Table of Contents

Plan 9 / 9Front, the namespace, and an interactive terminal

DRAFT tutorial

====== 9front terminal on a Raspberry Pi 2 B ======

xTHIS IS A DRAFT

About

This is a tutorial about setting-up the Plan 9 9front 1 operating system, as a terminal on a Raspberry Pi 2 Model B. The tutorial is aimed at participants in the SDF Plan 9 Boot Camp 2, but should be useful to other SDF VPS users.

The following steps assume that you have edited files while user “glenda”, have run '% fshalt' from the VPS console rc prompt (%) or Drawterm rio rc prompt (%), been able to “[s] - Force Shutdown”, “[r] - reset or start” from the VPS Maintenance Shell, and have used 9front Drawterm successfully.

The SDF Plan 9 / 9Front VPS, 9front Drawterm, and a 9front 9pi terminal are independent. This tutorial is for educational purposes, and provides additional information about a 9pi. The 9front Drawterm works very well. Yet, some participants may decide to read about a 9pi terminal. The SDF Boot Camp participants study virtualized amd64 9front.

1 Plan9front (or 9front) is a fork of the Plan 9 from Bell Labs operating system; Plan 9 Derivatives and forks. 2 Booting

Less ambitious:

ISO
http://9front.org/iso/
*pi.img.gz

Nightly ISO
http://iso.only9fans.com/
*pi.img.gz

Note:

RELEASE
http://www.9front.org/releases/
The pi.img file can be used for Raspberry Pi 1, 2, and 3.
The pi3.img file can be used for Raspberry Pi 3 and 4 (11/23/2023; 9FRONT “HUMANBIOLOGICS” RELEASED (2023/11/22)).

The pi3.img file can be used for Raspberry Pi 3 and 4 (11/18/2023; 9FRONT “DON’T TOUCH THE ARTWORK” RELEASED (2023/06/25).)
ISO 3) or Nightly ISO? 4 months 23 days
✔ Nightly ISO 4) https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=11%2F18%2F2023+to+2023%2F06%2F25
The pi3.img file can be used for Raspberry Pi 3 and 4 (1/27/2021; 9FRONT “EMAILSCHADEN” RELEASED 2020/10/19).

OR

More ambitious:

Appendix J - Junk
Raspberry Pi
http://fqa.9front.org/appendixj.html

CAUTION:

[:!:] 5)CAUTION[:!:] 6)CAUTION[:!:] 7)CAUTION[:!:] 8)

Cautionary instructions for working with SD cards can be found here:

Installing operating system images
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/installation/installing-images/ (1/27/2021; external archive)
“Writing the image”
“How you write the image to the SD card will depend on the operating system you are using.”

The copy to an SD card process:

Linux:

[:!:] 9)Run lsblk -p to see which devices are currently connected to your machine.
[:!:] 10)The mentioned /dev/sdc may not apply to your machine. Locate the proper SD card designation, first.
[:!:] 11)Do not guess. Verify first.
..Optionally, a separate computer can be used, where there is no danger of damaging a hard drive.
xTHIS IS A DRAFT

The copy image process:

% 9fs pidos
% cp /sys/src/9/bcm/9pi2 /n/pidos/9pi2

Edit cmdline.txt if needed:

% cd /n/pidos/
% lc cmdline.txt
% sam cmdline.txt
[:!:]13)Add text with a single space separator, for example “mouseport=ps2intellimouse”; all “cmdline.txt” entries remain on a single line.

Example of additional cmdline.txt text:

console=0 mouseport=ps2intellimouse

An overclock the Pi 2 B process:

Modify (optional) the default config.txt file:

[pi2]
kernel=9pi2
gpu_mem=16
disable_overscan=1
arm_freq=900
force_turbo=1

A start networking process:

Timezone:

Configure a Time zone process:

The shutdown process:

The start network process:

Note:

The pi.img file can be used for Raspberry Pi 1, 2, and 3.
The pi3.img file can be used for Raspberry Pi 3 and 4. The “/sys/src/9/bcm/9pi2” is intended for the Raspberry Pi 2, or Raspberry Pi 3, only.

A Plan 9 9front SDF Boot Camp tutorial application

  1. From the Plan 9 VPS Drawterm rio rc cpu prompt (%):
     % aux/listen1 -t 'tcp!*!rcpu' /rc/bin/service/tcp17019
  2. From the Plan 9 9front Raspberry Pi rio rc terminal prompt (%):
     % rcpu -h YOUR_IP -u glenda
    password:
    !
    1. (This may take time.)
  3. From the Plan 9 VPS Drawterm rio rc prompt (%):
    1. Press the [Delete] key once.
    2. Enter the following to determine if any additional rcpu listening remains active.
       % ps -a | grep rcpu

Additional files:

A Plan 9 9front rcpu application

From the plan9front Raspberry Pi rio rc terminal prompt (%):

Edit the /lib/ndb/local file:

Check if factotum is running:

term% ps | grep factotum
glenda          100    0:00   0:00      168K Pread    factotum

RCPU to 9p.sdf.org

An incorrect password repair example:

% cat /mnt/factotum/ctl
key proto=dp9ik dom=9sdf user=USER !password?
% echo 'delkey proto=dp9ik dom=9sdf user=USER' > /mnt/factotum/ctl
%

Updating the 9pi

/plan9-l/Have_fun/9pi_interactive_terminal
I.) Updating the 9pi system:
 
1. type 'sysupdate' - note if changes are brought in.
   (you can 'cat /bin/sysupdate' to see how it works)
 
2. cd /
3. . /sys/lib/rootstub      (you can 'cat /sys/lib/rootstub' to see)
4. cd /sys/src
5. mk install
 
II.) Updating the kernel:
 
1. cd /sys/src/9/bcm
2. mk
 
III.) Installing the new kernel:
 
1. type 9fs pidos
# be careful:
2. cp /sys/src/9/bcm/9pi2 /n/pidos/9pi2
3. fshalt -r
 
IV.) The 9pi should boot completely up-to-date.

Spreading the word about SDF

xTHIS IS A DRAFT
xDRAFT [:FIXME:] 22)
xnewuser; con -C /srv/hjfs.cmd
xsdflink; …postcom, bboard -s

To be determined

Least ambitious?:

1) , 3)
The Raspberry Pi 2 Model B available memory is limited, failing if there are too many updates, during an initial sysupdate.
2) , 4)
A recent Nightly ISO may have an update, during an initial sysupdate.
5) , 6) , 7) , 8) , 9) , 10) , 11) , 12) , 13) , 14) , 15) , 16)
The [:!:] is interchangeable with a [CAUTION], for the abaco, and mothra browsers. :!:
22) , 23)
The [:FIXME:] is interchangeable with a [FIXME], for the abaco, and mothra browsers. FIXME