9load will be gone soon.  muzgo and i are working on 9pcload wich will
use /dev/reboot to start the final kernel and use the native plan9
drivers.  9pcload will itself be loaded by some simple bootblocks.  we
have iso (el torito in non emulation mode - no floppy emulation) and
pxe working already.  for harddisk here are lba and chs bootblocks
available that load 9pcload from a patchable lba offset and a multi
staged loader that will detect lba/chs automatically and is more
flexible on finding 9pcload is in the works.

this terminal and my thinkpad are already network booted without any
9load involvement!

:)

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cinap