Re: [9fans] Initial experience with Plan9 on Raspberry Pi

["Digby R.S. Tarvin" <digbyt42@gmail.com>]

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Thanks Richard for doing this port... It is quite I while since I last
played with Plan9, and what I remember most from that time was how hard it
was to assemble a compatible platform, and that I never had enough bits to
try a real multi-host network. the RPi port promises to solve both problems!

I don't recall having any real problems with the user level operations
(editing, compiling etc).. I have forgotten a lot of the details, but I
know it is just a case of reviewing the documentation, which I recall as
being quite clear and well written.

I think the real challenge is configuring and administering a system.. I
would like to get to the point of having separate file, authentication, cpu
and terminal servers, but there is a lot to read and it is not always easy
to know where to start.

For example, I started by trying to create a user account for myself to see
if I could get to the point of being able to connect over a network with
drawterm and log in as me..  I found
fossilcons(8) and used the 'uname' command to successfully add a user to
the filesystem, then updated the cmdline.txt to restart as the new user.
Then I found instructions for using 'upas/nedmail -c' to create mymailbox,
and copied the hierarchy under /usr/glenda to configure a sensible
environment before stumbling on newuser(8) and the script to automate the
whole process...

Anyway, I made some notes on my initial attempts at setting things up,
which I thought I would share, as most of the introductory information that
I have found so far has concentrated on user activity, not admin. Any
corrections/suggestions or pointers to useful alternative notes on this
would be much appreciated.

9Pi Initial Configuration
==================

1. Create a test user and update cmdline.txt in the boot partiion

term% con /srv/fscons
prompt: uname digbyt digbyt
main: ^\q

Does anyone know why the fscons prompt changes from 'prompt:' to 'main:'
for second and subsequent commands.

term% dosmnt 1 /n/d
term% cp /n/d/cmdline.txt /n/d/cmdline.txt.orig
        term% acme /n/d/cmdline.tls -l /n/d

I replaced
 'readparts=1 nobootprompt=local user=glenda'
with
 'readparts=1 nobootprompt=local ipconfig='
to allow user selection at boot time and DHCP network intialization

Next I tested the changes by rebooting

        term% fshalt
        syncing.../srv/fscons...
        main:
        halting.../srv/fscons...fsys all sync
            main sync: wrote 0 blocks
CTL-ALT-DEL

 The boot screen produced the following information:

Plan 9 from Bell Labs
board rev: 0xa22082 firmware rev: 1488468813
cpu0: 1200MHz ARM Cortex-A53 r0p4
fp: 32 registers, simd
fp: arm arch VFPv3+ with null subarch; rev 4
#l0: usb: 100Mbps port 0x0 irq -1: 000000000000
sdhost external clock 250 MHz
#u/usb/ep1.0: dwcotg: port 0x0 irq 9
992M memory: 200M kernel data, 792MB user, 376M swap
cpu1: 1200MHz ARM Cortex-A53 r0p4
cpu2: 1200MHz ARM Cortex-A53 r0p4
cpu3: 1200MHz ARM Cortex-A53 r0p4
usb/hub.. usb/ether...
etherusb smsc: b827eb88b97e7
user[none]: usb/kb... usb/kb...

Note that the 'usb/kb' messages made the process a bit confusing - I
initially thought
that the user prompt had been skipped after defaulting to user 'none', and
that the boot
process had got stuck during keyboard initialization... However I
discovered that it is
actually waiting at the prompt but some unfortunately timed async messages
disguised the
fact... so I entered my new user name and pressed return...

time...
fossil(#S/sdM0/fossil)...version...
init: starting /bin/rc
ipconfig...
lib/profile: rc: .: can't open: '/bin/lib' file does not exist
init: rc exit status: rc 36: error

init: starting bin/rc

Use the system shell script for new account initialization

% /sys/lib/newuser

the understated plan9 grey then appeard..

What I havn't yet managed is the step to give the new user a password. A
simple minded

term% auth/changeuser digbyt

yields
Password:
Confirm password:
assign Inferno/POP secret? (y/n) n
Expiration date (YYYYMMDD or never)[return = never]:
changeuser: can't create user digbyt: '/mnt/keys/digbyt' permission denied
term%

So I am wondering if there is something I need to start to make my Pi an
authentication server? I am also not sure if I should be assigning an
'Inferno/POP secret', and if so
what I should enter.

Any suggestions for other basic configuration requirements? I know network
needs to be set up, but not sure if that should logically come before or
after sorting out the authentication setup, and at what point I should
think of adding a second Pi to take over some of the specialised functions,
and which to start with..

Regards,
DigbyT

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