[9front] MBR; Boot Arguments

[9front] MBR; Boot Arguments

[Jay F. Shachter]

Centuries ago, Nostradamus predicted that Jacob Moody would write on Thu Jul 27 16:53:52 2023:

> 
> Are you using an EFI partition table or an MBR? I assume you must be
> using EFI if you are dealing in more then 4 partitions on a disk.
> But in your previous mails you mentioned installing 9front in MBR
> mode.
> 

It is an MBR-partitioned disk.  I think -- and please correct me if I
am wrong -- that the entire concept of a boot flag on a disk slice is
inapplicable to GPT-partitioned disks.

>
> Can you give me an entire explanation of how your disk is
> configured?
> 

Windows 10 occupies the first two primary slices (when I got the
computer, Windows 10 had colonized all three primary slices, but I
liberated the third one).  FreeDOS 1.3 resides on the third primary
slice because it is practically impossible to get FreeDOS to work
anywhere but on a primary slice.  Everything else resides on logical
slices within the extended slice.  The two Linux systems reside on a
single logical slice, which constitutes a volume group from which
Linux logical volumes can be carved out.  The other operating systems
each occupies a separate logical slice.  9front is on slice #14.  The
MBR boots Linux GRUB.  There is also a backup copy of the Linux GRUB
MBR on slice #10.  There is a backup copy of the Solaris GRUB MBR on
slice #13.

But the question of disk layout -- the entire question of why the
9front bootloader cannot find anything in the 9fat filesystem when
primary slice #1 is flagged as bootable -- is now a question only of
intellectual, but not practical, interest.  I am bypassing the 9front
bootloader; GRUB is booting /9pc64 directly.  The remaining question,
which I hope someone on this mailing list can answer, is: What
argument can I pass to /9pc64 that will tell it the bootfile, so that
I don't have to type the Enter key whenever I boot 9front to confirm
that I want to use local!/dev/sdE0/fs (similar to the user=glenda
option that keeps me from having to type Enter to confirm that I am
glenda)?  Thank you in advance for any and all replies.

                        Jay F. Shachter
                        6424 North Whipple Street
                        Chicago IL  60645-4111
                                (1-773)7613784   landline
                                (1-410)9964737   GoogleVoice
                                jay@m5.chicago.il.us
                                http://m5.chicago.il.us

                        "Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur"

Re: [9front] MBR; Boot Arguments

[B. Atticus Grobe]

On 7/27/23 21:58, Jay F. Shachter wrote:
...
> argument can I pass to /9pc64 that will tell it the bootfile, so that
> I don't have to type the Enter key whenever I boot 9front to confirm
> that I want to use local!/dev/sdE0/fs (similar to the user=glenda
> option that keeps me from having to type Enter to confirm that I am
> glenda)?  Thank you in advance for any and all replies.

i already answered this. man plan9.ini
read it. it will tell you exactly how to do that. learn to use the 
manual pages. its there so people don't have to spoon feed you.

no shit booting from an extended/logical partition doesn't work. its 
unsupported. bioses aren't supposed to even try that, because its 
EXPLICITLY unsupported. not something that maybe-sometimes works, but is 
actually WRONG, and not supposed to be done. this isn't new, it's been 
like that since the PC became a thing.

not the brightest rock in the light bulb factory, are you?

Re: [9front] MBR; Boot Arguments

[qwx]

On Fri Jul 28 05:20:57 +0200 2023, grobe0ba@tcp80.org wrote:
[...]
> no shit booting from an extended/logical partition doesn't work. its 
> unsupported. bioses aren't supposed to even try that, because its 
> EXPLICITLY unsupported. not something that maybe-sometimes works, but is 
> actually WRONG, and not supposed to be done. this isn't new, it's been 
> like that since the PC became a thing.
> 
> not the brightest rock in the light bulb factory, are you?

What the fuck?  Please calm down and keep personal attacks out of
this.

Thank you,
qwx

Re: [9front] MBR; Boot Arguments

[grobe0ba]

apologies to Jay and everyone else.

qwx, thanks for the reminder not to be an asshole. I shall do better at restraining myself.

Re: [9front] MBR; Boot Arguments

[Stanley Lieber]

On July 27, 2023 10:58:13 PM EDT, "Jay F. Shachter" <jay@m5.chicago.il.us> wrote:
>
>Centuries ago, Nostradamus predicted that Jacob Moody would write on Thu Jul 27 16:53:52 2023:
>
>> 
>> Are you using an EFI partition table or an MBR? I assume you must be
>> using EFI if you are dealing in more then 4 partitions on a disk.
>> But in your previous mails you mentioned installing 9front in MBR
>> mode.
>> 
>
>It is an MBR-partitioned disk.  I think -- and please correct me if I
>am wrong -- that the entire concept of a boot flag on a disk slice is
>inapplicable to GPT-partitioned disks.
>
>>
>> Can you give me an entire explanation of how your disk is
>> configured?
>> 
>
>Windows 10 occupies the first two primary slices (when I got the
>computer, Windows 10 had colonized all three primary slices, but I
>liberated the third one).  FreeDOS 1.3 resides on the third primary
>slice because it is practically impossible to get FreeDOS to work
>anywhere but on a primary slice.  Everything else resides on logical
>slices within the extended slice.  The two Linux systems reside on a
>single logical slice, which constitutes a volume group from which
>Linux logical volumes can be carved out.  The other operating systems
>each occupies a separate logical slice.  9front is on slice #14.  The
>MBR boots Linux GRUB.  There is also a backup copy of the Linux GRUB
>MBR on slice #10.  There is a backup copy of the Solaris GRUB MBR on
>slice #13.
>
>But the question of disk layout -- the entire question of why the
>9front bootloader cannot find anything in the 9fat filesystem when
>primary slice #1 is flagged as bootable -- is now a question only of
>intellectual, but not practical, interest.  I am bypassing the 9front
>bootloader; GRUB is booting /9pc64 directly.  The remaining question,
>which I hope someone on this mailing list can answer, is: What
>argument can I pass to /9pc64 that will tell it the bootfile, so that
>I don't have to type the Enter key whenever I boot 9front to confirm
>that I want to use local!/dev/sdE0/fs (similar to the user=glenda
>option that keeps me from having to type Enter to confirm that I am
>glenda)?  Thank you in advance for any and all replies.
>
>                        Jay F. Shachter
>                        6424 North Whipple Street
>                        Chicago IL  60645-4111
>                                (1-773)7613784   landline
>                                (1-410)9964737   GoogleVoice
>                                jay@m5.chicago.il.us
>                                http://m5.chicago.il.us
>
>                        "Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur"
>
>

the leading slash in front of pc64 is not needed when you're trying to load the kernel off the 9fat partition. conversely, for pxe booting you'd need to provide the full path.

al

Re: [9front] MBR; Boot Arguments

[Jacob Moody]

On 7/27/23 21:58, Jay F. Shachter wrote:
> 
> Centuries ago, Nostradamus predicted that Jacob Moody would write on Thu Jul 27 16:53:52 2023:
> 
>>
>> Are you using an EFI partition table or an MBR? I assume you must be
>> using EFI if you are dealing in more then 4 partitions on a disk.
>> But in your previous mails you mentioned installing 9front in MBR
>> mode.
>>
> 
> It is an MBR-partitioned disk.  I think -- and please correct me if I
> am wrong -- that the entire concept of a boot flag on a disk slice is
> inapplicable to GPT-partitioned disks.
> 
>>
>> Can you give me an entire explanation of how your disk is
>> configured?
>>
> 
> Windows 10 occupies the first two primary slices (when I got the
> computer, Windows 10 had colonized all three primary slices, but I
> liberated the third one).  FreeDOS 1.3 resides on the third primary
> slice because it is practically impossible to get FreeDOS to work
> anywhere but on a primary slice.  Everything else resides on logical
> slices within the extended slice.  The two Linux systems reside on a
> single logical slice, which constitutes a volume group from which
> Linux logical volumes can be carved out.  The other operating systems
> each occupies a separate logical slice.  9front is on slice #14.  The
> MBR boots Linux GRUB.  There is also a backup copy of the Linux GRUB
> MBR on slice #10.  There is a backup copy of the Solaris GRUB MBR on
> slice #13.
> 
> But the question of disk layout -- the entire question of why the
> 9front bootloader cannot find anything in the 9fat filesystem when
> primary slice #1 is flagged as bootable -- is now a question only of
> intellectual, but not practical, interest.  I am bypassing the 9front
> bootloader; GRUB is booting /9pc64 directly.  The remaining question,
> which I hope someone on this mailing list can answer, is: What
> argument can I pass to /9pc64 that will tell it the bootfile, so that
> I don't have to type the Enter key whenever I boot 9front to confirm
> that I want to use local!/dev/sdE0/fs (similar to the user=glenda
> option that keeps me from having to type Enter to confirm that I am
> glenda)?  Thank you in advance for any and all replies.
> 
>                         Jay F. Shachter
>                         6424 North Whipple Street
>                         Chicago IL  60645-4111
>                                 (1-773)7613784   landline
>                                 (1-410)9964737   GoogleVoice
>                                 jay@m5.chicago.il.us
>                                 http://m5.chicago.il.us
> 
>                         "Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur"
> 


For non prompted booting you can change 'bootargs' to 'nobootprompt'.
If you also add a 'user=glenda', that will prevent it from asking you
for that as well.