[9fans] 9load: boot time variables

[9fans] 9load: boot time variables

[Federico G. Benavento]

Hi,

I've made some changes to 9load so it let you set and change
variables at boot time.
This is intended to be used when you are booting from a read-only
media like a cdrom, where you can't edit plan9.ini.
And would help people during the install, because
sometimes you need *norealmode=, *noe820scan=, installurl=, etc to
make it work.

you need to have "*uservars=" in your plan9.ini, and you'll get a prompt at
boot time.

/n/sources/contrib/fgb/9load.tgz ||
http://www.tip9ug.jp/who/fgb/9load.tgz


Federico G.Benavento

---
/bin/fortune:
See no evil; hear no evil; speak no evil.

Re: [9fans] 9load: boot time variables

[Russ Cox]

Instead of making us read the source code,
could you explain what it does in email?

> And would help people during the install, because
> sometimes you need *norealmode=, *noe820scan=, installurl=, etc to
> make it work.

These are intended to be exceptional cases, not everyday options.
If you need them to make Plan 9 work on a given machine, tell us.
Does anyone have a machine that still requires *noe820scan?
I know no one requires *norealmode, because that's redundant
with *noe820scan the way things are currently set up.

Russ

Re: [9fans] 9load: boot time variables

[Lucio De Re]

> These are intended to be exceptional cases, not everyday options.
> If you need them to make Plan 9 work on a given machine, tell us.
> Does anyone have a machine that still requires *noe820scan?
> I know no one requires *norealmode, because that's redundant
> with *noe820scan the way things are currently set up.

I need *noe820scan on the SiS 550 (VXL Percio or
http://www.teco-ia.com.tw/PDF/TR2220-CE-Quick%20spec.pdf but I can't
check) which I'm using right now.

++L

Re: [9fans] 9load: boot time variables

[Nicolas Victorero Mier]

Russ Cox wrote:

>Instead of making us read the source code,
>could you explain what it does in email?
>
>  
>
>>And would help people during the install, because
>>sometimes you need *norealmode=, *noe820scan=, installurl=, etc to
>>make it work.
>>    
>>
>
>These are intended to be exceptional cases, not everyday options.
>If you need them to make Plan 9 work on a given machine, tell us.
>Does anyone have a machine that still requires *noe820scan?
>I know no one requires *norealmode, because that's redundant
>with *noe820scan the way things are currently set up.
>
>Russ
>
>  
>
Hello,
About a month ago trying to install Plan 9 on an HP NX7000 laptop, 
allways end up with a "No physical memmory" message, somewhere on the 
wiki said that some BIOS have problems reporting memmory size, and the 
solution is to use *maxmem= in plan9.ini, as the laptop don't have 
floppy, trying that involved extracting the plan9.ini from the img, 
repacking it and then burning a new CD. And that didn't solve the 
problem (it went away with the version from 20051124 :)). I think having 
an easier way to provide that variables at boot time would be nice, even 
just to do some testing when *something* goes wrong.

Btw, the laptop has an ati radeon 9200, and a 1680x1050 TFT, so far i've 
only been able to work at 1280x1024x16, with either 
monitor=vesa/xga/multisync, but more than that resolution it don't 
works, any experience with that, or tips where to learn how to make it 
work better?.
Also in the same laptop, i'm having problems with the usb mouse, 
suddenly it reports an i/o error on the rio screen and ceases to work (i 
have to reboot to have it working again).

Thanks & Greetings

Nico

Re: [9fans] 9load: boot time variables

[Russ Cox]

> About a month ago trying to install Plan 9 on an HP NX7000 laptop,
> allways end up with a "No physical memmory" message, somewhere on the
> wiki said that some BIOS have problems reporting memmory size, and the
> solution is to use *maxmem= in plan9.ini, as the laptop don't have
> floppy, trying that involved extracting the plan9.ini from the img,
> repacking it and then burning a new CD. And that didn't solve the
> problem (it went away with the version from 20051124 :)). I think having
> an easier way to provide that variables at boot time would be nice, even
> just to do some testing when *something* goes wrong.

I agree with that, but they're supposed to be a crutch, not
a prosthetic limb.  We'd rather fix things so that the variables
aren't necessary in the first place, and we can't do that if
no one tells us about the problems.

I'm glad the problem has been fixed, but had I known that
so many people needed *maxmem to get their systems
working I might have put the E820 code in a lot earlier.

> Btw, the laptop has an ati radeon 9200, and a 1680x1050 TFT, so far i've
> only been able to work at 1280x1024x16, with either
> monitor=vesa/xga/multisync, but more than that resolution it don't
> works, any experience with that, or tips where to learn how to make it
> work better?.

What does aux/vga -m vesa -p print?  If it does not list a 1680x1050
mode, then vesa is out of luck.  There is a native radeon driver that
only drives some cards (and a different version that only drives
some other cards), and you might be able to tweak it.  Historically,
it's the non-standard sizes that have the most problems.
If the driver supports it, then maybe all you have to do is write
a /lib/vgadb monitor timing entry.

> Also in the same laptop, i'm having problems with the usb mouse,
> suddenly it reports an i/o error on the rio screen and ceases to work (i
> have to reboot to have it working again).

No idea there, though the exact text of the i/o error would be helpful.

Thanks.
Russ

Re: [9fans] 9load: boot time variables

[Federico Benavento]

hi,

On 12/4/05, Russ Cox <rsc@swtch.com> wrote:
> Instead of making us read the source code,
> could you explain what it does in email?
>

sorry, I thought I thought I had being clear enougth.

the prompt only appears if you have defined "*uservars=" in
plan9.ini.

so, when booting after you selected a menu entry (if there is one)
what you see is this:

key=value - set key to value
h - print help message
p - print variable table
q - quit prompt
set var:

after entering ´q´ and hitting return, the boot process continues as usually.

--
Federico G. Benavento