Plan9 user manual

At this point, you need to provide the configuration information for the file server machine. Walk through the menus as usual, but this time also select the File system console option.

This defines which device will serve as the administrative console for the file server machine. You probably want to choose the CGA option unless you plan to do something like put a remote terminal on a file server housed in a machine room.

When the configuration is written to the diskette, try booting the file server using the diskette as a boot disk. Read the next section before doing this, so you understand how the file server comes up: it's a completely different arrangement from a Plan 9 machine running the normal kernel.

The PC file server behaves much like any other Plan 9 file server. The one peculiarity is that it uses the floppy both as a boot disk and as a place to store precious information stored in non-volatile RAM on other machines; see the nvr entry in plan9. If the diskette has a bad configuration, you can return to the installation machine and write a new configuration file, iterating until it works. Carefully read this section before booting the file server. You are about to write all over some disks.

Also read fs 8 and fsconfig 8 to learn about the commands available on the server console. When you have a boot disk for a PC file server, or have found a way to bootstrap another type of file server, boot the server machine.

If you boot the disk a second time, the checksum in non-volatile RAM will be correct and the system will say for config mode hit a key within 5 seconds Do what it says. The system will prompt you with config: To this prompt you must type several lines of text to set up the configuration of the file system.

The first thing to set is the system's name as known to the network. If the machine is called kremvax , type service kremvax and a newline. Then set the machine's IP address, IP subnet mask, and the IP address of the gateway by typing using the correct addresses : ip Now you must establish the disk configuration. First pick a single SCSI disk that will store the configuration information in block 0 of the drive.

This information is held in a block number zero not otherwise used by the file system. Typically, but not necessarily, it will live on the same drive as the main file system. Say that's SCSI unit 4. Next you must define the layout of the disks that the machine will use.

Here are a couple of examples; if you can't confidently extrapolate from them to your setup, see fsconfig 8. A single SCSI disk on unit 4: filsys main w4 A main file system on unit 4, another on unit 5: filsys main w4 filsys other w5 A single file system spanning units 4 and 5: filsys main w4w5 A single file system spanning units 4 and 5, blockwise interleaved: filsys main [w4w5] One of the file systems you define must be called main , the default file system this machine will serve.

Now initialize the structure on the disks: ream main Ream any other file systems you've established, too. Take a careful look at what you've typed. If it's wrong, reset the machine and start again. Here's a representative display of what the screen should look like: config: service kremvax config: ip All the configuration commands do is set up data structures; they do no real work.

Once you leave config mode, the file system will establish the structure you described. This means that if you make a mistake you can reset the machine without doing any damage. To get out of config mode and on to real work, type end. After you leave config mode, the file server will initialize its disk and prompt you: kremvax: The prompt may get lost among the other output; type a couple of newlines.

If the system crashes horribly at this point, it's probably because the file server can't find its disks. The likeliest reasons are that the configuration was specified wrong or the NVRAM contains bad information. If it's not a PC, reboot the system, enter config mode, and make sure the configuration is right. When the server has prompted you with its service name, type users default to establish a minimal set of users to own the files unpacked from the disk.

See fs 8 for more information about such commands. You now have a file server that will let you connect and talk to it, as long as you connect with user name none. When the file server is up, go back to the installation PC and select this option. If you didn't do step 3a, read what it says about getting the installation software running again. The installation must be done with machines on the same subnet, but the information you provide here will be used to build the network databases on the file server.

After specifying the IP information for the PC, supply the IP address of the file server and its fully-qualified domain name, e. As when installing to local disk, this will take a few hours. If you need to reboot the file server after you have installed the CD-ROM but before you have authentication enabled, you will need to cheat a little. The reaming process turns off authentication to make it easy to establish the administration files, but that state is lost if the system is rebooted.

You'll need to set them back to what you want. The ROM will not touch the Plan 9 configuration information, though. Here's what we type to get the state back; your state might be different: setenv diag-switch? The same problem applies to writing the password; see below. Before a PC can be turned into a CPU or authentication server, it must first have a Plan 9 partition table on its disk.

The easiest way to do this is to use installation option 1 3 diskette or 2 CD-ROM to create a file system on the hard drive. If you've just done the installation, the installer will already know the pertinent IP addresses for this machine; if not, you'll have to provide them. In either case, you'll have to provide the IP address and fully-qualified domain name of the file server.

The installer will then connect to the server and then ask you to choose which hard disk to use to store the boot kernel. A partition named boot is used to store the kernel from which a Plan 9 PC boots if the root file system is not a DOS file system. The installer is asking you to identify the drive whose boot partition will be written. This is a user name that applies to this authentication domain; it is the user name that all the servers in that domain will use to identify themselves to the authentication server; its authentication key is stored on the local machine.

On PCs, the key is stored in a partition called nvram ; on other machines, it's stored in real non-volatile RAM. The same authid must be used on all other file servers, CPU servers, and authentication servers in this domain.

The installer will then ask you to reboot. Get back to the DOS prompt, then go to the console of the file server. On its console, type the command passwd This will prompt you for a password. This is the password to be used by all servers in the authentication domain; it is authid's password.

Type the password, confirm it, and then you will be asked to give an authid. Give the same one as on the CPU server. Next you will need to give the authentication domain name. This will typically be the same as your authentication domain name. If your authid is eduardo and your file server is named kremvax. The file server now has authentication established. You will be prompted for a device from which to get the root file system; use il.

Until you get a Plan 9 BOOTP server going, the system will not find what it needs, and after a few seconds it will give up and ask you. Type the appropriate information, giving all the relevant IP addresses. You are now faced with a chicken an egg problem. When you are asked for the IP address of the authentication server, type this system's IP address.

After all the IP addresses are specified, the system will come up and ask for a password. How can I get more detailed technical information?

Can I emulate Plan 9 under Unix? Introduction: Subject: What is Plan 9? Plan 9 is a new computer operating system and associated utilities. Plan 9 is a distributed system. In the most general configuration, it uses three kinds of components: terminals that sit on users' desks, file servers that store permanent data, and other servers that provide faster CPUs, user authentication, and network gateways.

These components are connected by various kinds of networks, including Ethernet, Datakit, specially-built fiber networks, ordinary modem connections, and ISDN.

In typical use, users interact with applications that run either on their terminals or on CPU servers, and the applications get their data from the file servers. The design, however, is highly configurable; it escapes from specific models of networked workstations and central machine service. Subject: What is in the latest Plan9 release? The system's creators also have installed "plumbing," a new mechanism for passing messages between interactive programs, as part of the user interface.

Subject: What are Brazil and Inferno? The first release of Plan 9 was in , and was only available to universities. In the second release was available for purchase under a shrink-wrap license. Brazil was the next research project after Plan 9 release 2. The kernel data paths have been re-architected to take advantage of faster machines and networks. On June 7, Brazil was released under an open source agreement. It is intended to be used in a variety of emerging network environments, for example in TV set-top boxes attached to cable systems, advanced telephones, hand-held devices, and inexpensive networked computers, but also in conjunction with traditional computing systems.

Inferno customer support has recently been taken up by Vita Nuova. It appears the free evaluation version is not available any more. Plan 9 is itself an operating system; it doesn't run as an application under another system.

It was written from the ground up and doesn't include other people's code. Although the OS's interface to applications is strongly influenced by the approach of Unix, it's not a replacement for Unix; it is a new design. Subject: What are its key ideas? The first two of these ideas were foreshadowed in Unix and to a lesser extent in other systems, while the third is new: it allows a new engineering solution to the problems of distributed computing and graphics.

Plan 9's approach means that application programs don't need to know where they are running; where, and on what kind of machine, to run a Plan 9 program is an economic decision that doesn't affect the construction of the application itself.

Subject: What are the advantages to this approach? Plan 9's approach improves generality and modularity of application design by encouraging servers that make any kind of information appear to users and to applications just like collections of ordinary files. Here are a few examples. That is - besides creating, deleting, and arranging the windows themselves - its job is be a server for certain resources used by its clients.

As a side benefit, this approach means that the window system can run recursively in one of its windows, or even on another machine. The debugger can examine a program on another machine even if it is running on a different hardware architecture. Another example is the approach to networks.

A common semantic core for the operations is agreed upon, together with a general server for translating human-readable addresses to network-specific ones. It is the product of many evenings and weekends, we make it available for benevolent use. Setup - Installing: hardware, software, and firmware. Plugging in: Sensors, radios, batteries, motors, etc. Configuration - Establish telemetry and control between: robot, ground-station, and RC-control transmitter.

Set up flight modes, program failsafe behavior, calibrate sensors and motor-controllers, verify correct motor rotation and prop orientation. Tuning - Verify performance and behavior, adjusting parameters to suit Mission planning - Programming missions.