Re: [9fans] Plan9 and the real hardware

[John Floren <john@jfloren.net>]

On Sun, Aug 14, 2011 at 8:08 AM, Bernd Maier <bema@hush.com> wrote:
> I spend this weekend a lot of time in trying to get Plan9 to work
> on real hardware.
>
> My experience:
>
> I started with the plan9.iso. No look so far because the ahci
> driver
> seems not to be in the install kernel. 9load seems to find my disks
>
> but when I choose 1 (Install Plan9) there is only the CDROM drive
> there.
> When I choose 2 (Boot Plan9) the disks are there.
>
> I switched then to 9atom because there are a lot of information in
> this mailing list about 9atom. So boot from cdrom works fine. This
> time I do not need to switch from sdD0 to sdC0 but the keyboard
> freeze
> sometimes. I was using PS/2 keyboard and mouse. So I switched to
> usb
> mouse and usb keyboard and all works fine.
>
> There was a issue after installation when I compiled the CPU-
> kernel.
> This takes about 15 minutes and the maschine had a very hight load.
>
> After booting wiht the new CPU kernel I did the compile again and
> it
> worked in a few seconds (after a mk clean). I have no idea about
> this
> issue but now all seems to be well.
>
> Actually I am using a very old AMD motherboard:
>
>  (ASUS M2A-VM - http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM2/M2AVM/)
>
> because all other boards in my home lab does not worked with plan9.
>
> So I would like to ask for a recommendation for an new motherboard?
>
> However I am happy to have a plan9 an real hardware now.
>
> -Bernd
>

I've run into this problem myself. You can solve it, but it is kind of hackish.

Basically, boot the CD using option 2 (boot into Plan 9, not install).
Then, use the scripts in /sys/lib/dist/pc/inst to do the installation
manually. I recall that by doing the correct bindings you can then
simply run inst/textonly, but I can't remember which bindings are
necessary. IIRC, I did something like this:

ramfs
mkdir /tmp/bin
cp /sys/lib/dist/cmd/*.c /tmp/bin/
cd /tmp/bin
compile each .c file into the appropriately-named binary
bind -a /tmp/bin /bin
bind -a /sys/lib/dist/pc/ /bin
inst/textonly

That's all I can remember, but you may find a missing link or two. You
can also go through and do all the steps by hand by reading the
scripts in /sys/lib/dist/pc/inst and executing the commands manually
based on what you want. So, for instance, if you want a fossil+venti
server, you'd run disk/fdisk and disk/part to set up fossil and venti
partitions yourself, then you'd format fossil and venti, write a
config to fossil, start fossil, copy the files, create an appropriate
plan9.ini, etc. This option will be very difficult if you are not
familiar with Plan 9 and don't know how a regular installation will
typically proceed.


Oh, and regarding the "issue" after compiling the CPU kernel--was this
your first boot after installing? After you initially make a
fossil+venti system, on the first boot it will spend some time syncing
fossil to venti. This will take anywhere between a few minutes (best
case) and a few hours (if you have old hardware and don't have DMA and
RWM turned on).

Good luck!


John