BOOTING(8) BOOTING(8)
NAME
booting - bootstrapping procedures
SYNOPSIS
none
DESCRIPTION
This manual page collects the incantations required to
bootstrap Plan 9 and Plan B machines. Some of the
information here is specific to the installation at URJC;
some is generic.
If a CPU server is up, PXE using BOOTP/DHCP and TFTP is the
preferred method for booting.; if not, using a floppy to
keep the kernel and minimum configuration may be of help.
Be sure to read boot(8) to understand what happens after the
kernel is loaded.
Plan 9 terminals
To bootstrap a diskless terminal or a CPU server, a file
server must be running. PCs can boot from PXE, a floppy
disk, or any FAT16 partition. On all the terminals, typing
two control-T's followed by a lower-case r reboots the
machine; other methods of rebooting are mentioned for some
machines.
Plan B terminals
To bootstrap a Plan B, proceed like on a Plan 9 terminal,
but specify init=/386/bin/bns in plan9.ini to use bns(8) as
the init program. You may need to specify
rootspec=main/active (or whatever) and usrspec=main/active
(or something else). It is customary to set sysname in this
file as well, and to set planb=yes as a safety measure.
PCs
To boot a PC, it is necessary to get /386/9load loaded into
memory. There are many ways to do this. PXE can load
/386/9pxeload into memory and proceed. A Plan 9 boot floppy
prepared by format (see prep(8)) will load 9load when the PC
is reset or powered on. Other methods are described in
9load(8). 9load then locates and loads a Plan 9 kernel,
using configuration information from the file plan9.ini
stored in the 9fat configuration partition or on a DOS file
system. See 9load(8) for details.
Once the kernel is booted, it behaves like the others. See
boot(8) for details.
CPU Servers
BOOTING(8) BOOTING(8)
The Plan 9 CPU servers are multi-user, so they do not
request a user name when booting. On the CPU servers, typ-
ing a control-P on the console reboots the machine.
PC CPU Server
Proceed as for the PC terminal, but load /386/9pccpu or
/386/9pccpudisk.
File servers
Fossil is the primary file server. It runs on CPU servers.
However, the old venerable file server kernel is still
available. What follows refers to these distinct systems.
The file servers accept only the commands described in fs(8)
on their consoles.
PC File Server
Boot the PC file server like a regular PC, loading the
appropriate file system kernel.
SEE ALSO
9load(8), boot(8), fs(8), init(8), plan9.ini(8)
SOURCE
Sources for the various boot programs are under
/sys/src/boot.
BUGS
Too much configuration. Too many different types of
machines.