From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu From: Jonadab the Unsightly One Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii References: <20011102183630.E4C5F199B9@mail.cse.psu.edu> Subject: Re: [9fans] Plan 9 Date: Mon, 5 Nov 2001 16:49:21 +0000 Topicbox-Message-UUID: 148f2046-eaca-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 rsc@plan9.bell-labs.com (Russ Cox) writes: > > But the BIOS should understand the USB floppy and from there you can > > boot/install from c: unless this m/c is weirder than a VAIO. > > We tried that. Loading the kernel off the disk never gets > the right bits. We suspect that maybe the USB is busmastering > and we need to turn it off. It's all just never-ending hacks > because we don't have real USB support. Unless I misunderstood your previous post, isn't the real problem that you don't have the ability to boot from CD and install? Bootable CDs are a good deal more universal than USB support. Linux and BeOS and OS/2 and so on and so forth can all boot from CD and install, but their USB support is... well, they have some, but last I checked (which admittedly has been several months) the USB support in most OSes (apart from MS and Apple, who have support from the hardware vendors) only covers certain specific devices (scanners and such), not floppies and keyboards and modems and mice and other things that have perfectly good unified extant interface standards and shouldn't be using a USB interface in the first place.