9load will be gone soon. muzgo and i are working on 9pcload wich will use /dev/reboot to start the final kernel and use the native plan9 drivers. 9pcload will itself be loaded by some simple bootblocks. we have iso (el torito in non emulation mode - no floppy emulation) and pxe working already. for harddisk here are lba and chs bootblocks available that load 9pcload from a patchable lba offset and a multi staged loader that will detect lba/chs automatically and is more flexible on finding 9pcload is in the works.
this terminal and my thinkpad are already network booted without any 9load involvement! :) -- cinap
--- Begin Message ---I have been playing with an 2004 vintage P4 machine which similarly hangs at probing floppy... but after a long time, perhaps 30 secs it continues. Have you tried waiting for this long? Have you tried Erik's alternative distribution: ftp://ftp.quanstro.net/other/plan9.iso.bz2 It has subtly different drivers and might suit your machine better. -Steve
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