[9fans] Duplicate entries in fresh plan9.ini

[9fans] Duplicate entries in fresh plan9.ini

[Sander van Dijk]

Hi,

As has been noticed in the thread "Qemu question" (started on Nov 9,
2007), installing from recent cd images gives duplicate *nobiosload=1
and *noahciload=1 entries, causing a rather useless (because the lines
are identical) menu at boot time.

I've been looking for the cause of these duplicate entries, and they
appear to have been introduced together with the third boot option on
the cd, "Boot Plan 9 from this CD and debug 9load".
I've been able to trace the cause of the duplicate entries back to the
following line in /sys/lib/dist/pc/inst/bootsetup on the cd:

grep -v '(^\[)|menuitem|adisk|bootfile|bootdisk|bootargs|nobootprompt|mouseport|vgasize|monitor|cdboot'
/tmp/plan9.orig

This line causes the following to be added to the new plan9.ini:

*nomp=1
*nodumpstack=1
partition=new
dmamode=ask

*nobiosload=1
*noahciload=1

*nobiosload=1
*noahciload=1

*debugload=1

The reason for the duplicate entries here are obvious given the
contents of /tmp/plan9.orig.

Now, there are a couple of things I'm wondering about:

Are the *nobiosload=1 and *noahciload=1 entries still necessary? Is
the third boot option on the cd still necessary? If not, removing them
would fix the duplicate entry problem.

If these entries and/or the third boot option are still necessary, I
guess the mentioned line in /sys/lib/dist/pc/inst/bootsetup should be
changed so that it doesn't cause duplicate lines anymore?
If the entries and the third boot option are meant to be temporary, a
quick and dirty change like the following line (which add everything
that the current line does, without duplicate entries) might suffice:

grep -v '(^\[)|menuitem|adisk|bootfile|bootdisk|bootargs|nobootprompt|mouseport|vgasize|monitor|cdboot'
/tmp/plan9.orig | sort | uniq

If the entries and the third boot option are stayers, I guess
something more sophisticated would be nicer...

Greetings, Sander.

[9fans] Re: Duplicate entries in fresh plan9.ini

[Sander van Dijk]

Hi all,

Since no one has replied to this, I'm wondering if this was the right
place to send it to. Is 9trouble more appropriate for this?

Thanks,
Sander.

On Dec 27, 2007 9:11 PM, Sander van Dijk <a.h.vandijk@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> As has been noticed in the thread "Qemu question" (started on Nov 9,
> 2007), installing from recent cd images gives duplicate *nobiosload=1
> and *noahciload=1 entries, causing a rather useless (because the lines
> are identical) menu at boot time.
>
> I've been looking for the cause of these duplicate entries, and they
> appear to have been introduced together with the third boot option on
> the cd, "Boot Plan 9 from this CD and debug 9load".
> I've been able to trace the cause of the duplicate entries back to the
> following line in /sys/lib/dist/pc/inst/bootsetup on the cd:
>
> grep -v '(^\[)|menuitem|adisk|bootfile|bootdisk|bootargs|nobootprompt|mouseport|vgasize|monitor|cdboot'
> /tmp/plan9.orig
>
> This line causes the following to be added to the new plan9.ini:
>
> *nomp=1
> *nodumpstack=1
> partition=new
> dmamode=ask
>
> *nobiosload=1
> *noahciload=1
>
> *nobiosload=1
> *noahciload=1
>
> *debugload=1
>
> The reason for the duplicate entries here are obvious given the
> contents of /tmp/plan9.orig.
>
> Now, there are a couple of things I'm wondering about:
>
> Are the *nobiosload=1 and *noahciload=1 entries still necessary? Is
> the third boot option on the cd still necessary? If not, removing them
> would fix the duplicate entry problem.
>
> If these entries and/or the third boot option are still necessary, I
> guess the mentioned line in /sys/lib/dist/pc/inst/bootsetup should be
> changed so that it doesn't cause duplicate lines anymore?
> If the entries and the third boot option are meant to be temporary, a
> quick and dirty change like the following line (which add everything
> that the current line does, without duplicate entries) might suffice:
>
> grep -v '(^\[)|menuitem|adisk|bootfile|bootdisk|bootargs|nobootprompt|mouseport|vgasize|monitor|cdboot'
> /tmp/plan9.orig | sort | uniq
>
> If the entries and the third boot option are stayers, I guess
> something more sophisticated would be nicer...
>
> Greetings, Sander.
>

Re: [9fans] Re: Duplicate entries in fresh plan9.ini

[erik quanstrom]

On Mon Jan  7 11:29:45 EST 2008, a.h.vandijk@gmail.com wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Since no one has replied to this, I'm wondering if this was the right
> place to send it to. Is 9trouble more appropriate for this?
> 
> Thanks,
> Sander.
> 

9fans is a fine place for this.  perhaps no one with much experience
with the install process has had time to take a look.  you might also
consider submitting a patch.

- erik

Re: [9fans] Re: Duplicate entries in fresh plan9.ini

[Pietro Gagliardi]

On Jan 7, 2008, at 5:18 PM, erik quanstrom wrote:
>  you might also
> consider submitting a patch.
>
> - erik

Where is the installer source? I was considering fixing some  
aesthetic bugs, as well as checking the value of the boot loader at  
the end so to not ask for the MBR.

Re: [9fans] Re: Duplicate entries in fresh plan9.ini

[erik quanstrom]

i believe /sys/lib/dist

- erik

Re: [9fans] Re: Duplicate entries in fresh plan9.ini

[Sander van Dijk]

On Jan 7, 2008 11:18 PM, erik quanstrom <quanstro@quanstro.net> wrote:
> 9fans is a fine place for this.  perhaps no one with much experience
> with the install process has had time to take a look.  you might also
> consider submitting a patch.

I'd like to, but I'm not sure yet what the right fix is. The hack I
suggested in my initial mail could be sufficient temporarily, but
definitely not in the long run.
Before the introduction of the third boot menu item, all the things
from the plan9.ini on the cd-rom that needed to go into a freshly
installed plan9.ini would be some of the lines under [common]. That's
what the original grep line accomplished back when the menu items only
indicated what bootfile and bootargs to use.
Now however, the menu items set more things.
So I guess a starting point would be to replace the grep line with
something that takes only the necessary lines from [common], and never
any other lines. This would create a fresh plan9.ini pretty much the
same as it was before the third boot menu item was introduced.
However, I believe the extra settings under the different menu items
aren't there for no reason; not adding them to a fresh plan9.ini could
possible leave a fresh installation unbootable.
In other words, some of the lines from [install] or [cdboot] should
probably go into a fresh plan9.ini as well, but I'm not sure which
ones (or based on what the install script should decide which ones,
and whether to take them from [install] or [cdboot]).
If anyone can answer those questions, or at least provide some
thoughts about it, thanks!

Greetings, Sander.

Re: [9fans] Re: Duplicate entries in fresh plan9.ini

[Russ Cox]

> I've been looking for the cause of these duplicate entries, and they
> appear to have been introduced together with the third boot option on
> the cd, "Boot Plan 9 from this CD and debug 9load".
> I've been able to trace the cause of the duplicate entries back to the
> following line in /sys/lib/dist/pc/inst/bootsetup on the cd:

I agree 100% with your diagnosis.  I have been hoping that
the "debug 9load" option will just go away one day.

Russ

Re: [9fans] Re: Duplicate entries in fresh plan9.ini

[Sander van Dijk]

,On Jan 9, 2008 5:07 PM, Russ Cox <rsc@swtch.com> wrote:
> > I've been looking for the cause of these duplicate entries, and they
> > appear to have been introduced together with the third boot option on
> > the cd, "Boot Plan 9 from this CD and debug 9load".
> > I've been able to trace the cause of the duplicate entries back to the
> > following line in /sys/lib/dist/pc/inst/bootsetup on the cd:
>
> I agree 100% with your diagnosis.  I have been hoping that
> the "debug 9load" option will just go away one day.

That's why I'm wondering if they're still needed.

Back in November, there where problems with the then recent
plan9.iso's (see thread "Problems Booting Plan9 CD", started on Nov 1,
2007). So the third boot option was added (see thread "Suggestion:
Programming Tutorial for /sys/doc", also started on Nov 1, 2007,
especially the second post by Geoff).

The problem I had before the third menu option was introduced, was
that the booting process would fail already before it reached the
menu.
After the third menu option was added however, the iso's have been
working fine for me: the menu is reached, and all of the options
(including the "debug 9load" one) work. Hence, I have the feeling that
removing the third menu option again would be no problem. I'd be happy
to test an image without the third menu option to check if my feeling
is right.

Greetings, Sander.

Re: [9fans] Re: Duplicate entries in fresh plan9.ini

[Patrick Kristiansen]

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I am installing plan 9 in a qemu rigth now and the version from the iso i
downloaded 10 hours ago isn't working as it should. The fix for the
plan9.ini problem has a bug.
The grep and sort line in bin/bootsetup is where the bug is as far as I can
see ( /sys/lib/dist/pc/inst/bootsetup:40 ).

			grep -v '(^\[)|menuitem|adisk|bootfile|bootdisk|bootargs|nobootprompt|mouseport|vgasize|monitor|cdboot'
|
				sort -u /tmp/plan9.orig


Only one argument given to grep so it read from stdin instead of a
plan9.inifile. I tried to paste in the file I thought was the right,
but I had to
edit plan9.ini before rebooting anyway. Maybe it's because sort has the
argument that grep is missing.

Good thing I knew how to edit plan9.ini. After 3 hours of installing in qemu
you don't want to see an error in the last bootsetup step.


-Patrick

2008/1/9, Sander van Dijk <a.h.vandijk@gmail.com>:
>
> ,On Jan 9, 2008 5:07 PM, Russ Cox <rsc@swtch.com> wrote:
> > > I've been looking for the cause of these duplicate entries, and they
> > > appear to have been introduced together with the third boot option on
> > > the cd, "Boot Plan 9 from this CD and debug 9load".
> > > I've been able to trace the cause of the duplicate entries back to the
> > > following line in /sys/lib/dist/pc/inst/bootsetup on the cd:
> >
> > I agree 100% with your diagnosis.  I have been hoping that
> > the "debug 9load" option will just go away one day.
>
> That's why I'm wondering if they're still needed.
>
> Back in November, there where problems with the then recent
> plan9.iso's (see thread "Problems Booting Plan9 CD", started on Nov 1,
> 2007). So the third boot option was added (see thread "Suggestion:
> Programming Tutorial for /sys/doc", also started on Nov 1, 2007,
> especially the second post by Geoff).
>
> The problem I had before the third menu option was introduced, was
> that the booting process would fail already before it reached the
> menu.
> After the third menu option was added however, the iso's have been
> working fine for me: the menu is reached, and all of the options
> (including the "debug 9load" one) work. Hence, I have the feeling that
> removing the third menu option again would be no problem. I'd be happy
> to test an image without the third menu option to check if my feeling
> is right.
>
> Greetings, Sander.
>

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