# # Plan 9 Installation W/Out Rio Quick Notes # # Chocolate Scientists are your Friends. # http://www.chocolate.no-ip.info/ # # pour your misery down on me.. # ok # # $north_: no_rio.txt, v0.01b 2002.06.20 @22:36:17 curiosity.gift.paintings $ # Quick notes for installing plan9 on medium with no VGA support. What I used: + IBM Thinkpad 760L - unknown VGA Card (i didnt bother researching) - 3c589 ether PCMCIA - floppy drive - one 3gig HDD (ata) Breakdown: The general plan9 process (or any OS installation process) is a basic three-step situation. We start out setting up the installation media. Next, we configure the distribution media. Finally, we install the distribution. This ain't a thing on plan9 because of its ability to make seemingly tough tasks simple. Installation Media: Setting up the media we install upon is simple. This is usually a local hard disk and is what I will be using as the media. Our task order is simple. First, we select the disk. If this disk is a boot disk we make sure it has a working MBR. Next, we do disk partitioning. Finally, we mount and prepare the file system we have partitioned. Simple enough. So, whats the actual task list? + pseudo: select a disk from /dev/sd??, equate to DISK + if the MBR is corrupted, or, its a new blank disk install a MBR - disk/mbr -m /386/mbr /dev/DISK/data + set up a boot partition for plan9 - do the actual partitioning + disk/fdisk /dev/DISK/data - notify the disk control of the partitions + disk/fdisk -p /dev/DISK/data >/dev/DISK/ctl - optionally make the plan9 partition the active boot partition 80h + select the boot partition - for example my plan9 boot partition is 'p1' + in disk/fdisk - "A p1" + set up plan9 partitions - do the actual partitioning + typical entries fyi: - 9fat: for ur boot stuff (9load, kernel, plan9.ini) - swap: for ur swappy needz! - fs: your actual file system! /usr/north_ - nvram: auth info here kthx - cfs: cache funky syst + disk/prep /dev/DISK/plan9 - notify the disk control of the partitions + disk/prep -p /dev/DISK/plan9 >/dev/DISK/ctl + mount the file system partition - disk/kfs -n _kfs -f /dev/DISK/fs -rb8192 + NOTE: i add "-rb8192" because i am reaming the file system with 8192byte blocks. i am assuming here that the plan9 filesystem is new ;) + adjust the file system for the install - disk/kfscmd -n _kfs allow - mount the file system + mount -c /srv/kfs._kfs /n/kfs - create any necessary files on the filesystem + disk/kfscmd -n _kfs 'create /dist sys sys 775 d' + disk/kfscmd -n _kfs 'create /dist/replica sys sys 775 d' + disk/kfscmd -n _kfs 'create /dist/replica/ndist sys sys 775' + disk/kfscmd -n _kfs 'create /dist/replica/client sys sys 775 d' + disk/kfscmd -n _kfs 'create /dist/replica/client/plan9.db sys sys 664' + disk/kfscmd -n _kfs 'create /dist/replica/client/plan9.log sys sys 664 a' Distribution Media: Next, of course, is the distribution itself. I am a net-install whore, so, I'm downloading the iso over the ethernet from a box on my LAN. Adjust the following accordingly. The order here is pretty ez. First, set up the ethernet device. Next, obtain the distribution media. Negotiate the media accordingly. Finally, mount the media as a file system. + set up the ethernet device - select a valid ethernet device from /net/ether?/, equate to ETHER - select a gateway machine on ur LAN, equate to GATEWAY - select a local address, equate to LADDR - select a proper network mask, equate to NMASK - ip/ipconfig -g GATEWAY ether /net/ETHER + set up services - ndb/cs - ndb/dns -r - bind /srv/cs /net/cs - bind /srv/dns /net/dns + download the media - hget -ov /n/kfs/dist/_plan9.iso.bz2 http://evilbec.luvs.chocolate.sc/p9/plan9.iso.bz2 + NOTE: even though the '-v' output is irrelevant since we cant use bargraph, its still a good idea to kick up verbosity for the sake of monitoring the line. + NOTE: running this as a background proc might be a good idea, imho - mv /n/kfs/dist/_plan9.iso.bz2 /n/kfs/dist/plan9.iso.bz2 + synchronize the kfs - disk/kfscmd -n _kfs sync + unzip the ISO - bunzip2 < /n/kfs/dist/plan9.iso.bz2 > /n/kfs/dist/_plan9.iso - mv /n/kfs/dist/_plan9.iso /n/kfs/dist/plan9.iso + mount the distribution - 9660srv 9660.dist - mount /srv/9660.dist /n/dist /n/kfs/dist/plan9.iso Distribution Installation: This process is the most simple. Installing the file system and configuring your boot partition are the only things that need to be done here. + install the distro tree into the fs tree - replica/pull -c /rc/bin/inst/replcfg + format and mount the 9fat for plan9 booting goodness - disk/format -r 2 -d -b /386/pbs /dev/DISK/9fat /n/kfs/386/9load - 9fat: + fatten up ur 9fat - cp /n/kfs/386/9load /n/9fat - cp /n/kfs/386/9pcdisk /n/9fat - mount your boot floppy + a: - copy the plan9.ini from ur floppy + cp /n/a:/plan9.ini /n/9fat - edit your plan9.ini for plan9 goodness + ed /n/9fat/plan9.ini + dance around cuz ur done! Final Thoughts (like Jerry Springer i guss.. hmm..) Its always nice to have a man page for any command you run. Don't hesitate to use the on-line manpage system at plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9. Its _for_ you own good. Also, running processes that generally take forever as a background process is a good idea (i.e. replica/pull). For people who can read Rc script, the sources to the "isnt" scripts are in /sys/lib/dist/pc/inst. Thats about all I can think of... Oh, last but not least: if dancing is against your religion you can just toss this txt out the window because its a requirement. Pz, north_.