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

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

[Digby R.S. Tarvin]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 4766 bytes --]

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

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 9825 bytes --]

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

[Richard Miller]

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

A single fossil may be serving more than one file system.  The prompt
is to remind you which is the "current" one (ie the one which will be
acted on by commands which are not prefixed by "fsys <name>").

The 9pi image has only one fossil partition, which is called main.
To see its configuration:
  fossil/conf /dev/sdM0/fossil

> Any
> corrections/suggestions or pointers to useful alternative notes on this
> would be much appreciated.

Have you studied http://plan9.bell-labs.com/wiki/plan9/documentation/index.html
particularly the "Installation" and "Configuration" sections?  Most of it applies
to the raspberry pi exactly as for any other Plan 9 platform.

> 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?

The "permission denied" occurs because you haven't mounted keyfs(4), and
you need to use fossilcons(8) to add your username to group "adm" before
you can do that.

Have a look at http://plan9.bell-labs.com/wiki/plan9/Configuring_a_standalone_CPU_server
for a more complete picture.