[9fans] Revo L80

[9fans] Revo L80

[Riddler]

Hey guys,

I was going to sit down and build my raspberry pi file-server today
but I've just came into ownership of an Acer Revo L80. I've been given
it for free because it is broken. After the usual diagnostics it looks
like the RAM chip is dead >~400MB.

I'm thinking this may make a good CPU/Auth/File-server instead of the
pi. I'm willing to spend the £40 buying a new RAM chip if it looks
like it will work.

To that end I thought I'd throw out some of the specs here and see if
anyone spots any obvious problems, or has any useful experience with
any of the hardware.


Acer Revo l80
CPU: Intel Duel-Core 4-Thread i3-2377M (I would still use 32bit plan9)
USB: both 2.0 and 3.0 ports
Ethernet: Atheros AR5B22 Wireless
Graphics: Intel-graphics 4000

I'm aware wireless can be a problem but I've got a wireless to
Ethernet bridge I picked up for the pi that I can use. Haven't yet
found out the the wired Ethernet cards model.

My main concern is the graphics, it looks like it's using the CPU
onboad graphics processor. I don't know myself what problems (if any)
are associated with driving the CPU/GPU hybrids.

Re: [9fans] Revo L80

[erik quanstrom]

> Acer Revo l80
> CPU: Intel Duel-Core 4-Thread i3-2377M (I would still use 32bit plan9)
> USB: both 2.0 and 3.0 ports
> Ethernet: Atheros AR5B22 Wireless
> Graphics: Intel-graphics 4000
>
> I'm aware wireless can be a problem but I've got a wireless to
> Ethernet bridge I picked up for the pi that I can use. Haven't yet
> found out the the wired Ethernet cards model.
>
> My main concern is the graphics, it looks like it's using the CPU
> onboad graphics processor. I don't know myself what problems (if any)
> are associated with driving the CPU/GPU hybrids.

the graphics should work with the vesa driver, but the wireless will not.

- erik

[9fans] Revo L80

[Riddler]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 344 bytes --]

Status update for anyone interested:

Revo successfully boots from 9atom USB stick! You just need to force USB
mode to hard drive in the BIOS.

With a wireless bridge the Ethernet works out of the box.  Tested by
pinging 8.8.8.8.

Actual install hits a snag with "mbr: no default/data" haven't looked into
it but will do so tomorrow.

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 449 bytes --]

Re: [9fans] Revo L80

[erik quanstrom]

On Mon Jul  7 18:09:08 EDT 2014, riddler876@gmail.com wrote:

> Status update for anyone interested:
>
> Revo successfully boots from 9atom USB stick! You just need to force USB
> mode to hard drive in the BIOS.
>
> With a wireless bridge the Ethernet works out of the box.  Tested by
> pinging 8.8.8.8.
>
> Actual install hits a snag with "mbr: no default/data" haven't looked into
> it but will do so tomorrow.

awesome.  see sos(1) if you're interested in sending output.

the mbr whining might be ok.

- erik

Re: [9fans] Revo L80

[Riddler]

I've been looking into it a bit more today. It actually seems to be quite stuck.

I get as far as the 'live usb' boot, with glenda, rio, acme etc
starting up. The "plan 9 install" screen and its live log are there.
While working through the install the only disk appears to be
/dev/sdu0. This is ~4GB in size and is the USB stick.
The PC HDD does not seem the be listed in /dev; there is however a
/dev/sdU0, but this seems to be a duplicate of /dev/sdu0 (based on ls
-l showing the exact same size and the PC HDD should be much bigger
than 4GB).

Took a look at /dev/kmesg and there is only only three lines that look
relevant that I've put in at the end of this email. I can attach more
of it if required.

I attempted running sos/sos but some files appear to be missing. It
says it can not find bin/aux/cpuid, bin/aux/dmi, bin/bzip2.
The /tmp/sos.mkfs.bz2 file is created, but empty.

I suspect it's more likely I've unknowingly missed a step somewhere
rather than the bin directory is actually missing files.

----/dev/kmesg output snippet----
#A0: hda; mem fffffe00f7e30000 irq 4
#A0: hda: coded #0, vendor 10ec0662, rev 00100300
#A0: hda: coded #c, vendor 80862806, rev 00100000

Any help appreciated!

Re: [9fans] Revo L80

[erik quanstrom]

On Wed Jul  9 16:10:16 EDT 2014, riddler876@gmail.com wrote:
> I've been looking into it a bit more today. It actually seems to be quite stuck.
>
> I get as far as the 'live usb' boot, with glenda, rio, acme etc
> starting up. The "plan 9 install" screen and its live log are there.
> While working through the install the only disk appears to be
> /dev/sdu0. This is ~4GB in size and is the USB stick.
> The PC HDD does not seem the be listed in /dev; there is however a
> /dev/sdU0, but this seems to be a duplicate of /dev/sdu0 (based on ls
> -l showing the exact same size and the PC HDD should be much bigger
> than 4GB).

sdU0.0 is provided directly by usb/disk.  usb/disk does not do partitioning,
so it is remounted with the sd loopback driver (sdloop(3)).  this is what you
see as sdu0.

the pc hard drive would be listed as /dev/sdE? where ? in [0..f], assuming that
your machine uses ahci.  the output of /dev/sdctl would be useful, otherwise
you can use sos/sos (see sos(8)).

> Took a look at /dev/kmesg and there is only only three lines that look
> relevant that I've put in at the end of this email. I can attach more
> of it if required.
>
> I attempted running sos/sos but some files appear to be missing. It
> says it can not find bin/aux/cpuid, bin/aux/dmi, bin/bzip2.
> The /tmp/sos.mkfs.bz2 file is created, but empty.

i wonder if the fact that syscall(1) was broken by the nsec thing caused fewer
programs to be built than normal.  this is fixed in the current image.

i would recommend doing the following
	@{cd /sys/src/cmd/aux; mk install}
	@{cd /sys/src/cmd/bzip2; mk install}

and running sos again.

really want you're interested in is the full output of /dev/kmesg, and
/dev/sdctl.

> I suspect it's more likely I've unknowingly missed a step somewhere
> rather than the bin directory is actually missing files.
>
> ----/dev/kmesg output snippet----
> #A0: hda; mem fffffe00f7e30000 irq 4
> #A0: hda: coded #0, vendor 10ec0662, rev 00100300
> #A0: hda: coded #c, vendor 80862806, rev 00100000
>
> Any help appreciated!

this is cool, and expected.

- erik

Re: [9fans] Revo L80

[Riddler]

> i wonder if the fact that syscall(1) was broken by the nsec thing caused fewer
> programs to be built than normal.  this is fixed in the current image.
>
> i would recommend doing the following
>         @{cd /sys/src/cmd/aux; mk install}
>         @{cd /sys/src/cmd/bzip2; mk install}
>
> and running sos again.

Those mk commands wouldn't actually run either, missing libc, libbio and others.
So I ran mk install in all the lib* directories and it looks like
sos/sos has ran. Should be able to get the output to you soon.

There is a (partially) functioning Ubuntu installation on the pc, if
any output/info from it would be of use.

Re: [9fans] Revo L80

[erik quanstrom]

>
> There is a (partially) functioning Ubuntu installation on the pc, if
> any output/info from it would be of use.

not necessary.

- erik

Re: [9fans] Revo L80

[Riddler]

File sent to email from sos output.

On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 4:57 PM, erik quanstrom <quanstro@quanstro.net> wrote:
>>
>> There is a (partially) functioning Ubuntu installation on the pc, if
>> any output/info from it would be of use.
>
> not necessary.
>
> - erik
>

Re: [9fans] Revo L80

[erik quanstrom]

	0.31.5:	disk 01.01.85 8086/1e09   5 0:0000f0d1 16 1:0000f0c1 16 2:0000f0b1 16 3:0000f0a1 16 4:0000f091 16 5:0000f081 16
		Intel Corporation 	7 Series Chipset Family 2-port SATA Controller [IDE mode]
	0.31.2:	disk 01.01.8f 8086/1e01   5 0:0000f131 16 1:0000f121 16 2:0000f111 16 3:0000f101 16 4:0000f0f1 16 5:0000f0e1 16
		Intel Corporation 	7 Series Chipset Family 4-port SATA Controller [IDE mode]

please switch these two AHCI mode in bios.

these bits are not supported.

0.20.0:	usb  0c.03.30 8086/1e31  11 0:f7e20004 65536
	Intel Corporation 	7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI Host Controller
0.31.3:	smb  0c.05.00 8086/1e22   5 0:f7e35004 256 4:0000f041 32
	Intel Corporation 	7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller
2.0.0:	net  02.80.00 168c/0034   5 0:f7c00004 524288
	Qualcomm Atheros 	AR9462 Wireless Network Adapter

i don't know if any support is required for the express card reader.  i've never played
with this sort of h/w

1.0.0:	unk  ff.00.00 10ec/5209  11
	Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. 	RTS5209 PCI Express Card Reader
1.0.1:	base 08.05.00 10ec/5209  11 0:f7d10000 256
	Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. 	RTS5209 PCI Express Card Reader

- erik

Re: [9fans] Revo L80

[Riddler]

That seems to have brought it to life.
Thanks Erik!

On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 5:30 PM, erik quanstrom <quanstro@quanstro.net> wrote:
>         0.31.5: disk 01.01.85 8086/1e09   5 0:0000f0d1 16 1:0000f0c1 16 2:0000f0b1 16 3:0000f0a1 16 4:0000f091 16 5:0000f081 16
>                 Intel Corporation       7 Series Chipset Family 2-port SATA Controller [IDE mode]
>         0.31.2: disk 01.01.8f 8086/1e01   5 0:0000f131 16 1:0000f121 16 2:0000f111 16 3:0000f101 16 4:0000f0f1 16 5:0000f0e1 16
>                 Intel Corporation       7 Series Chipset Family 4-port SATA Controller [IDE mode]
>
> please switch these two AHCI mode in bios.
>
> these bits are not supported.
>
> 0.20.0: usb  0c.03.30 8086/1e31  11 0:f7e20004 65536
>         Intel Corporation       7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI Host Controller
> 0.31.3: smb  0c.05.00 8086/1e22   5 0:f7e35004 256 4:0000f041 32
>         Intel Corporation       7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller
> 2.0.0:  net  02.80.00 168c/0034   5 0:f7c00004 524288
>         Qualcomm Atheros        AR9462 Wireless Network Adapter
>
> i don't know if any support is required for the express card reader.  i've never played
> with this sort of h/w
>
> 1.0.0:  unk  ff.00.00 10ec/5209  11
>         Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.         RTS5209 PCI Express Card Reader
> 1.0.1:  base 08.05.00 10ec/5209  11 0:f7d10000 256
>         Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.         RTS5209 PCI Express Card Reader
>
> - erik
>

Re: [9fans] Revo L80

[erik quanstrom]

On Thu Jul 10 13:12:55 EDT 2014, riddler876@gmail.com wrote:
> That seems to have brought it to life.
> Thanks Erik!

you're welcome.  this is general advice, and is not related to your specific h/w.

- erik

Re: [9fans] Revo L80

[Riddler]

Hey,

As a final status update on the plan9 install on the Revo, it has been
up and running for a few days and it all seems to be working fine :)
As expected, wireless card and card reader don't work. But I don't
require either (yay for wireless-Ethernet bridges).
Everything else that I've came across seems to be just working out of
the box with the latest usbinstamd64 image from 9atom.

They might make nice little servers.

On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 8:03 PM, erik quanstrom <quanstro@quanstro.net> wrote:
> On Thu Jul 10 13:12:55 EDT 2014, riddler876@gmail.com wrote:
>> That seems to have brought it to life.
>> Thanks Erik!
>
> you're welcome.  this is general advice, and is not related to your specific h/w.
>
> - erik
>