From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:04:02 +0000
From: Bob <rpangrazio@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <9d2fdca3-705f-4f28-a98d-432019d157bb@d27g2000prf.googlegroups.com>
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Subject: [9fans] Re: Building a Floppy Disk
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On Dec 14, 10:54 am, quans...@quanstro.net (erik quanstrom) wrote:
> > > if you alter your bios settings to set the sata mode to enhanced/ahci,
> > > plan 9 should boot directly from livecd on your machine.
>
> [etc]
>
> > It will boot from the livecd , it just won't recognize my sata drive.
> > When i put it in ata mode, or legacy mode or what ever, i have noticed
> > some os's recognize it as a sata, some as an ata. Plan 9 unfortunatly
> > is in the sata relm.
>
> like i said, you need to turn on "enhanced" mode in the bios.  for
> some chipsets/bios you need to enable ahci.  on phoenixbios this
> option only appears once enhanced mode is enabled.
>
> if this is not working, either i misunderstood which file you modified.
> sdata.c or sdiahci.c.  it's possible that there are missing dids in sdiahci.c
> or i am a bit confused as to the southbridge that comes with the 945.
> what is the output of "pci|grep disk"?
>
> > I can build 9pcf.gz and put it on a floppy and the new kernel with my
> > changes will boot, and see the sata bus. But the floppy root system is
> > missing those components, therefore it won't get to a working system.
>
> > Is there a way I can boot the floppy  kernel but use the CD's root fs?
>
> i've done this.  it's how i got my first system working.  it would boot from
> cd, but then couldn't find the cd.  (or something, it's bee n a long time.)
>
> if sdaoe is built into the distribution, you could run vblade on another
> machine and install onto that.  once you fix the sata issues, you could
> copy to local media.
>
> - erik

I modified sdata.c. Added the device id, which was 27c1. I can provide
the whole pci output from Solaris. Its rather long.   Then the kernel
seemed to recognize it once i added the id. I'll look at the other
file.

The only other computer I have is a work PC that I installed VMWare
server onto and got plan 9 working there. So it looks like VBlade is
my best option. I found a live CD and i'll have to find a windows
client. I am hoping I can export the whole disk, not just partitions.
Then maybe use a physical disk in Vmware and have Plan 9 partition,
but that may be a pipe dream.

To be complete if anyone else finds this post. I am using a dell xps
200. It has the intel 945g chipset. It seems that the dell bios has
two modes for the sata operation. AHCI and ATA. No other options are
given. Neither work with the standard kernel at this time.

Once I get it working I'll post exactly everything I did, in case
someone has a similar problem. I'll also see about adding the dev id's
to the code base.


Thanks for the suggestion

Bob