Plan 9 available

[9pi]

...can you please explain to me the differences between the current versions and forks of Plan 9? ...And btw, since stock Plan 9 isn't dead and is still updated and rebuilded every day, what version did you use to build your Rpi port? 4th Edition as released in 2002? Current (and unstable) development version?

Sorry, I'm not an authority on "forks" of Plan 9 - I have been using the standard Bell Labs distribution since 1995, and I'm happy to stay with that. Although it is regularly updated, I would not refer to it as "unstable" - new features continue to be based on the same simple set of design principles and compatible with existing interfaces, and the system remains reliable and predictable.

The 9pi file system image was created by installing a daily install/live CD image from the Bell Labs download page and then compiling all the libraries and commands with objtype=arm (the CD contains binaries for x86 only). You could build one yourself the same way.

[Rox64]

Sorry, I'm not an authority on "forks" of Plan 9 - I have been using the standard Bell Labs distribution since 1995, and I'm happy to stay with that. Although it is regularly updated, I would not refer to it as "unstable" - new features continue to be based on the same simple set of design principles and compatible with existing interfaces, and the system remains reliable and predictable.

Oh, I thought you knew about forks and community builds, sorry!
About the word "unstable", well, I supposed the current development version is as stable as a fixed release, but it's just a word. I mean "not an official, fixed release". But it's a little longer to write .

Nice to see I can update the system without reinstalling it, like a rolling Linux distro (although simpler and more compact and stable). That sounds like a wonderful idea. But I don't know if I can update your/my 9pi images too from sources (I suppose P9 download the source code and not the binaries, and then it compiles it, am I right?)

The 9pi file system image was created by installing a daily install/live CD image from the Bell Labs download page and then compiling all the libraries and commands with objtype=arm (the CD contains binaries for x86 only). You could build one yourself the same way.

I see. So I can build an image for Rpi on a already installed Plan 9 system, much like in Linux.

From what I have seen, your patches are already uploaded on the current sources (dunno if they will work on 4th Ed P9, but whatever, it's just try and error). But I don't know if your images are compiled with hard float support like Raspbian in order to improve raw performance. Do you know where can I investigate about all compile options for Plan 9?

[Joe Schmoe]

Another alternative operating system is now available for the Raspberry Pi: Plan 9 from Bell Labs (http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9). There's an installable image (about 144MB compressed) at http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sources/cont ... 9pi.img.gz – to try it, just gunzip to the start of a 2GB+ SD card and boot.

FYI - I tried this out - as far as I can tell, the imaging went fine, and the thing booted up just fine, but it didn't recognize my keyboard or mouse.

This is a (more or less) standard USB keyboard with a wireless dongle plugged into the keyboard for the mouse (so it only takes up one of the Pi's USB ports). This is the standard rig for keyboard and mouse that I've used for all my testing with SBC's - and it has worked fine on all of them. That is, everything up to, but not including, this Plan 9 image.

Any ideas?

[9pi]

... it didn't recognize my keyboard or mouse.

When did you download the image? The latest version (19 December) has some further usb keyboard / mouse corrections which might help.

If not, I suggest editing your cmdline.txt file to remove the parameter 'user=glenda' and add the parameter 'kbargs=-d'. The first will prevent auto-starting of the rio desktop, and the second will give some debugging information about the keyboard + mouse driver.

[9pi]

... I don't know if I can update your/my 9pi images too from sources (I suppose P9 download the source code and not the binaries, and then it compiles it, am I right?)
,,, I don't know if your images are compiled with hard float support like Raspbian in order to improve raw performance. Do you know where can I investigate about all compile options for Plan 9?

Yes, you can use the replica/pull command to keep up to date with sources, and also with the pi-specific parts of the kernel (until they are merged into the main sources tree). I'll post separately about that because this topic is getting too long.

The Plan 9 C compiler for arm doesn't support the newer vfp floating point architecture yet, but it will soon.

[Brewgod23]

I want to setup my network but I am not sure what this means (See below) and what to do to set it up. Is there a step by step procedure for doing this?

"If your pi is connected to a network with DHCP service, you will want to copy cmdline-demo-net.txt to cmdline.txt in the boot partition. This will enable networking, and use NTP to set the clock at boot time."

[johnculpin]

Brewgod23, you need to copy the cmdline.txt files when you are not running Plan 9. So, put your SD card into a card reader and when you put it into your PC you should see two partitions and the cmdline.txt and cmdline-demo-net.txt will be visible on the first partition (either vfat or fat32 partition; I cannot remember which).

Once you have replaced the cmdline.txt file, reboot the Pi (make sure it is connected to your network) and as long as your network uses DHCP, then you should automatically acquire an IP address and the clock time will be set as well.

[Brewgod23]

So all I do is copy cmdline-demo-net.txt from one partition into the other partition where cmdline.txt resides?

[9pi]

So all I do is copy cmdline-demo-net.txt from one partition into the other partition where cmdline.txt resides?

No, both files are in the boot partition. You can do this under Plan 9 - in a command shell window, just type this:

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dosmnt 1 /n/d
cp /n/d/cmdline-demo-net.txt /n/d/cmdline.txt

and reboot by typing 'fshalt -r'

[Muzer]

Any chance of sticking a changelog up somewhere/labelling images with version numbers (or at least dates) so people can see when there's a new one and which one they have?

[9pi]

Any chance of sticking a changelog up somewhere/labelling images with version numbers (or at least dates) so people can see when there's a new one and which one they have?

Traditionally Plan 9 hasn't had a change log, and there are no "versions". We just do a "replica/pull" from time to time and see what comes in. I'm a fairly cautious person so I generally do a pull with the "-n" option first.

The modification date of file /dist/replica/client/plan9.time will tell you when you last updated from Bell Labs sources. The modification date of most of the device files in /dev is set to the date the running kernel was built.

[chadlongstaff]

there doesn't seem to be much discussion of plan9 beyond this thread, and searching for "plan9 ntp" brought me here, so:
to set the time on each boot from an ntp server add this line to $home/lib/profile before "exec rio":

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/bin/aux/timesync -n ntp.cis.strath.ac.uk

other time servers are available.
I did set TIMESYNCARGS elsewhere, but it didn't seem to work.

on another note, acme seemed to be losing a lot of files for me... solution appears to be to shutdown cleanly by doing

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fshalt

before giving it the three fingered salute (an old term for ctrl-alt-del)

[9pi]

I did set TIMESYNCARGS elsewhere, but it didn't seem to work.

Have a look at the script /bin/termrc.local - if parameter ipconfig is set in cmdline.txt, this script should be setting TIMESYNCARGS, which will result in the /bin/termrc script calling aux/timesync. The ipconfig variable is normally defined to be a null string (as in the example cmdline-demo-net.txt) to configure the network via DHCP, but you can also use it to pass parameters to the ip/ipconfig command and configure things explicitly.

[dk379]

i have tried to download boot image, but the server gives HTTP Error 500. Alternative file sources?

Update:
found this forum thread - somebody kept a copy of boot image. No idea of course about its date or origin - but it seems to boot to rio (in just under twenty seconds - I am so impressed!)
http://www.osnews.com/comments/26575

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 curl -v http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sources/contrib/miller/9pi.img.gz
* About to connect() to plan9.bell-labs.com port 80 (#0)
*   Trying 204.178.31.32...
* connected
* Connected to plan9.bell-labs.com (204.178.31.32) port 80 (#0)
> GET /sources/contrib/miller/9pi.img.gz HTTP/1.1
> User-Agent: curl/7.24.0 (x86_64-apple-darwin12.0) libcurl/7.24.0 OpenSSL/0.9.8r zlib/1.2.5
> Host: plan9.bell-labs.com
> Accept: */*
> 
< HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Error
* Connection #0 to host plan9.bell-labs.com left intact
* Closing connection #0

[9pi]

i have tried to download boot image, but the server gives HTTP Error 500.

The Bell Labs web server for Plan 9 sources goes offline from time to time. If you keep trying, it will eventually reappear (sometimes it takes a day or two).

[kyounger]

Has anyone tried any of our favorite usb/wifi adaptors with Plan 9?

just curious if anyone has gotten one running and what you did to do so?

[kyounger]

So I like the plan9 port, it's very fast on a Pi, makes the PI feel really responsive!

Now that Google's Go 1.1 is released, has anyone ported Go 1.1 to the arm/plan9 combo? I know Go is avail on the linuxes... but...

what say you, 9Pi?

[citan]

I thought it would be nice to have temperature reading in Plan9 (cputemp device). I sent patch to Plan9. If you'd like to test it you can find it here: http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sources/patch/bcm-cputemp/ I'm not sure if it is good enough (changes are small, using already implemented in Plan9 VideoCore API).

I read about Plan9 long time ago but never had a chance to play with. This RPi port is just amazing job. I really enjoy discovering Plan9. Thanks!