Early version of Floppy Demo

Early version of Floppy Demo

[will.senn]

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Hi,

I have an early version of the Plan 9 demo (serial number 0561). I'm using 86Box (Socket 7 VX Shuttle HOT-557 Pentium 100) to boot it. It boots, but then presents:

root is from (local, il, tcp)[local!#f/fd0disk]:

I press enter

user[none]:
fs...fs...time...
init: starting /bin/rc
/fs 14: serving #s/dos
Mouse port is (ps2, 0 (called COM1 in DOS), or 1 (called COM2 in DOS)):

I type ps20 (cuz my ps2 mouse is emulated on COM1?)
bunch of stuff scrolls by and ends with:

init: rc exit status: rc 9:false

init: starting /bin/rc
term%

Did I provide reasonable responses and how do I start the windows system (whoever thought of naming it 8 1/2, by the way?). I can't even type it in the console whatever 1/2 character was used :).

Will

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Re: [9fans] Early version of Floppy Demo

[Skip Tavakkolian]

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Going by memory, assuming aux/vga ran, you should be able to type 8-Alt-1-2
to type 8½
You should also be able to start acme or sam instead of 8½.




On Thu, Jul 23, 2020 at 9:58 AM <will.senn@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I have an early version of the Plan 9 demo (serial number 0561). I'm using
> 86Box (Socket 7 VX Shuttle HOT-557 Pentium 100) to boot it. It boots, but
> then presents:
>
> root is from (local, il, tcp)[local!#f/fd0disk]:
>
> I press enter
>
> user[none]:
> fs...fs...time...
> init: starting /bin/rc
> /fs 14: serving #s/dos
> Mouse port is (ps2, 0 (called COM1 in DOS), or 1 (called COM2 in DOS)):
>
> I type ps20 (cuz my ps2 mouse is emulated on COM1?)
> bunch of stuff scrolls by and ends with:
>
> init: rc exit status: rc 9:false
>
> init: starting /bin/rc
> term%
>
> Did I provide reasonable responses and how do I start the windows system
> (whoever thought of naming it 8 1/2, by the way?). I can't even type it in
> the console whatever 1/2 character was used :).
>
> Will
> *9fans <https://9fans.topicbox.com/latest>* / 9fans / see discussions
> <https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans> + participants
> <https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/members> + delivery options
> <https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/subscription> Permalink
> <https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/Tfc1bc1c6f9de7e59-M6de81827f2b7754bd939f8c0>
>

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Re: [9fans] Early version of Floppy Demo

[will.senn]

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I figured out how to get the graphical system to work... when it asks about the mouse, select a valid option :) - ps2, 0, or 1...

imgur.com/ecPcAm4

Now, I just need to figure out which mouse options to set in 86box, so the mouse actually works!

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Re: [9fans] Early version of Floppy Demo

[Ethan Gardener]

On Thu, Jul 23, 2020, at 6:50 PM, Skip Tavakkolian wrote:
> Going by memory, assuming aux/vga ran, you should be able to type 8-Alt-1-2 to type 8½
> You should also be able to start acme or sam instead of 8½.

These will probably work, except acme hadn't been invented yet and sam may or may not give an error the first time. (Checked with another demo disk.) You probably do want to start the window system, there is no way to kill the foreground process without it.

I could email a slightly newer demo disk which prompts, "Start the window system? (y/n)". Note that it has more annoyances than 4th edition. For instance, while the down arrow key behaves appropriately, the up arrow key inserts Î. Home inserts Í, End inserts CR. Double-click doesn't select anything in 8½, which is a nuisance when you habitually use send. The grep command does not exist! It does, however, have ftpfs. Useful demo, not useful tool.

I could email a 2nd edition CD-ROM too. It has grep and the source to everything, but it's not a bootable disk. I don't think the demo floppy's kernel has appropriate drivers. (It certainly lacks 9660srv.) The contents of #S are unfamiliar too. The demo floppy lacks a lot of things, such as /dev/drivers and even ns, which hinders exploration. I extracted a bunch of kernels from the CD-ROM in the past, but I couldn't be bothered to figure out how to boot them, much less find which one(s) will mount root from a CD-ROM. I wonder if they'll boot if I tell qemu they're floppy disk images... (tired now)

Re: [9fans] Early version of Floppy Demo

[Skip Tavakkolian]

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On Thu, Jul 23, 2020 at 1:31 PM Ethan Gardener <eekee57@fastmail.fm> wrote:

> On Thu, Jul 23, 2020, at 6:50 PM, Skip Tavakkolian wrote:
> > Going by memory, assuming aux/vga ran, you should be able to type
> 8-Alt-1-2 to type 8½
> > You should also be able to start acme or sam instead of 8½.
>
> These will probably work, except acme hadn't been invented yet and sam may
> or may not give an error the first time. (Checked with another demo disk.)
> You probably do want to start the window system, there is no way to kill
> the foreground process without it.
>

Acme (Alef version) is in 2ed; the single-floppy version doesn't seem to
have the binary. Looking at the screenshot that Will sent me directly, the
dates on the binaries match up to 2ed release.

I'm pretty sure the four-floppy set that came with the CDROM has the acme
binary. I don't have any floppy drives that I trust to look at my copy.

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Re: [9fans] Early version of Floppy Demo

[Will Senn]

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On 7/23/20 4:33 PM, Skip Tavakkolian wrote:
>
>
> On Thu, Jul 23, 2020 at 1:31 PM Ethan Gardener <eekee57@fastmail.fm 
> <mailto:eekee57@fastmail.fm>> wrote:
>
>     On Thu, Jul 23, 2020, at 6:50 PM, Skip Tavakkolian wrote:
>     > Going by memory, assuming aux/vga ran, you should be able to
>     type 8-Alt-1-2 to type 8½
>     > You should also be able to start acme or sam instead of 8½.
>
>     These will probably work, except acme hadn't been invented yet and
>     sam may or may not give an error the first time. (Checked with
>     another demo disk.) You probably do want to start the window
>     system, there is no way to kill the foreground process without it.
>
>
> Acme (Alef version) is in 2ed; the single-floppy version doesn't seem 
> to have the binary. Looking at the screenshot that Will sent me 
> directly, the dates on the binaries match up to 2ed release.
>
> I'm pretty sure the four-floppy set that came with the CDROM has the 
> acme binary. I don't have any floppy drives that I trust to look at my 
> copy.
> *9fans <https://9fans.topicbox.com/latest>* / 9fans / see discussions 
> <https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans> + participants 
> <https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/members> + delivery options 
> <https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/subscription> Permalink 
> <https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/Tfc1bc1c6f9de7e59-Mc8748bb91d87905e8241e852> 
>
Interestingly enough, I found an old 4 floppy set of vd's in the same 
folder with the demo image. It looks like they are Nov 1995 (I 
apparently winimaged them from floppies back then). When I boot disk 1, 
it complains about not having an mbr partition and bails. I'm guessing 
it's expecting some OS and hard disk to be present to install to.



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Re: [9fans] Early version of Floppy Demo

[Ethan Gardener]

On Thu, Jul 23, 2020, at 10:59 PM, Will Senn wrote:
> Interestingly enough, I found an old 4 floppy set of vd's in the same folder with the demo image. It looks like they are Nov 1995 (I apparently winimaged them from floppies back then). When I boot disk 1, it complains about not having an mbr partition and bails. I'm guessing it's expecting some OS and hard disk to be present to install to. 

Huh! You noticed them just a little sooner than I did. Reading betweent he lines of the README, it looks like they were being very careful about MBR matters. I think a hard disk image with an empty MBR should be enough. 

Re: [9fans] Early version of Floppy Demo

[Ethan Gardener]

On Thu, Jul 23, 2020, at 10:33 PM, Skip Tavakkolian wrote:
> 
> 
> On Thu, Jul 23, 2020 at 1:31 PM Ethan Gardener <eekee57@fastmail.fm> wrote:
>> On Thu, Jul 23, 2020, at 6:50 PM, Skip Tavakkolian wrote:
>> > Going by memory, assuming aux/vga ran, you should be able to type 8-Alt-1-2 to type 8½
>> > You should also be able to start acme or sam instead of 8½.
>> 
>> These will probably work, except acme hadn't been invented yet and sam may or may not give an error the first time. (Checked with another demo disk.) You probably do want to start the window system, there is no way to kill the foreground process without it.
> 
> Acme (Alef version) is in 2ed; the single-floppy version doesn't seem to have the binary. Looking at the screenshot that Will sent me directly, the dates on the binaries match up to 2ed release.

I stand corrected.

> I'm pretty sure the four-floppy set that came with the CDROM has the acme binary. I don't have any floppy drives that I trust to look at my copy.

I think I have images of those, could send them if desired. At least, the ones I have are described like this in the README:
> The files in this directory recreate the four 1.44MB diskettes
> used to load a limited version of Plan 9 onto a PC.  It is intended
> to let you try out Plan 9 before buying, in particular to see if
> the system supports your PC hardware.

They also contain fixes, perhaps over the iso? Anyway, if they contain iso9660, I imagine they're enough to get the iso installed.