Hi all, Today, I try to install Plan9 on a Thinkpad T43 laptop. Unforturnately, this attemp failed at last; there are some difficult, at least for me, problems I cannot solve. So I am composing this post to seek help.
The cd image I used is Feb 16 built version, downloaded from Plan9's official website. It looks different from a previous version I used to install Plan9 on an old PC. For example, after booting machine with the cd, there are three options (install, livecd, and debug livecd) instead. The first problem I encountered is that DMA could not be enabled during installation, although I have explicitly enable it when I am asked. As a result, the copydisc task is executed so slow. Furthermore, it claims that some files cannot be copied since they don't exist. I try reinstall the system, but it seems that the installation procedure prefer to continuing previous installation. That is, it didn't try to recopy all files from cd and the missing warnings are still there. At last, I ignored them. For boot method, since I have both Linux and XP on my laptop already, I choose grub as multiple boot manager. That is, I select `plan9' as boot method when I am asked and don't install boot instructions into MBR. And configure grub to use `chainloader +1' to boot Plan9. After booting into Plan9, it always stops at `boot from:'. After some investigation, I found the problem is that the installation procedure didn't copy kernel image 9pcf at all without any prompts. This problem is solved by mannually copying /386/9pcf on cd to 9fat partition. But the system often reports certain files are missing. So I decide to reinstall the whole system. I manually delete the Plan9 partition and format fossil. So a fresh installation is eventually executed. Surprisingly, there are no missing files warning again. But when I try to boot it, the computer always reports: PCI System Error on Bus/Device/Function 0000h and crashes, while Linux and XP can still be booted through grub. I don't know why yet :( Another key problem is about the ethernet card. Thinkpad T43 uses Broadcom tg3 card and it seems that this card is not supported by Plan9 yet since Broadcom refuses to open its hardware specification(?). So it becomes so difficult to search for answers and information because I have to switch between Plan9 and Linux. That's all. Thanks. -- HZ
