that.)

good question.  /sys/src/9/pc is a 386 kernel.  it runs 386 code on anything
that at least supports a 386 regardless of the hardware support.  if you
think about it, supporting more than one instruction set with a single
kernel has some added difficulties.

as cinap mentions, for a 64-bit kernel, your options are 9atom or 9front.
since i work with 9atom, i'll speak to it.  you can just install 64-bit with
no muss or fuss, if the hardware is supported.  let me know if there are
issues.  if you already have something working, then nevermind.  :-)

- erik