[9fans] Plan9 and the real hardware

[9fans] Plan9 and the real hardware

[Bernd Maier]

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

Re: [9fans] Plan9 and the real hardware

[David du Colombier]

> 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.

Yes, the sdiahci driver is in pccd kernel, but not in the pccflop
kernel.

> Actually I am using a very old AMD motherboard:
>  (ASUS M2A-VM - http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM2/M2AVM/)

This is SB600 SATA. It is only supported by the sdiahci driver.

--
David du Colombier

Re: [9fans] Plan9 and the real hardware

[John Floren]

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

Re: [9fans] Plan9 and the real hardware

[erik quanstrom]

> Perhaps the original 9atom install kernel was not optimal for my
> motherboard or so. After compiling the CPU kernel all worked well.
> However I will switch back to the original Plan9 distribution this
> evening.

it's not optimized for any particular pc hardware.
it does however have various changes to fix problems
that cropped up and work around some pecualarities
of ich7 and poorly constructed mp tables.

by the way, the way to turn dma on is with "dmaon".

- erik

Re: [9fans] Plan9 and the real hardware

[Bernd Maier]

On Sun, 14 Aug 2011 21:28:05 +0200 John Floren <john@jfloren.net>
wrote:


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

At the moment my Plan9 skills are very low. So I will try this way
when my skills are better.

>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).

I installed a Fossil only system. So Venti could not be the
problem.
Perhaps the original 9atom install kernel was not optimal for my
motherboard or so. After compiling the CPU kernel all worked well.
However I will switch back to the original Plan9 distribution this
evening.

-Bernd

Re: [9fans] Plan9 and the real hardware

[Bernd Maier]

On Sun, 14 Aug 2011 19:43:35 +0200 David du Colombier
<0intro@gmail.com> wrote:


>In your case, I think that rebuilding the ISO with the pcflop
>kernel containing the sdiahci driver should work.
>
>If you wait a while, I could make this ISO for you. I have a build
>machinery here that just automatically produce Plan 9 ISOs from a
>bunch of unified diff files.

I would be very happy and thankfully if you could do this for
me. I would be very interessted in this build machinery too. As
soon I have the first Plan9 installation running I am sure that
I need to do custom install Plan9 ISO's for other/new hardware
too.

-Bernd

Re: [9fans] Plan9 and the real hardware

[erik quanstrom]

On Sun Aug 14 13:12:22 EDT 2011, bema@hush.com wrote:
> Many thanks for your answer.
>
> I am sure there is a reason for sdiahci driver not in the install
> kernel.

i think it is — it's just an old version.

> I would be happy to be able to use the normal plan9 distribution
> because I am not sure what happens when I am using pull to update
> an 9atom installation.

pulling on top of 9atom would be a bad idea.
i agree, this sucks.  but sometimes i haven't
had time to fix this.

> Is there a way to get the original plan9 running with this
> motherboard? I tried to use Option 1 with the cpu kernel but
> this does not works (cpu exit)

probablly not.

- erik

Re: [9fans] Plan9 and the real hardware

[David du Colombier]

> I would be happy to be able to use the normal plan9 distribution
> because I am not sure what happens when I am using pull to update
> an 9atom installation.

It is incompatible with the Bell Labs distribution for various reason.
Thus, it is greatly discouraged to blindly pull from sources with 9atom.

> Is there a way to get the original plan9 running with this
> motherboard? I tried to use Option 1 with the cpu kernel but
> this does not works (cpu exit)

In your case, I think that rebuilding the ISO with the pcflop
kernel containing the sdiahci driver should work.

If you wait a while, I could make this ISO for you. I have a build
machinery here that just automatically produce Plan 9 ISOs from a
bunch of unified diff files.

--
David du Colombier

Re: [9fans] Plan9 and the real hardware

[Bernd Maier]

Many thanks for your answer.

I am sure there is a reason for sdiahci driver not in the install
kernel.

I would be happy to be able to use the normal plan9 distribution
because I am not sure what happens when I am using pull to update
an 9atom installation.

Is there a way to get the original plan9 running with this
motherboard? I tried to use Option 1 with the cpu kernel but
this does not works (cpu exit)

-Bernd

On Sun, 14 Aug 2011 18:32:44 +0200 David du Colombier
<0intro@gmail.com> wrote:
>> 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.
>
>Yes, the sdiahci driver is in pccd kernel, but not in the pccflop
>kernel.
>
>> Actually I am using a very old AMD motherboard:
>>  (ASUS M2A-VM - http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM2/M2AVM/)
>
>This is SB600 SATA. It is only supported by the sdiahci driver.
>
>--
>David du Colombier