From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <20120314190332.GA17909@polynum.com> References: <28D367DF-E023-47AF-BC7A-1A09339EB2D1@9srv.net> <20120314190332.GA17909@polynum.com> Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:38:53 -0700 Message-ID: From: John Floren To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Subject: Re: [9fans] GSoC 2012 Topicbox-Message-UUID: 6961546a-ead7-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 12:03 PM, wrote: > May I suggest to add an "easy" project to the list: review Plan9 > installation. > > The "howto install without" (explaining how to create a Plan9 realm > from another OS if the CD can not be used) that I posted a while > ago did not attract a lot of attention. But dealing with the install, > I saw many details that prevent a more versatile installation. > > And fdisk(8) has still to be fixed (on the stack but too many things > going on with KerGIS or kerTeX for me). > > From what I have seen, it is a light project. I agree that the install situation could use some work--it can be a little bit odd if you aren't installing from a CD like a good boy, or if you try to build an ISO from somewhere that *isn't* Bell Labs. It's actually pretty straightforward to modify, though; it didn't take me very long to get an iso building and figure out how the installer works. I've already done some tweaking with this in Nix, moving the inst/ programs to /rc/bin/inst, which makes it possible to easily start an installation when booted from the CD with option 2, "boot plan 9 from this cd", eliminating the need for the 9pcflop kernel and its limited root environment. I'd worry that doing an overhaul of the installation process is more of a 1-2 week project, although it would be useful and a very nice simple task. John