HOWTO: Net booting Plan 9 on RPi 3s and 4s

HOWTO: Net booting Plan 9 on RPi 3s and 4s

[Skip Tavakkolian]

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FYI, I've updated the HOWTO to include RPi4's. It's here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hgcsAgk_FJRYW5r7LVeY23sTZN_giUit-8ra-dlW9ng

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Re: HOWTO: Net booting Plan 9 on RPi 3s and 4s

[Skip Tavakkolian]

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Note that RPi 4 DHCP requests include a parameter request for TFTP Server
Name (66).  There is a link in the doc to the diffs for
/sys/src/cmd/ip/dhcpd/dhcpd.c. I'll submit a patch to 9p.io soon.

On Wed, Jun 3, 2020 at 11:26 AM Skip Tavakkolian <skip.tavakkolian@gmail.com>
wrote:

>
> FYI, I've updated the HOWTO to include RPi4's. It's here:
>
>
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hgcsAgk_FJRYW5r7LVeY23sTZN_giUit-8ra-dlW9ng
>
>
>

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Re: HOWTO: Net booting Plan 9 on RPi 3s and 4s

[Skip Tavakkolian]

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The patch is on 9p.io:

/n/sources/patch/dhcpd-rpi-pxeboot


On Wed, Jun 3, 2020 at 12:43 PM Skip Tavakkolian <skip.tavakkolian@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Note that RPi 4 DHCP requests include a parameter request for TFTP Server
> Name (66).  There is a link in the doc to the diffs for
> /sys/src/cmd/ip/dhcpd/dhcpd.c. I'll submit a patch to 9p.io soon.
>
> On Wed, Jun 3, 2020 at 11:26 AM Skip Tavakkolian <
> skip.tavakkolian@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> FYI, I've updated the HOWTO to include RPi4's. It's here:
>>
>>
>> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hgcsAgk_FJRYW5r7LVeY23sTZN_giUit-8ra-dlW9ng
>>
>>
>>

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Re: [9fans] Re: HOWTO: Net booting Plan 9 on RPi 3s and 4s

[Richard Miller]

Thanks, Skip. I just net-booted a pi4 using your instructions. Very timely,
as I was running out of 2GB SD cards for my growing pi collection.

Can I just add two footnotes concerning the pi4 procedure:
- At the first step where it says "copy the EEPROM image of interest from
  /lib/firmware/raspberrypi/bootloader/ to pieeprom.bin", I found 26
  different pieeprom.bin files under that directory.  I guessed that
  "stable" would be the right one, and that seems to have been OK.  I
  think "vcgencmd bootloader_version" will give you a hint as to which
  file is currently in the eeprom.
- If you use the eeprom config var TFTP_IP to hardcode the tftp server
  address, you don't need the patched version of Plan 9 dhcpd; in fact
  any old dhcp server can then be used without special configuration,
  as it only needs to supply an ip address.

Re: [9fans] Re: HOWTO: Net booting Plan 9 on RPi 3s and 4s

[Skip Tavakkolian]

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Thank you! I will add them.

I'll clarify that TFTP_IP setting will work for RPI4's. I believe RPI3's
will still require the dhcpd patch, if I'm not mistaken.


On Thu, Jun 4, 2020 at 4:03 AM Richard Miller <9fans@hamnavoe.com> wrote:

> Thanks, Skip. I just net-booted a pi4 using your instructions. Very timely,
> as I was running out of 2GB SD cards for my growing pi collection.
>
> Can I just add two footnotes concerning the pi4 procedure:
> - At the first step where it says "copy the EEPROM image of interest from
>   /lib/firmware/raspberrypi/bootloader/ to pieeprom.bin", I found 26
>   different pieeprom.bin files under that directory.  I guessed that
>   "stable" would be the right one, and that seems to have been OK.  I
>   think "vcgencmd bootloader_version" will give you a hint as to which
>   file is currently in the eeprom.
> - If you use the eeprom config var TFTP_IP to hardcode the tftp server
>   address, you don't need the patched version of Plan 9 dhcpd; in fact
>   any old dhcp server can then be used without special configuration,
>   as it only needs to supply an ip address.
>
>
> ------------------------------------------
> 9fans: 9fans
> Permalink:
> https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/Teeceb2ca38619b36-Mdbb9d646528889d9886437f0
> Delivery options: https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/subscription
>

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Re: [9fans] Re: HOWTO: Net booting Plan 9 on RPi 3s and 4s

[Richard Miller]

> I believe RPI3's
> will still require the dhcpd patch, if I'm not mistaken.

That's right, the pi3 doesn't have an eeprom to hold the tftp ip address.

An alternative way to network-boot is to use Plan 9 as a boot loader:
a (minimal) Plan 9 kernel can be loaded from the SD card, which will
fetch the full Plan 9 kernel via tftp and copy it to /dev/reboot.
That works even for older pi models (pi1 and pi2), but does require
an SD card.

Re: [9fans] Re: HOWTO: Net booting Plan 9 on RPi 3s and 4s

[Skip Tavakkolian]

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Fantastic.  It has been updated.

On Thu, Jun 4, 2020 at 10:58 AM Richard Miller <9fans@hamnavoe.com> wrote:

> > I believe RPI3's
> > will still require the dhcpd patch, if I'm not mistaken.
>
> That's right, the pi3 doesn't have an eeprom to hold the tftp ip address.
>
> An alternative way to network-boot is to use Plan 9 as a boot loader:
> a (minimal) Plan 9 kernel can be loaded from the SD card, which will
> fetch the full Plan 9 kernel via tftp and copy it to /dev/reboot.
> That works even for older pi models (pi1 and pi2), but does require
> an SD card.
>
>
> ------------------------------------------
> 9fans: 9fans
> Permalink:
> https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/Teeceb2ca38619b36-M20deb9483c257c87d1b46ef9
> Delivery options: https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/subscription
>

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Re: HOWTO: Net booting Plan 9 on RPi 3s and 4s

[Skip Tavakkolian]

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there is a cleaner patch now:

/n/sources/patch/rpi-netboot-dhcpd

On Wed, Jun 3, 2020 at 6:18 PM Skip Tavakkolian <skip.tavakkolian@gmail.com>
wrote:

> The patch is on 9p.io:
>
> /n/sources/patch/dhcpd-rpi-pxeboot
>
>
> On Wed, Jun 3, 2020 at 12:43 PM Skip Tavakkolian <
> skip.tavakkolian@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Note that RPi 4 DHCP requests include a parameter request for TFTP Server
>> Name (66).  There is a link in the doc to the diffs for
>> /sys/src/cmd/ip/dhcpd/dhcpd.c. I'll submit a patch to 9p.io soon.
>>
>> On Wed, Jun 3, 2020 at 11:26 AM Skip Tavakkolian <
>> skip.tavakkolian@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> FYI, I've updated the HOWTO to include RPi4's. It's here:
>>>
>>>
>>> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hgcsAgk_FJRYW5r7LVeY23sTZN_giUit-8ra-dlW9ng
>>>
>>>
>>>

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