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

[Russ Cox <rsc@swtch.com>]

> 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