From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.0 required=5.0 tests=T_SCC_BODY_TEXT_LINE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 15929 invoked from network); 21 Jul 2023 05:24:19 -0000 Received: from 9front.inri.net (168.235.81.73) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 21 Jul 2023 05:24:19 -0000 Received: from m5.chicago.il.us ([204.248.57.218]) by 9front; Fri Jul 21 01:23:06 -0400 2023 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 To: 9front@9front.org Message-Id: <16899169930.eD0eB387.99539@lsd.chicago.il.us> MIME-Version: 1.0 From: "Jay F. Shachter" Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2023 00:23:13 -0500 (EDT) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit List-ID: <9front.9front.org> List-Help: X-Glyph: ➈ X-Bullshit: scale-out virtual component-aware pipelining-aware generator Subject: [9front] "init: starting /bin/rc" repeats endlessly when I boot a computer installed from 9front-9931.amd64.iso Reply-To: 9front@9front.org Precedence: bulk Esteemed Colleagues: When I boot my computer into a 9front system that I just installed from 9front-9931.amd64.iso, it repeats "init: starting /bin/rc" endlessly. Is this a known problem? Is there a known fix? Specifically: I turn on the computer, wait for the GRUB menu to appear, interrupt the countdown with "c", and then I type (because I haven't created a menuentry for it yet): set root=(hd0,14) chainloader +1 boot I then see (what I assume are) the normal startup messages, beginning with "pbs ........... ok" (I may not have the right number of periods, it disappears quickly from the screen) and ending with (there may be typographical errors, I am typing this by hand from the screen): /dev/sdE0/9fat dos /dev/sdE0/data /dev/sdE0/dos dos /dev/sdE0/fscache cwfs64x /dev/sdE0/fsworm /dev/sdE0/linux /dev/sdE0/linux1 dos /dev/sdE0/linux2 /dev/sdE0/linuxlvm /dev/sdE0/netbsd /dev/sdE0/ntfs /dev/sdE0/ntfs1 /dev/sdE0/nvram /dev/sdE0/openbsd /dev/sdE0/other /dev/sdE0/plan9 /dev/sdE0/sysv386 /dev/sdE1: HL-DT-STDVD-ROM DU90N D100 /dev/sdE2: /dev/sdE3: /dev/sdM0: MMC Host Controller /dev/sdM1: MMC Host Controller /dev/sdM2: MMC Host Controller bootargs is (tcp, tls, il, local!device)[local!/dev/sdE0/fscache] with a blinking underline cursor two characters to the right of the right square bracket. I then type Enter to accept the default, whereupon I see: user[glenda]: again with a blinking underline cursor two characters to the right of the right square bracket. I type Enter again and then see: current fs is "main" 10 uids read, 3 groups used 63-bit cwfs as of Sun Jun 25 10:07:41 2023 last boot Thu Jul 20 20:54:23 2023 init: starting /bin/rc init: starting /bin/rc init: starting /bin/rc init: starting /bin/rc init: starting /bin/rc init: starting /bin/rc repeated endlessly. Prior to the installation, I used Linux fdisk to create, on an MBR-partitioned disk, a logical slice within the extended partition 5 gigabytes in size, which is surely big enough for 9front, to which I gave the 8-bit code 0x39, thus designating it as a Plan 9 disk slice. The installation was then done by copying 9front-9931.amd64.iso to a USB stick and sticking the USB stick into the computer and instructing the BIOS to boot in Legacy mode from the USB device. I answered the preliminary questions by typing Enter and accepting the defaults, and then when rio started up (I think that's the right word -- rio is the windowing system, yes?) I invoked the inst command. The installation went entirely by the book, except that the installer did not ask me to partition my disk, because it found a 5-gigabyte slice of disk (the only one I have of that size, so I knew it was the right one) on which to install. The only times I asked for anything other than the default were when I named the computer m5, and when I selected the US_Central timezone. I typed "no" when I was asked whether to install bootcode on the MBR, but that was the default, I just wanted to say it explicitly. And the only other time I typed anything other than Enter during the entire installation was when I typed w and q to accept the default subpartitioning. I would suspect an incomplete installation due to a hardware error, because of events that I shall relate shortly, if not for the fact that a hardware error is totally implausible. I have a half-dozen operating systems installed on this computer, and not one of them misbehaves, or has ever misbehaved, or has ever given any evidence of a hardware failure. Nevertheless, my every attempt to install 9front has failed, except for the one time it has succeeded, and as far as I know I did nothing different then than I did on all the other occasions, both before and since, when it has failed. When it fails, which as I stated it has always done -- both when I boot from a USB stick to which 9front-9931.amd64.iso has been copied, and when I boot from a CD to which 9front-9931.amd64.iso has been copied -- except the one case when it succeeded, it always fails in the same way. I boot the computer from the USB stick, or from the CD, I see a bunch of numbers, I see other preliminary stuff like: cdboot=yes mouseport=ask monitor=ask vgasize=ask bootfile=/amd84/9pc64 boot I then see something being counted very quickly, then I see Plan 9 and then a bunch of other stuff that flies off the screen, culminating in the list of devices that you saw earlier, and then: bootargs is (tcp, tls, il, local!device)[local!/dev/sdE1/data] with the same blinking underline cursor that was described earlier. I type Enter to accept the default, I then see: user[glenda]: with the blinking underline described earlier, and when I type Enter again to accept the default, there is a pause of a few seconds, and then it says mount: mount root: I/O read error mount /srv/boot /root: mount 2156: mount and then the list of devices (maybe preceded by other stuff that quickly flew off the screen), and then the same bootargs is (tcp, tls, il, local!device)[local!/dev/sdE1/data] prompt as before, and this time there is no "user[glenda]:" prompt when I type Enter, it returns -- for as many times as I repeat the procedure -- to the several-second pause, and then to the mount: mount root: I/O read error mount /srv/boot /root: mount 2156: mount message as before, except that the number is different, it keeps on going up. So, how do I successfully run my already-installed 9front system? Or, if I must reinstall it, how do I do that? I grant that it certainly looks like a hardware error -- especially since an installation procedure that usually fails did succeed once, maybe when the hardware was well-rested and feeling healthy -- but, as I said, this computer has never shown any evidence of any hardware error, even the smallest. I would welcome any answer to this question, and I 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 http://m5.chicago.il.us jay@m5.chicago.il.us "But when she traced the killer's IP address ... it was in the 192.168/16 block!"