PLAN9.INI(8) PLAN9.INI(8) NAME plan9.ini - configuration file for PCs SYNOPSIS none DESCRIPTION When booting Plan 9 on a PC, the DOS program 9load(8) first reads a DOS file containing configuration information from the boot disk. This file, plan9.ini, looks like a shell script containing lines of the form name=value each of which defines a kernel or device parameter. For devices, the generic format of value is type=TYPE [port=N] [irq=N] [mem=N] [size=N] [dma=N] [ea=N] specifying the controller type, the base I/O port of the interface, its interrupt level, the physical starting address of any mapped memory, the length in bytes of that memory, the DMA channel, and for Ethernets an override of the physical network address. Not all elements are relevant to all devices; the relevant values and their defaults are defined below in the description of each device. The file is used by 9load and the kernel to configure the hardware available. The information it contains is also passed to the boot process, and subsequently other programs, as environment variables (see boot(8)). However, values whose names begin with an asterisk * are used by the kernel and are not converted into environment variables. The following sections describe how variables are used. etherX=value This defines an Ethernet interface. X, a unique monotoni- cally increasing number beginning at 0, identifies an Ether- net card to be probed at system boot. Probing stops when a card is found or there is no line for etherX+1. Some cards are software configurable and do not require all options. Unspecified options default to the factory defaults. Known types are ne2000 PLAN9.INI(8) PLAN9.INI(8) Not software configurable. 16-bit card. Defaults are port=0x300 irq=2 mem=0x04000 size=0x4000 The option (no value) nodummyrr is needed on some (near) clones to turn off a dummy remote read in the driver. amd79c970 The AMD PCnet PCI Ethernet Adapter (AM79C970). Com- pletely configurable, no options need be given. wd8003 Includes WD8013 and SMC Elite and Elite Ultra cards. There are varying degrees of software configurability. Cards may be in either 8-bit or 16-bit slots. Defaults are port=0x280 irq=3 mem=0xD0000 size=0x2000 BUG: On many machines only the 16 bit card works. elnk3 The 3COM Etherlink ||| series of cards including the 5x9, 59x, and 905 and 905B. Completely configurable, no options need be given. The media may be specified by setting media= to the value 10BaseT, 10Base2, 100BaseTX, 100BaseFX, aui, and mii. If you need to force full duplex, because for example the Ethernet switch does not negotiate correctly, just name the word (no value) fullduplex or 100BASE-TXFD. Similarly, to force 100Mbit operation, specify force100. Port 0x110 is used for the little ISA configuration dance. 3c589 The 3COM 3C589 series PCMCIA cards. There is no sup- port for the modem on the 3C562. Completely config- urable, no options need be given. Defaults are port=0x240 irq=10 The media may be specified as media=10BaseT or media=10Base2. ec2t The Linksys Combo PCMCIA EthernetCard (EC2T), EtherFast 10/100 (PCMPC100) PCMCIA cards, the Netgear FA410TX 10/100 PCMCIA card and the Accton EtherPair-PCMCIA (EN2216). Completely configurable, no options need be given. Defaults are port=0x300 irq=9 These cards are NE2000 clones. Other NE2000 compatible PCMCIA cards may be tried with the option id=string where string is a unique identifier string contained in the attribute memory of the card (see pcmcia(8)); unlike most options in plan9.ini, this string is case- sensitive. The option dummyrr=[01] can be used to turn off (0) or on (1) a dummy remote read in the driver in PLAN9.INI(8) PLAN9.INI(8) such cases, depending on how NE2000 compatible they are. i82557 Cards using the Intel 8255[789] Fast Ethernet PCI Bus LAN Controller such as the Intel EtherExpress PRO/100B. Completely configurable, no options need be given. If you need to force the media, specify one of the options (no value) 10BASE-T, 10BASE-2, 10BASE-5, 100BASE-TX, 10BASE-TFD, 100BASE-TXFD, 100BASE-T4, 100BASE-FX, or 100BASE-FXFD. 2114x Cards using the Digital Equipment (now Intel) 2114x PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter Controller. Completely config- urable, no options need be given. Media can be speci- fied the same was as for the i82557. Some cards using the PNIC and PNIC2 near-clone chips may also work. ga620 Netgear GA620 and GA620T Gigabit Ethernet cards. Com- pletely configurable. wavelan Lucent Wavelan (Orinoco) IEEE 802.11b PCMCIA cards. Port and IRQ defaults are 0x180 and 3 respectively. These cards take a number of unique options to aid in identifying the card correctly on the 802.11b network. The network may be ad hoc or managed (i.e. use an access point): mode=[adhoc, managed] and defaults to managed. The 802.11b network to attach to (managed mode) or identify as (ad hoc mode), is specified by essid=string and defaults to a null string. The card station name is given by station=string and defaults to Plan 9 STA. The channel to use is given by channel=number where number lies in the range 1 to 16 inclusive; the channel is normally negotiated automatically. If the card is capable of encryption, the following options may be used: crypt=[off, on] and defaults to on. keyN=string sets the encrytion key n (where n is in the range 1 to 4 inclusive) to string; this will also set the transmit PLAN9.INI(8) PLAN9.INI(8) key to n (see below). txkey=number sets the transmit key to use to be number in the range 1 to 4 inclusive. If it is desired to exclude or include unencrypted packets clear=[off, on] configures reception and defaults to inclusion. The defaults are intended to match the common case of a managed network with encryption and a typical entry would only require, for example essid=left-armpit key2=fishcalledraawaru if the port and IRQ defaults are used These options may be set after boot by writing to the device's ctl file using a space as the separator between option and value, e.g. echo 'key2 fishcalledraawaru' > /net/ether0/0/ctl scsiX=value This defines a SCSI interface which cannot be automatically detected by the kernel. Known types are aha1542 The Adaptec 154x series of controllers (and clones). Almost completely configurable, only the port=0x300 option need be given. serialX=value This defines add on serial ports and cards. Multiple cards can share the same IRQ. Unfortunately, many PC's allow only the built in UARTs on the COM1 and COM2 IRQ's (3 & 4) so beware. Known types are mp008 The TTC 8 serial line card. The mem parameter is the port number of the interrupt polling port. Size is the number of UARTs, default 8. Port is the port number of the first UART. a100i a200i a16i AvanstarXp The Star Gate Avanstar series of intelligent serial boards. generic Any set of 16450 compatible serial lines with consecu- tive port addresses. Size is the number of UARTs, default 1. Port is the port number of the first UART. PLAN9.INI(8) PLAN9.INI(8) eiaX=disabled By default, eia0 is initialized as port 0x3F8, IRQ 4 (DOS's COM1) and eia1 as port 0x2F8, IRQ 3 (DOS's COM2). Such a line disables this default initialization, usually in order to reuse the IRQ for another device. mouseport=value This specifies where the mouse is attached. Value can be ps2 the PS2 mouse/keyboard port. The BIOS setup procedure should be used to configure the machine appropriately. ps2intellimouse an Intellimouse on the PS2 port. 0 for COM1 1 for COM2 modemport=value Picks the UART line to call out on. This is used when con- necting to a file server over an async line. Value is the number of the port. pcmciaX=type=XXX irq=value If the default IRQ for the PCMCIA is correct, this entry can be omitted. The value of type is ignored. console=value baud=value These are used to specify the console device. The default console value is cga. Values of 0 or 1 specify COM1 or COM2 respectively, in which case baud is used to initialize the port. bootfile=value This is used to direct the actions of 9load(8) by naming the device and file from which to load the kernel. rootdir=dir rootspec=spec These are used by 9load(8) to identify the directory dir to make the root directory for the kernel, and the and file system specifier spec (see mount in bind(2)) on which it can be found. These are usually used to test variant file sys- tems for distributions, etc. bootargs=value The value of this variable is passed to boot(8) by the ker- nel as the name of the root file system. For example, if the system is to run from a local kfs(4) partition, the def- inition might read bootargs=local!#S/sdC0/fs. PLAN9.INI(8) PLAN9.INI(8) cfs=value This gives the name of the file holding the disk partition for the cache file system, cfs(4). Extending the bootargs example, one would write cfs=#S/sdC0/cache. bootdisk=value This deprecated variable was used to specify the disk used by the cache file system and other disk-resident services. It is superseded by bootargs and cfs. partition=value This defines the partition table 9load(8) will examine to find disk partitioning information. By default, a partition table in a Plan 9 partition is consulted; if no such table is found, an old-Plan 9 partition table on the next-to-last or last sector of the disk is consulted. A value of new consults only the first table, old only the second. *maxmem=value This defines the maximum physical address that the system will scan when sizing memory. By default the operating sys- tem will scan up to 768 megabytes, but setting *maxmem will limit the scan. If the system has more than 768 megabytes, you must set *maxmem for the kernel to find it. *maxmem must be less than 1.75 gigabytes. *kernelpercent=value This defines what percentage of available memory is reserved for the kernel allocation pool. The remainder is left for user processes. The default value is 30. This deprecated option is rarely necessary in newer kernels. *nomp=value A multiprocessor machine will enable all processors by default. Setting *nomp restricts the kernel to starting only one processor and using the traditional interrupt con- troller. *pcimaxbno=value This puts a limit on the maximum bus number probed on a PCI bus (default 255). For example, a value of 1 should suffice on a 'standard' motherboard with an AGP slot. This, and *pcimaxdno below are rarely used and only on troublesome or suspect hardware. *pcimaxdno=value This puts a limit on the maximum device number probed on a PCI bus (default 31). monitor=value vgasize=value These are used not by the kernel but by vga(8). PLAN9.INI(8) PLAN9.INI(8) nvr=value This is used by a file server kernel to locate a file hold- ing information to configure the file system. The file can- not live on a SCSI disk. The default is fd!0!plan9.nvr (sic), unless bootfile is set, in which case it is plan9.nvr on the same disk as bootfile. The syntax is either fd!unit!name or hd!unit!name where unit is the numeric unit id. This variant syntax is a vestige of the file server kernel's origins. audioX=value This defines a sound interface. Known types are sb16 Sound Blaster 16. ess1688 A Sound Blaster clone. The DMA channel may be any of 5, 6, or 7. The defaults are port=0x220 irq=7 dma=5 fs=a.b.c.d auth=a.b.c.d These specify the IP address of the file and authentication server to use when mounting a network-provided root file system. They are used only if the addresses cannot be determined via DHCP. Multiple Configurations A plan9.ini file may contain multiple configurations, each within a block beginning with a line [tag] A special block with the tag menu gives a list of blocks from which the user may interactively select the contents of plan9.ini. There may also be multiple blocks with the tag common which will be included in all selections; if any lines appear in plan9.ini before the first block, they are treated as a common block. Within the menu block the following configuration lines are allowed: menuitem=tag[, description] The block identified by tag will appear in the presented menu. The menu entry will consist of the tag unless the optional description is given. mendefault=tag[, timeout] Identifies a default block to be given in the menu selection prompt. If the optional timeout is given (in seconds), the default block will be selected if there is no user input within the timeout period. PLAN9.INI(8) PLAN9.INI(8) menuconsole=value[, baud] Selects a serial console upon which to present the menu as no console or baud configuration information will have been processed yet (the plan9.ini contents are still to be decided...). In response to the menu being printed, the user is prompted to select a menu item from the list. If the numeric response is followed by a p, the selected configuration is printed and the menu presented again. The line menuitem=tag is prepended to the selected configuration as an aid to user-level initialisation scripts. EXAMPLES A representative plan9.ini: % cat /n/c:/plan9.ini ether0=type=3C509 mouseport=ps2 modemport=1 serial0=type=generic port=0x3E8 irq=5 monitor=445x vgasize=1600x1200x8 % Minimum CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files to use COM2 as a console: % cat /n/c:/config.sys SHELL=COMMAND.COM COM2 /P % cat /n/c:/autoexec.bat @ECHO OFF PROMPT $p$g PATH C:\DOS;C:\BIN mode com2:96,n,8,1,p SET TEMP=C:\TMP % Simple plan9.ini with multiple configurations: [menu] menuitem=vga, Plan 9 with VGA menuitem=novga, Plan 9 no automatic VGA menudefault=vga [vga] monitor=multisync135 vgasize=1024x768x8 PLAN9.INI(8) PLAN9.INI(8) [novga] [common] ether0=type=i82557 audio0=type=sb16 port=0x220 irq=5 dma=1 With this, the following menu will be presented on boot: Plan 9 Startup Menu: ==================== 1. Plan 9 with VGA 2. Plan 9 no automatic VGA Selection[default==1]: Selecting item 1 generates the following plan9.ini to be used by the remainder of the bootstrap process: menuitem=vga monitor=multisync135 vgasize=1024x768x8 ether0=type=i82557 audio0=type=sb16 port=0x220 irq=5 dma=1 and selecting item 2: menuitem=novga ether0=type=i82557 audio0=type=sb16 port=0x220 irq=5 dma=1 SEE ALSO 9load(8), booting(8), boot(8) BUGS Being able to set the console device to other than a display is marginally useful on file servers; MS-DOS and the pro- grams which run under it are so tightly bound to the display that it is necessary to have a display if any setup or reconfiguration programs need to be run. Also, the delay before any messages appear at boot time is disconcerting, as any error messages from the BIOS are lost. This idea is at best an interesting experiment that needs another iteration.