Re: [9fans] Plan 9 C compiler for Xtensa CPUs

[Shane Morris]

Everything old is new again?

On Sat, Aug 10, 2019 at 7:11 PM Cyber Fonic  wrote:

> The emergent problem with IoT is the lack of security.  From my
> understanding of Plan9's architecture. 9p protocol and the "root-less"
> security model suggests to me that a Plan9 swarm of IoT devices could be
> the "killer app" where Plan9 emerges on the strength of the vision of
> decades ago.  Looking at other RT OSes the security models are often bolted
> on.  Plan9 worked well on IBM PC era hardware. An ESP-32 has more resources
> and better networking than the early PCs.  From my tinkering and reverse
> engineering of IoT devices, almost all use 8266 based WiFi and often in
> conjunction with a uController. An ESP-32 is dual processor and with
> sufficient I/O for most simple tasks.  With IoT, in general, you don't need
> a lot of I/O, you simply throw more CPUs into the mix.
>
> On Sat, 10 Aug 2019 at 08:55, Skip Tavakkolian 
> wrote:
>
>> I'm not sure if the effort would be worth it; but if you add support for
>> esp32, I think it would be better for the os to be something like the one
>> you had in kencc for AVR (*) or possibly Russ' libtask, rather than Plan 9.
>> Staying with FreeRTOS would need removal of GCC specific things from OS and
>> dealing with lots of drivers in C++.
>>
>> The Cortex-M based mpus (e.g. Teensy 4 with Cortex M7 @ 600MHz) seem more
>> appropriate for an "embedded" Plan 9.
>>
>> (*) for those who have not seen it, it is here:
>> % ls -l /n/sources/contrib/forsyth/avr*
>> --rw-rw-r-- M 518 bootes sys 251227 Sep  4  2011
>> /n/sources/contrib/forsyth/avr.9gz
>>
>> On Fri, Aug 9, 2019 at 2:36 PM Charles Forsyth 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Since the resources are small if not tiny, a little systems analysis and
>>> design is probably needed, but it looks like a bit of fun, until the
>>> inevitable moment of "why am I here?".
>>>
>>> On Fri, Aug 9, 2019 at 4:50 PM Charles Forsyth <
>>> charles.fors...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
 The device I've got is ESP32-WROOM-32. None of the boards I've seen
 that use it bother with external memory,
 so memory is limited, especially the way it's partitioned.

 On Fri, Aug 9, 2019 at 3:50 PM Charles Forsyth <
 charles.fors...@gmail.com> wrote:

> The ESP32 has got several MMUs. The characteristics are different
> depending on the part that a given MMU accesses (flash, ROM, SRAM, 
> external
> memory).
> Some things are accessed using Memory Protection Units instead, which
> control access by Process ID, but don't do mapping. Others including some
> of the SRAMs are accessed through
> an MMU that can do virtual to physical mapping. The MMUs for internal
> SRAM0 and 2 choose protection for a given physical page as none, one or 
> all
> of PIDs 2 to 7, with the virtual address that
> maps to it. PIDs 0 and 1 can access everything. PID 0 can execute
> privileged instructions.
> A large chunk of SRAM (SRAM 1) has only Memory Protection and no
> translation. The external memory MMU is the most general (most
> conventional).
>
> On Fri, Aug 9, 2019 at 3:19 PM Bakul Shah  wrote:
>
>> esp32 doesn’t have an mmu, right?
>>
>> On Jul 26, 2019, at 03:30, Charles Forsyth 
>> wrote:
>>
>> I was thinking of doing that since I've got an ESP-32 for some reason
>>
>> On Fri, Jul 26, 2019 at 7:38 AM Cyber Fonic 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I was reading the post Why Didn't Plan 9 Succeed
>>>  on Hacker News.
>>>
>>> Made me think that Plan 9 for IoT system of systems could be viable.
>>>
>>> To that end, ESP-32 modules look capable enough to run Plan 9, but
>>> is there a Plan 9 C compiler for Xtensa ISA CPUs?
>>>
>>>

Re: [9fans] Plan 9 C compiler for Xtensa CPUs

[Shane Morris]

Wireless NinePea perhaps?

https://github.com/echoline/NinePea

On Sat, Aug 10, 2019 at 7:36 AM Charles Forsyth 
wrote:

> Since the resources are small if not tiny, a little systems analysis and
> design is probably needed, but it looks like a bit of fun, until the
> inevitable moment of "why am I here?".
>
> On Fri, Aug 9, 2019 at 4:50 PM Charles Forsyth 
> wrote:
>
>> The device I've got is ESP32-WROOM-32. None of the boards I've seen that
>> use it bother with external memory,
>> so memory is limited, especially the way it's partitioned.
>>
>> On Fri, Aug 9, 2019 at 3:50 PM Charles Forsyth 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> The ESP32 has got several MMUs. The characteristics are different
>>> depending on the part that a given MMU accesses (flash, ROM, SRAM, external
>>> memory).
>>> Some things are accessed using Memory Protection Units instead, which
>>> control access by Process ID, but don't do mapping. Others including some
>>> of the SRAMs are accessed through
>>> an MMU that can do virtual to physical mapping. The MMUs for internal
>>> SRAM0 and 2 choose protection for a given physical page as none, one or all
>>> of PIDs 2 to 7, with the virtual address that
>>> maps to it. PIDs 0 and 1 can access everything. PID 0 can execute
>>> privileged instructions.
>>> A large chunk of SRAM (SRAM 1) has only Memory Protection and no
>>> translation. The external memory MMU is the most general (most
>>> conventional).
>>>
>>> On Fri, Aug 9, 2019 at 3:19 PM Bakul Shah  wrote:
>>>
 esp32 doesn’t have an mmu, right?

 On Jul 26, 2019, at 03:30, Charles Forsyth 
 wrote:

 I was thinking of doing that since I've got an ESP-32 for some reason

 On Fri, Jul 26, 2019 at 7:38 AM Cyber Fonic 
 wrote:

> I was reading the post Why Didn't Plan 9 Succeed
>  on Hacker News.
>
> Made me think that Plan 9 for IoT system of systems could be viable.
>
> To that end, ESP-32 modules look capable enough to run Plan 9, but is
> there a Plan 9 C compiler for Xtensa ISA CPUs?
>
>

Re: [9fans] Inferno on microcontrollers

[Shane Morris]

I've got one of these boards kicking around:

https://core-electronics.com.au/realtek-ameba-board.html

ARM Cortex-M3 CPU, wifi, my board has the NFC, there is one that looks like
a NodeMCU, it has basic features. I've not used the smaller board.

I'm using an Arduino bootloader on my Ameba for now, its able to have the
flash ROM mounted, and the Arduino toolchain copies the compiled firmware
file over, a bit like the Freescale Kinetis "Freedom" boards I was using in
2013. There is a JTAG port, non-populated, I don't have the JTAG programmer
- of course.

This board with an Inferno system on it, and perhaps an SPI LCD driver,
would be awesome. I see now the Nextion HMI LCDs are a serial port
controlled affair, you upload your graphics and all that to the micro SD
card as *another* compiled firmware. I was going to source a Nextion HMI
along with a Cytron motor driver late next week from Western Australia, no
holding my breath on when it'll turn up however.

The board and screen assembly is meant to go into a control head project
for a potentially remotely controlled ride in locomotive, a grid operating
system would be perfect for what I'm trying to accomplish. It will have CAN
Bus, RS485, Dallas One Wire, et al, all embedded type communications
standards, and be a rather souped up PLC type affair.

Except I have little idea of how to port anything. I guess I could go back
to the work done on Lynxline, and try to replicate it somehow, I believe I
read Charles report done for him on Vita Nuova about the Styx on a Brick,
I'd gotten rid of my Lego RIS2.0 many years before I saw that report,
shame. The "Brick" was quite limited, so is 9Pea on ATMega, iirc...

My $0.02 likely not worth $0.02 due to inflation. Happy New Year all!

On Mon, Jan 1, 2018 at 8:05 AM, hiro <23h...@gmail.com> wrote:

> > I started porting a 9p library and writing an fs for esp8266 using
> > espressif sdk, but stopped once I found out tls1.2 isn't supported (not
> > fixable; bug in firmware).
> > I think esp32 is a better choice, but then, why not use rpi-zero or other
> > ARM, MIPS devices. Arguments for esp32 for power budget reasons might be
> > exaggerated a little (see
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDpuBJYFJ7Y&t=131s
> > )
> > there is also proprietary firmware involved.
> >
> > In my opinion, esp8266 should be categorized as an "attractive nuisance".
>
> what about esp8266's power usage? is *that* lower? why does it take 4!
> seconds to send data?!
>
>

Re: [9fans] Blit

[Shane Morris]

Research was always fun. I remember helping out with the Optus Flash-192
tests many years ago, giving the senior engineers a bit of a hand patching
crap together and all that. Learnt a whole heap out of it. I think we've
clocked 100Gbps over a single fibre link now, the -192 was 80Gbps back then.

We hit the brick wall and went DWDM after that. I got in on the ground
floor of the DWDM theory, loved it. That ended up being implemented in the
now stillborn Ruddnet NBN in Oz. I still remember the day we got the Saber
FRED laser in from USyd, my TO told me if we flipped her on, we'd black out
half of Lidcombe, it'd pull that much juice off the grid.

Good times mate.

On Thu, Apr 27, 2017 at 1:49 PM, Prof Brucee  wrote:

> Thanks to you too. Fortunately working in research is perhaps the best
> part of the telephony system. As for editors, I used sam when I was working
> at Google. My esteemed coworkers used vim.
>
> brucee
>
> On 27/04/2017 1:35 PM, "Shane Morris"  wrote:
>
>> He who convinces himself he don't need to learn from history should read
>> about the fall of the Roman Empire a little.
>>
>> But yeah, be damned if I'll ever work for the phone company again. Only
>> the railways was a more thankless job.
>>
>> It is a little pleasant to visit ones memories for some nostalgia from
>> time to time, I went and saw the big C band dish we put up beside my trade
>> school department in '04 the other day in Sydney... its still there, unlike
>> a certain similar dish I hear was affixed to the top of a building at UNSW
>> a few years back that fell off three days after it was put up... and yes, I
>> hung it all over the PhD who botched that one, especially the bit where I
>> told him I was "just a dumb tradesman."
>>
>> My eyes might've gotten a bit misty, I took some photos for my niece in
>> the years to come, and I left again. It is what it is.
>>
>> Meanwhile Brucee, thanks for the hotline tip! Better than Hackaday.
>>
>> On Thu, Apr 27, 2017 at 1:27 PM, Prof Brucee 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Your bad fortune.
>>>
>>> On 27/04/2017 1:13 PM, "Winston Kodogo"  wrote:
>>>
>>>> Well, such are my limitations, I don't give two short smegs about the
>>>> Blit or "The Labs", Johnny come latelelys that they are, promoting new
>>>> editors such as "ed". Instead of edt, the one true editor. But when I was a
>>>> lad, these many years ago, we did have to pick up the phone - without dial,
>>>> there was no dial - wait for the operator at the Sanderstead exchange and
>>>> ask the operator to connect us.
>>>>
>>>> On 27 April 2017 at 14:42, Shane Morris  wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Dear God, big old working exchanges?!
>>>>>
>>>>> We had a tiny little relay logic step by step PABX at trade school,
>>>>> adjusting her was punishment detail. Well, it *was* until they worked
>>>>> out I actually enjoyed getting the old girl to make party tricks...
>>>>>
>>>>> I wonder if I *am* actually allowed into the US these days...? Likely
>>>>> not... perhaps I can see some photos instead?
>>>>>
>>>>> Cheers mate!
>>>>>
>>>>> On Thu, Apr 27, 2017 at 10:57 AM, Bruce Ellis 
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> For those interested in the Blit and other stuff from the labs,
>>>>>> particularly if you are in the Seattle area, you might like to contact
>>>>>> s...@sdf.lonestar.org who is the Associated Curator of the
>>>>>> Communications Museum. He gave me a tour and I introduced him to
>>>>>> games/crabs.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Big old telephone exchanges in working order are fun!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> brucee
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>

Re: [9fans] Blit

[Shane Morris]

He who convinces himself he don't need to learn from history should read
about the fall of the Roman Empire a little.

But yeah, be damned if I'll ever work for the phone company again. Only the
railways was a more thankless job.

It is a little pleasant to visit ones memories for some nostalgia from time
to time, I went and saw the big C band dish we put up beside my trade
school department in '04 the other day in Sydney... its still there, unlike
a certain similar dish I hear was affixed to the top of a building at UNSW
a few years back that fell off three days after it was put up... and yes, I
hung it all over the PhD who botched that one, especially the bit where I
told him I was "just a dumb tradesman."

My eyes might've gotten a bit misty, I took some photos for my niece in the
years to come, and I left again. It is what it is.

Meanwhile Brucee, thanks for the hotline tip! Better than Hackaday.

On Thu, Apr 27, 2017 at 1:27 PM, Prof Brucee  wrote:

> Your bad fortune.
>
> On 27/04/2017 1:13 PM, "Winston Kodogo"  wrote:
>
>> Well, such are my limitations, I don't give two short smegs about the
>> Blit or "The Labs", Johnny come latelelys that they are, promoting new
>> editors such as "ed". Instead of edt, the one true editor. But when I was a
>> lad, these many years ago, we did have to pick up the phone - without dial,
>> there was no dial - wait for the operator at the Sanderstead exchange and
>> ask the operator to connect us.
>>
>> On 27 April 2017 at 14:42, Shane Morris  wrote:
>>
>>> Dear God, big old working exchanges?!
>>>
>>> We had a tiny little relay logic step by step PABX at trade school,
>>> adjusting her was punishment detail. Well, it *was* until they worked
>>> out I actually enjoyed getting the old girl to make party tricks...
>>>
>>> I wonder if I *am* actually allowed into the US these days...? Likely
>>> not... perhaps I can see some photos instead?
>>>
>>> Cheers mate!
>>>
>>> On Thu, Apr 27, 2017 at 10:57 AM, Bruce Ellis 
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> For those interested in the Blit and other stuff from the labs,
>>>> particularly if you are in the Seattle area, you might like to contact
>>>> s...@sdf.lonestar.org who is the Associated Curator of the
>>>> Communications Museum. He gave me a tour and I introduced him to
>>>> games/crabs.
>>>>
>>>> Big old telephone exchanges in working order are fun!
>>>>
>>>> brucee
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>

Re: [9fans] Blit

[Shane Morris]

Dear God, big old working exchanges?!

We had a tiny little relay logic step by step PABX at trade school,
adjusting her was punishment detail. Well, it *was* until they worked out I
actually enjoyed getting the old girl to make party tricks...

I wonder if I *am* actually allowed into the US these days...? Likely
not... perhaps I can see some photos instead?

Cheers mate!

On Thu, Apr 27, 2017 at 10:57 AM, Bruce Ellis  wrote:

> For those interested in the Blit and other stuff from the labs,
> particularly if you are in the Seattle area, you might like to contact
> s...@sdf.lonestar.org who is the Associated Curator of the Communications
> Museum. He gave me a tour and I introduced him to games/crabs.
>
> Big old telephone exchanges in working order are fun!
>
> brucee
>

Re: [9fans] arm platform with sata and multiple nics

[Shane Morris]

Hiro, our OP might want to do some routing or other related tasks using Plan 9? 
Random "war stories" that could be clues for OP ensue...

I'm not vouching how suitable this all is, but your comment "one NIC plus a 
GigE switch" made me think Hiro. I'm pretty certain we don't have "nice toys" 
like MPLS and all that cool cat stuff that become big in the days of the 
Commindico IP transit network here in Oz, the first real nationwide backbone IP 
network to compete with Telstra (the Big T had been deregulated and sold by the 
Howard Government a few years beforehand, but no one had gotten around to 
knocking the Big T off their perch - until Commindico, circa 2002 - 2003 iirc).

Anyway, me as PFY linesman in 2004, had to do some minimal Cisco stuff, MPLS 
was mentioned, usual sales pitch, whatever. Cisco sucks the big one, by the 
way, but that's just me. I'm into UBNT gear these days, but I get a great sales 
pitch, and neat wholesale tacked on the back of a WISPs orders. Family is 
great, especially adopted family.

My idea, subject to it physically working in the Plan 9 stack and whatnot for 
OP using your suggestion Hiro is to hook up said Plan 9 box to router of type 
to be a little smarter than the average router, which gets around some of your 
"routing issues" I'd imagine the OP might want to play with.

https://routerboard.com/CCR1009-8G-1S-1Splus

You start partitioning your bandwidth in this case, and from a Pi you've got 
barely 100Mbit off the Ethernet interface, and the single USB PHY feeding all 
your USB devices and the Ethernet, even on the ARM64 Pi3, although I am hoping 
Eben got with the program and got rid of his little bug in the silicon in the 
USB PHY, I had a few issues with it working tech for the Uni's in Sydney 
building CubeSat components back when. Model A+ spec gear. Lucky for me, I 
strapped the FPGA card on through the SPI interface, and had a bit of SDRAM 
buffering what was coming off my acquisition gear. You avoid Pi USB issues when 
you have an ARM board with a dedicated MAC+PHY, usually swings off some 
adaption of the MII gear that hung off the back of Sun SPARCs into Thicknet 
transceivers back when, just without the thick chunk of multicore copper 
between system and transceiver. Evidently OP knows a trick or two, and yes, 
you're right.

I mention all these anecdotes for your entertainment. If Plan 9 runs on this 
Kickstarter board, sweet as, I'll buy one eventually. I was going to try to get 
one of the boards from the German guy, the one with the funny Japanese name, 
and the Zynq CPU... Then I lost my job, went completely broke, moved up North, 
and am now trying to work on farming dairy goats.

That's a long story for another time kids.

Almost final thought - I've wanted to play with this MikroTik gig I linked 
after I first saw it at the adopted family members place I refer to above, in 
his little data centre for the WISP. Took down a model number, Googled it, a 
bit like the Parallella gear I was playing with six months to a year before I 
lost my job, and had to move up North. I had always thought the Epiphany chip 
would be good for a Plan 9 or better yet, an Inferno port, again, story for 
another time. The CPU on the Parallella is the same Zynq ARM+FPGA on the funny 
Japanese name board. The Tilera CPU in the MikroTik I refer to is similar, all 
RISC spec crap, grid stuff, all GCC toolchains. Strap a MII IP core in a Zynq 
FPGA, wire to MAC+PHY chip? Second LAN then? Could do a SATA interface similar, 
don't know what you'd spring for an IP core. More than a mortal such as I? I've 
been out of this for almost two years, I know nearly squat these days.

PS - I once asked Mr Stallion about a port to of Plan 9 to the Dragino. 
Technically quite possible, financially not my gig. That could've got you out 
of trouble OP, use ARM board for CPU horsepower, squirt through wifi/ dual 
routed LAN on Dragino. No hard feelings Steve, I wish I'd had the money, 
there's new Dragino gear out, ones an outdoor VoIP endpoint, like the Aussie 
Rowetel stuff was supposed to be.

Apologies for hijacking thread with barely, struggling to be relevant, 
thoughts. War stories from too many years doing... Think I was drunk for a lot 
of it? Oh well.

Enjoy!

Sent from my iPad

> On 4 Oct 2016, at 19:06, hiro <23h...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> "multiple nics"
> 
> no, just one NIC and a gigabit switch.
> 

Re: [9fans] x86 alternative to rPi

[Shane Morris]

+1.

Its not exactly RPi form factor, meaning I can't stuff a whole heap of the
boards in something like this:

http://my.bitscope.com/store/?p=view&i=item+6

But I'm sure it'd be bloody brilliant as a supervisory computer on a rover
robot or something similar, likely low powered enough to not smash a lipo
secondary pack thrown together from laptop cells I recover from condemned
laptops at work, those USB3.0 ports mean I could cobble on some SDRs in
Linux, Plan 9 is a different story, but the CPU power would be a solid
punch compared to the low RAM spec RPi ARM64 gear. I think the Orange Pi is
2GB RAM, but Plan 9/ Inferno doesn't run on it, the OPi barely runs Linux,
most normal stuff, like common USB->serial interfaces simply don't work.
And the kernel mod instructions make no sense on the wiki. Good luck
getting Plan 9 running on it!

No issue, I was going to use a four place Bitscope Blade with two OPi's
running Linux, an RPi2 running Plan 9 CPU, and an RPi2 running Inferno for
my starter core cluster, prep to move the whole lot off grid in the coming
years:

http://my.bitscope.com/store/?p=view&i=item+3

As for *way later on*, something like this is quite interesting:

http://www.parallac.org/

144 CPU cores, spread over a count of 128 grid cores, 16 ARM32 cores with
FPGAs, and 4 x64 cores, weighing in at 200W max. Add one of these puppies
to the mix for the GigE backplane:

http://routerboard.com/CCR1009-8G-1S-PC

The 9 core Tilera CPU has a grid alike architecture as well, and a GNU C/
C++ toolchain. Wonder if I could ever afford to employ you on porting work
Mr Stallion? =) Its ok, you asked me to name an idea of my price, I'm not
upset. Soon learned what the work consists of, didn't I?

If this off grid supercomputer cluster ever happens before Adepteva release
the 64 core Epiphany-IV grid co-processor, I'll be well ripped off,
although development on the 64 core chip stalled when they didn't reach
their initial crowdfunding stretch goal. I'm not sure about their timeline,
but I'll be far more grey by the release, and probably far more grumpy
too...!

In any case Arnold, cheers for the heads up. Now to see if the supply chain
supplies to the Antipodes, and for a reasonable price, not the usual "We'll
sell it to you completely gold plated in 24k pure gold, but the gold plate
gets removed before it leaves the contiguous US by those thieving
so-and-so's in US Customs and the USPS" crap that usually happens with this
more niche gear. Gotta get a remailer box, I want a bunch of WD PiDrives
too, those guys don't even know Australia is a major First World nation,
let alone we actually exist on the other side of the planet...

Remember guys, theres no taxes on dreams... yet... ^.^

2016-09-28 19:05 GMT+10:00 :

> FYI folks.
>
> http://betanews.com/2016/09/22/solidrun-x86-braswell-
> microsom-linux-windows-10-raspberry-pi/
>
> Arnold
>
>

Re: [9fans] pretty cool

[Shane Morris]

No freaking way! =P

On Sun, Sep 27, 2015 at 1:53 PM, Skip Tavakkolian <
skip.tavakkol...@gmail.com> wrote:

> in case you missed on twitter:
>
> http://tryinferno.reverso.be/
>
>

[9fans] 9PCloud

[Shane Morris]

Hi 9fans,

Just working with 9PCloud today, made a backup of some files I'm going
to 3D print in the next four weeks - ended up making two copies, one
in a specific folder, one in the parent folder...

Was wondering if I'd be able to connect to the 9PCloud via my Mac9P
(Finder interface) to do some management on the files rather than
through the web interface? This may work for people who wish to have a
"Dropbox alike" interface.

Failing that, how can I delete the second copy of the files from 9PCloud?

Many thanks!

Shane.

Re: [9fans] Small Plan 9 Platforms

[Shane Morris]

Lib9p to ESP8266 would be quite good. I got two NodeMCU Rev 2 boards
from LearCNC here in Oz, I'm planning on using them in little vacuum
cleaner robots.

On 8/6/15, Skip Tavakkolian  wrote:
> RPI's running something like plan9-bcm (check github) where gpio is exposed
> should work. I'm going to try plan9-bcm this weekend; i'll keep you posted.
> I like ODROID hardware, but obviously there isn't a Plan 9 port for it.
>
> Arduino Yún (MIPS+AVR) could make a cool device for Plan 9, but the MIPS
> part of the hardware is closed.
>
> On the smaller end of the scale, I've just started porting lib9p to
> esp8266. I'm using ESP01; it is a cheap yet very capable device.
>
> On Wed, Aug 5, 2015 at 1:39 PM, Brian L. Stuart 
> wrote:
>
>> I'm teaching a special topics course this fall I'm
>> calling Computing in the Small.  Right now, I'm
>> leaning toward conducting it on a platform that
>> runs Plan 9.  I'm looking for something based on
>> ARM or MIPS and that has some useful connection
>> to the external world in the form of GPIOs.  SPI,
>> I2C, and analog I/O would be nice to have too.
>> Obviously, the Raspberry Pi is a candidate.  What
>> are some others?  I've seen some code in the
>> source tree for the BBB.  Has anyone tried it out
>> to see what is and isn't there?  How about the
>> Banana Pi?  The SATA port on it is quite appealing.
>> Some of the other options I've been looking at
>> include the VIA APC Rock and Paper, the Phytec
>> Cosmic, the CubieBoard, the Odroid, the Riotboard,
>> and the Wandboard.  Has anyone done anything
>> on porting Plan 9 to any of them?  Are there others
>> I'm missing that would be good targets for such a class?
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>> BLS
>>
>>
>>
>

Re: [9fans] 9Cloud Source

[Shane Morris]

Hi Skip,

Yeah, I meant 9PCloud, sorry about that! I just logged in the other
day, I like what I see.

Many thanks!

Shane.

On 7/16/15, Skip Tavakkolian <9...@9netics.com> wrote:
> assuming you mean 9PCloud (otherwise ignore this):
>
> i plan to put the 9P javascript sources on github or bitbucket.  you
> can view the sources using the debugger in chrome.  they're all
> dual-licensed (MIT and GPLv2).  i also plan to make a simple version
> of the namespace "janitor" (brucee coined the term) that uses factotum
> handle auth.  it will be in the same source repo.
>
> the backend uses a custom Plan 9 cpu that includes the "export"
> (exportfs) system call.  the patch for export was submitted to all
> fronts, popular or otherwise (Labs, 9p.io, 9atom, 9front).
>
>> Hi guys,
>>
>> Was wondering if the source of 9Cloud was available for perusal? Just
>> logged in, looks great!
>>
>> Many thanks!
>>
>> Shane.
>
>
>

[9fans] 9Cloud Source

[Shane Morris]

Hi guys,

Was wondering if the source of 9Cloud was available for perusal? Just
logged in, looks great!

Many thanks!

Shane.

Re: [9fans] test

[Shane Morris]

Love the limerick! =P

On Mon, Apr 20, 2015 at 11:08 AM, Skip Tavakkolian <9...@9netics.com> wrote:

> please ignore...
>
> there was once a mascot named glenda
> for an operating system that's kinda splenda
> until, that is, a bunch of kids
> ripped off its front fenda
>
>
>
>

Re: [9fans] Raspberry Pi 2 Model B

[Shane Morris]

Hells yes!

On Fri, Feb 6, 2015 at 8:17 AM, Quintile  wrote:

> ooo! I think we are about to start using zinq's in a new project...
>
> I have gotta try it 😄
>
> -Steve
>
>
>
>
>
> > On 5 Feb 2015, at 19:42, cinap_len...@felloff.net wrote:
> >
> > aiju build a computer arround the xilinx zynq-7000 (dualcore arm
> > cortex A9 with fpga):
> >
> > http://aiju.de/electronics/aijuboard/
> >
> > and wrote kernel and bootloader here:
> >
> > http://code.google.com/p/plan9front/source/browse/sys/src/9/zynq/
> > http://code.google.com/p/plan9front/source/browse/sys/src/boot/zynq/
> >
> > the kernel supports multiprocessing (with all the caches enabled),
> > the fpga, gigabit ethernet and displayport. boots over tftp.
> >
> > http://img.stanleylieber.com/?tags=aijuboard
> >
> > things todo: usb, sata, sdcard.
> >
> > --
> > cinap
>
>

Re: [9fans] Raspberry Pi 2 Model B

[Shane Morris]

Champion.

I have a Parallella, with a 7010, and a Epiphany-III. Was wondering if I'd
pull the finger out and port Plan 9, or even pay for it. Seems I might not
have to. There is also a SnowLEO SDR unit that uses a 7010 and a LimeMicro
chip (think BladeRF).

Thank you! Great news!

On Fri, Feb 6, 2015 at 6:42 AM,  wrote:

> aiju build a computer arround the xilinx zynq-7000 (dualcore arm
> cortex A9 with fpga):
>
> http://aiju.de/electronics/aijuboard/
>
> and wrote kernel and bootloader here:
>
> http://code.google.com/p/plan9front/source/browse/sys/src/9/zynq/
> http://code.google.com/p/plan9front/source/browse/sys/src/boot/zynq/
>
> the kernel supports multiprocessing (with all the caches enabled),
> the fpga, gigabit ethernet and displayport. boots over tftp.
>
> http://img.stanleylieber.com/?tags=aijuboard
>
> things todo: usb, sata, sdcard.
>
> --
> cinap
>
>

Re: [9fans] Raspberry Pi 2 Model B

[Shane Morris]

Did someone say there was a Zynq kernel?

On Fri, Feb 6, 2015 at 6:15 AM, erik quanstrom 
wrote:

> On Thu Feb  5 09:28:09 PST 2015, cinap_len...@felloff.net wrote:
> > labs loaddevdescr() reads 255+18 bytes device descriptor
> > instead of 18 bytes for some reason. try changeing the
> > following line in /sys/src/cmd/usb/lib/dev.c in loaddevdescr():
> >
> >   uchar buf[Ddevlen+255];
> >
> > to:
> >
> >   uchar buf[Ddevlen];
> >
> > and see if you still get the short descriptor warning.
> >
> > [REDACTED] did this change in [REDACTED] fixing problem with some
> > usb ethernet device.
>
> that sounds about right.  but there are many other gaffes like this.
>
> - erik
>
>

Re: [9fans] Raspberry Pi 2 Model B

[Shane Morris]

Doesn't Plan 9 run on the dual core ARM Tegra2?

On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 7:17 PM, Dante  wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Does Plan9 have support for multi-core processors?
> Is explicit support needed at all (like in SMP)?
>
> D
>
>

[9fans] Raspberry Pi 2 Model B

[Shane Morris]

Just saw this come up on my Facebook feed:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/raspberry-pi-2-on-sale/

Noted it *should* be backwards compatible with previous software. Does a
9fan wish to vet the 9pi release against this new hardware? I'd love to
give it a go, but I'm not in a position time wise, being made one of the
directors of two companies just recently...

Re: [9fans] A setup

[Shane Morris]

I like your setup Skip...!

I was thinking of having a "mostly" Plan 9 distributed solution, with an
Inferno registry node in the mix (per Pete Elmores debu.gs tutorials and
9gridchan tutorials). I may end up doing the GUI on Inferno too, as it has
quite a few more primitives that'll make it look "friendly." I'll have to
read Philips book on Limbo programming for that.

I was thinking of having the Mac9P/ 9mount on Linux there in case I needed
it, but yes, you're right about authentication and the like.

On Sun, Nov 2, 2014 at 11:58 AM, Skip Tavakkolian <
skip.tavakkol...@gmail.com> wrote:

> i can think of two options:
>
> - you could go for an all Plan 9 distributed solution. this will be the
> easiest to roll out and maintain in my opinion (security, administration,
> maintenance, etc). i have used this setup with over a dozen 9pi cpu's (tftp
> booting from a 386-based auth+fs) collecting bluetooth data (via usb) and
> logging it on the fs.  it worked well; the collector is a simple rc script
> that reads files served by the bluetooth fs and writes the data to the
> (imported) filesystem; it all uses 9P, of course.
>
> - you could build a 9P network on top of heterogeneous OS environments ,
> but things get unnecessarily messy. you have to deal with authentication,
>  log forwarding or u9fs, non-standard ways of talking to USB, or serial and
> needing to build your own 9P file server for each, etc.
>
> -Skip
>
>
>
> On Sat, Nov 1, 2014 at 2:41 PM, Shane Morris 
> wrote:
>
>> Hi 9fans,
>>
>> I wish to have a 9P based sensor and actuator reporting system for an
>> aquaponics setup I am designing.
>>
>> I was going to use a RaspberryPi running Plan 9, an "A la mode" for the
>> interface to the Arduino shield, and a Cooking Hacks Open Aquarium/ Open
>> Garden shield (so I would need two RaspberryPi's). On the control side of
>> things, I would have my MacBook access the namespace via Mac9P.
>>
>> Some questions:
>>
>> * Would it be better to use a RaspberryPi Plan 9 CPU image rather than a
>> terminal image? The only interface I will need from the RaspberryPi to the
>> Arduino is TTL serial
>> * Eventually I would create another RaspberryPi, running Linux using
>> 9mount, to display various statistics and data about the system. I'd be
>> writing the interpreter for the information from the Open Aquarium/ Open
>> Garden shields in Python. With what I have described, all I would need to
>> do is "open" the TTL serial stream file from each of the RPis and read out
>> the data, am I correct?
>> * Does anyone have any constructive thoughts on this system setup? Please
>> note, I am doing this to get a handle on 9P.
>>
>> Many thanks!
>>
>> Shane.
>>
>>
>

[9fans] A setup

[Shane Morris]

Hi 9fans,

I wish to have a 9P based sensor and actuator reporting system for an
aquaponics setup I am designing.

I was going to use a RaspberryPi running Plan 9, an "A la mode" for the
interface to the Arduino shield, and a Cooking Hacks Open Aquarium/ Open
Garden shield (so I would need two RaspberryPi's). On the control side of
things, I would have my MacBook access the namespace via Mac9P.

Some questions:

* Would it be better to use a RaspberryPi Plan 9 CPU image rather than a
terminal image? The only interface I will need from the RaspberryPi to the
Arduino is TTL serial
* Eventually I would create another RaspberryPi, running Linux using
9mount, to display various statistics and data about the system. I'd be
writing the interpreter for the information from the Open Aquarium/ Open
Garden shields in Python. With what I have described, all I would need to
do is "open" the TTL serial stream file from each of the RPis and read out
the data, am I correct?
* Does anyone have any constructive thoughts on this system setup? Please
note, I am doing this to get a handle on 9P.

Many thanks!

Shane.

Re: [9fans] Plan 9 on an NCube 3

[Shane Morris]

Get the 2MB RAM expansion card - goes in the slice connector.

On Mon, Sep 29, 2014 at 6:49 AM, Roswell Grey 
wrote:

> That startkit looks fun! But, like, 256K flash is a little... Limiting.
> But hey, styx on a brick only needed 32K. Maybe a teensy emu could run on
> there with an external memory source. You're right, it totally screams 9!
> Oh, that gives me an idea... A portable cluster. At 500 MIPS a pop, I
> bet an interesting system could come about... Or a weird little distributed
> system. Or a coprocessor for the 9-running pi Who knows? But it looks fun :D
>

Re: [9fans] Plan 9 on an Ncube-3?

[Shane Morris]

Simply wow.

One of the links in the Wikipedia page "See also" is the iNMOS Transputer -
before I got back into the Plan, I looked up what become of iNMOS. See
http://www.xmos.com/ and just for the heck of it, I have one of these, all
of AU$17 (plus Element14s dodgy postage fees of AU$13, so something that is
meant to be cheap becomes a rip - thanks guys...!):
http://www.xmos.com/startkit. The StartKit will talk SPI to a RaspberryPi
just fine and dandy. Or even an Edison if you really want to stretch the
friendship. As you said, this stuff screams "Plan 9 me!" So, uh, I will, I
guess.

On Sun, Sep 28, 2014 at 1:22 AM, Roswell Grey 
wrote:

> Hello! I was doing some reading about old parallel computers, when I came
> across Wikipedia's article on this beast:
>
> http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCUBE
>
> In short, it used hundreds of specially-designed microprocessors to do
> some awesome parallel tasks. This just screams 9, right? Well, apparently,
> the NCUBE-3 was supposed to run a microkernel called "Transit" which was
> said to be based on 9. Isn't that awesome? Someone had the right idea! Now
> I know 9 ran on blue gene too, but for nostalgic software interest, would
> anyone have more information on transit? I think it'd be really cool to see
> how they did it with the ncube hardware (hippi networks, custom processors,
> custom intranetworks right down to the board) I am aware that it might be
> proprietary and closed source, let alone difficult to obtain the source if
> it even exists anywhere, but there's got to be documentation floating
> around out there... Thanks guys!
>

Re: [9fans] MIPS64

[Shane Morris]

Damnit, I *am* a sucker... PS2 Linux kit - only AU$650, mint.

Lor', why me?


On Sun, Sep 7, 2014 at 1:54 PM, Shane Morris  wrote:

> Goddamn. You it on the *cartridge?!*
>
> You can tell I just dicked around with my PS2 Linux Kit, and now totally
> regret getting rid of it...
>
>
> On Sun, Sep 7, 2014 at 9:55 AM, Bruce Ellis  wrote:
>
>> I started with the linux kit and had Inferno working in two days.
>>
>> The linux kit is funny. Its is so slow and stupid. But handy for putting
>> an Inferno image on a cartridge.
>>
>> brucee
>>
>>
>> On 7 September 2014 04:11, Shane Morris  wrote:
>>
>>> Very true!
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sun, Sep 7, 2014 at 3:49 AM,  wrote:
>>>
>>>> > If I had known about Inferno when I still had my
>>>> > PS2 Linux Kit working... =(
>>>>
>>>> Then you would have a PS2 and still not have the Inferno port to run on
>>>> it.
>>>>
>>>> sl
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>

Re: [9fans] MIPS64

[Shane Morris]

Goddamn. You it on the *cartridge?!*

You can tell I just dicked around with my PS2 Linux Kit, and now totally
regret getting rid of it...


On Sun, Sep 7, 2014 at 9:55 AM, Bruce Ellis  wrote:

> I started with the linux kit and had Inferno working in two days.
>
> The linux kit is funny. Its is so slow and stupid. But handy for putting
> an Inferno image on a cartridge.
>
> brucee
>
>
> On 7 September 2014 04:11, Shane Morris  wrote:
>
>> Very true!
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Sep 7, 2014 at 3:49 AM,  wrote:
>>
>>> > If I had known about Inferno when I still had my
>>> > PS2 Linux Kit working... =(
>>>
>>> Then you would have a PS2 and still not have the Inferno port to run on
>>> it.
>>>
>>> sl
>>>
>>>
>>
>

Re: [9fans] MIPS64

[Shane Morris]

Very true!


On Sun, Sep 7, 2014 at 3:49 AM,  wrote:

> > If I had known about Inferno when I still had my
> > PS2 Linux Kit working... =(
>
> Then you would have a PS2 and still not have the Inferno port to run on it.
>
> sl
>
>

Re: [9fans] MIPS64

[Shane Morris]

Last millennia, don't you mean? ^.^

Sorry, couldn't resist. If I had known about Inferno when I still had my
PS2 Linux Kit working... =(


On Sat, Sep 6, 2014 at 3:24 PM, Bruce Ellis  wrote:

> Interesting. I did 4c last century (for the Inferno PS2 port). Must have
> not made it into the distrib.
>
> brucee
> On 06/09/2014 2:57 PM, "cherry"  wrote:
>
>> Hello 9Fans,
>>
>> I would like to share that mips64 support of Plan 9 is currently
>> available. The compiler and the libraries are at
>> https://bitbucket.org/cherry9/4c
>> And a 64-bit kernel for Loongson machine is built, at
>> https://bitbucket.org/cherry9/plan9-loongson64
>> The kernel seems to work fine, and so do programs like acme and page.
>>
>> The userland support is in the compiler repo instead of along with the
>> kernel, as I hope it will be useful for not only Loongson but mips64
>> in general.
>>
>> The kernel is not 9k kernel though. It is instead a (minimal)
>> modification from 32-bit Plan 9. The next step is probably to switch
>> to 9k kernel. For the userland, ape is not ported yet, so a few
>> programs don't build. Currently the kernel code is not so
>> user-friendly: to build the kernel, it needs to bind _port64/ before
>> /sys/src/9/port/, and in the 32-bit Loongson sources bind 2f/ to the
>> front to use 2F drivers. A kernel image is uploaded to the download
>> page of the repo.
>>
>> Hope this is useful.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> - cherry
>>
>>

Re: [9fans] ODROID-W Update

[Shane Morris]

Aye, one does not have a crystal ball, and who knows what the wily Chinese
have up their sleeves. It shall be one to watch in any case. And I suppose,
time does heal all wounds, including those of pride.


On Sat, Aug 30, 2014 at 9:13 PM,  wrote:

> > but my wish to make a Inferno powered tablet
> > from the ODROID-W has now been deep-sixed,
>
> The dust has not settled yet.  Personally, I think that the Chinese
> are poised ready to catch just this type of mistake and make more of
> it than those who erred could ever have conceived.
>
> Might not cover your situation, but there will be other doors opening.
>
> Lucio.
>
>
>

[9fans] ODROID-W Update

[Shane Morris]

Hello 9fans,

After getting myself an ODROID-W as part of my contract for a deeply
embedded Linux appliance yesterday, I read this on the Hardkernel website
this evening:



*Not recommended for new designs. Broadcom will not supply the SoC to
Hardkernel.When the first trial batch is sold out, you can’t buy the
ODROID-W anymore. Sorry for the inconvenience.*

Now, if you'd like to know my personal thoughts on this, you're more than
welcome to email me privately, but my wish to make a Inferno powered tablet
from the ODROID-W has now been deep-sixed, as the additional ODROID I
picked up from the contract has already been soldered up in a "minimal"
configuration suitable for placing on a UAV, and thats exactly what it'll
be doing, now that its become one of the rarest (and smallest, for the
size/ performance ratio) motherboards on the face of the planet. I was
hoping however, under sustained production of the boards, to produce the
Inferno tablet, and announce it to the community.

Oh well. Pride goeth, and all that...

Re: [9fans] More Inferno Lego questions

[Shane Morris]

I'll go trawling. Ta!



On Sun, Aug 24, 2014 at 3:33 PM, Jacob Todd  wrote:

> it's on cat-v.org somewhere
>

[9fans] More Inferno Lego questions

[Shane Morris]

Hi 9fans,

I don't think I've asked this - "styx.c" at
https://code.google.com/p/inferno-os/source/browse/lib/lego/styx.c makes
reference to "test5.c" as its base. Now, we know my track record with
actually Googling this stuff (*sigh*) so can someone point me in the right
direction of the Styx stub base code that made up the Lego Styx code?

Many thanks!

Shane.

Re: [9fans] Loongson port, and 64 bit MIPS

[Shane Morris]

Thank you, that would be most suitable for the time being.

Now to find on to purchase.

Sent from my iPad

> On 17 Aug 2014, at 6:58 am, cherry  wrote:
> 
>> On Sat, Aug 16, 2014 at 6:13 AM, Shane Morris  wrote:
>> Just a quick one - I assume all devices on the Yeeloong (ie, wifi) are
>> functional?
> Not yet. I am trying to get the hard drive up on the Yeeloong. Haven't
> looked at wifi. And USB will be the hard part for me... Hopefully it
> will be all supported.
> 
>> If so, this would make a nice little terminal...
> Now it can be a terminal with (cabled) ethernet.
> 
> - cherry
> 

Re: [9fans] Loongson port, and 64 bit MIPS

[Shane Morris]

Just a quick one - I assume all devices on the Yeeloong (ie, wifi) are
functional? If so, this would make a nice little terminal...


On Sat, Aug 16, 2014 at 4:54 PM,  wrote:

> > Would it be possible to upstream this port to distribution? Minux
> > strongly encouraged me to do so.
>
> David's advice is very sensible, I'm sure Bell Labs will be interested
> in your work.
>
> That said, it is quite a mouthful, so it may need a bit of digesting.
> Here, I think Erik QUantrom (9atom) and the 9front people may be less
> reluctant to host your efforts in their distributions.
>
> Myself, I don't have a clean enough Plan 9 distribution of any nature
> that will compile your release out of the box, probably through no
> fault of your own.  I also have some unorthodox ideas of how I would
> go about merging the distributions, but anyone in their right mind
> would wait for me to deliver before contemplating the options.
>
> I'll need your help and knowledge to get everything to work on my
> Yeeloong laptop, but at this point I'm still trying to find a stable
> foundation from which to start.  As soon as I have made some progress,
> I'll be in touch.
>
> In the meantime, it may be useful to find out who, besides the two of
> us, owns a Yeeloong or any other Lemote kit to experiment with.  Oh,
> Stallman doesn't really count.
>
> Lucio.
>
>
>

Re: [9fans] Welcome to the "9fans" mailing list

[Shane Morris]

You should amend that "This message has been intercepted and read by U.S.
government agencies including the FBI, CIA, and NSA without notice or
warrant or knowledge of sender or recipient." with something about shadowy
Goggle like computers feltching information on your spending habits...

"The world changed on us Marty - and without our help, I might add..."


On Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 5:29 PM, John Francis Lee  wrote:

> The reason things are so insecure is because the US government likes it
> that way, desinged it that way and does everything it can to keep it that
> way. They are the beyond a doubt the biggest gang of organized criminals on
> earth : liars, murderers, spies ... you name it.
>
> Thanks for welcoming me to the list ... but I see you use google yourself
> ... second only to the US government as spies ... soon to surpass, I'm
> sure. I use yahoo trash mail for the list because I'd like to keep my
> 'real' email address to myself (when I find one). You deliver all your
> correspondents's mail to the googleplex along with your own. You have a
> choice ... but you foreclose your correspondents' ... if they want to
> correspond with you. Google has it all.
>
> --
> "This message has been intercepted and read by U.S. government agencies
> including the FBI, CIA, and NSA without notice or warrant or knowledge of
> sender or recipient."
>
> John Francis Lee
> 246/3 Thanon Kaew Wai
> T.Ropwiang A.Mueang J.Chiangrai 57000
> Thailand
>
> 
> On Wed, 8/6/14, Nick LaForge  wrote:
>
>  Subject: Re: [9fans] Welcome to the "9fans" mailing list
>  To: "Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs" <9fans@9fans.net>
>  Date: Wednesday, August 6, 2014, 10:16 AM
>
>  And, today
>  especially, that advice applies to everybody:
>
>
> http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_26281956/record-breaking-data-breach-highlights-widespread-security-flaws
>
>
>
>  On Tue, Aug 5, 2014 at
>  5:14 PM, andrey mirtchovski 
>  wrote:
>
>  >> You must know your password
>  to change your options (including changing
>
>  >> the password, itself) or to unsubscribe.  It is:
>
>  >>
>
>  >>   3224522
>
>  >>
>
>
>
>  please change your password for this mailing list.
>  this one is out in public.
>
>
>
>  i hope you aren't reusing passwords.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

Re: [9fans] My 9pi box

[Shane Morris]

Not a bad effort. Gets the job done! And an inventive way to recycle!


On Sat, Aug 9, 2014 at 3:27 PM,  wrote:

> I forgot it to attach.
>
> Kenji
>

Re: [9fans] ODROID-W

[Shane Morris]

What I'd like to see is a USB->ethernet->wifi adapter, all in one. That
would solve quite a few of our problems. Its asking quite a bit though.

Has anyone seen this:

http://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=G140383714860

Its a cap touch screen with USB and HDMi interfaces. Runs off 5V, 2A.
Before the ODROID-W, I thought the screen would be good for an RPi Plan 9
tablet. Now I know its a good idea.

Many thanks!


On Sat, Aug 2, 2014 at 2:30 AM, yy  wrote:

> On 1 August 2014 16:18, Nicolas Bercher  wrote:
> > On 01/08/2014 04:16, Shane Morris wrote:
> >>
> >> There are cards available for it that give it wired ethernet and four
> >> USB ports
> >
> >
> > Do you mean RPi+-compatible extension cards?  Because I didn't see any
> > wired ethernet extension on the ODROID-W page.
> >
>
> It's right there, in the list of "Optional accessories":
> http://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=G140618854370
>
>
> --
> - yiyus || JGL .
>
>

[9fans] ODROID-W

[Shane Morris]

Hi 9fans,

The knockoffs have arrived:

http://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=G140610189490

Pretty much the same as the RaspberryPi, insofar as electronics and chips
used. Apparently has a fuel gauge for LiPo battery, a UPS arrangement, and
an ADC. Unknown at this point to me what interfaces those use.

26 pin header is preserved, even though its a overall smaller board. There
are cards available for it that give it wired ethernet and four USB ports,
one USB port can be soldered onto the board. There is also an expansion
board with a SPI LCD as well as the mentioned interfaces.

I'm planning on getting one in their second round (expect the usual supply
chain issues), see how I go with it. If anyone gets one in the first round,
and verifies it working with Plan 9 (firmware issues?), please let me know!

Many thanks!

Shane.

Re: [9fans] Compiler Message

[Shane Morris]

The older versions refused to run. I've not tried this version I downloaded
today, only the "qemu-img" inside the package which worked fine.


On Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 6:55 PM,  wrote:

> > Q for Mac is horrible, dodgy software. Then again, I didn't build it from
> > source. The good thing is, it'll convert images just fine.
>
> older versions probably.  i built qemu-1.7.0 from source before
> 2.0 was stable and have had no problems.  i own fusion, but i
> prefer qemu since fusion occupies kernel memory (meaning an
> idle vm cannot be swapped out), and it uses about 30% more
> memory per vm than qemu does.
>
> what problems did you have with it?
>
>
>

Re: [9fans] Compiler Message

[Shane Morris]

Using the ANTS CPU server image, and Drawterm-Cocoa.


On Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 6:43 PM, dante  wrote:

> What about Drawterm on Mac? Is it working well?
> This would require of course configuring a CPU server...
>
> Thanks,
> Dante
>
>
> On 21.07.2014 10:39, c...@9.squish.org wrote:
>
>> In tried to install Inferno because I thought that it was the simplest
>>> way to access (at least the file system of) my Plan9 Raspberry Pi from
>>> my Mac.
>>> The other solutions I tried are awkward:
>>> 1. Plan9 under Virtual Box (don't want to pay for VMWare/Parallels).
>>>  Configured network card according to Richard Miller's suggestion.
>>>  Boots, but sometimes it doesn't, requiring to restart the program.
>>>  Network works only sometimes.
>>>
>>
>> have you tried qemu?  plan9 works wonderfully as a guest.
>> network access is as reliable as your mac.
>>
>
> Will do.
>
>
>
>>  2. Plan9 from user space, installed over Brew.
>>>  It works, but I don't see there any way to import (mount) the
>>> remote file system locally
>>>
>>
>> install macfuse and then you can use 9pfuse.  it works, though
>> it is a bit slow.
>>
>
>

Re: [9fans] Compiler Message

[Shane Morris]

Q for Mac is horrible, dodgy software. Then again, I didn't build it from
source. The good thing is, it'll convert images just fine.


On Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 6:39 PM,  wrote:

> > In tried to install Inferno because I thought that it was the simplest
> > way to access (at least the file system of) my Plan9 Raspberry Pi from
> > my Mac.
> > The other solutions I tried are awkward:
> > 1. Plan9 under Virtual Box (don't want to pay for VMWare/Parallels).
> >  Configured network card according to Richard Miller's suggestion.
> >  Boots, but sometimes it doesn't, requiring to restart the program.
> >  Network works only sometimes.
>
> have you tried qemu?  plan9 works wonderfully as a guest.
> network access is as reliable as your mac.
>
> > 2. Plan9 from user space, installed over Brew.
> >  It works, but I don't see there any way to import (mount) the
> > remote file system locally
>
> install macfuse and then you can use 9pfuse.  it works, though
> it is a bit slow.
>
>
>

Re: [9fans] Compiler Message

[Shane Morris]

No, the reasons I attempted an install is because I have no experience
getting hosted Inferno to run in Plan 9, although I possess a couple of
stable Plan 9 VMs (when they can reach the network, they'll ping 8.8.8.8,
but not get any sites like sources or 9gridchan - to be fair, there seems
to be network problems on those sites at the exact times I want to do
something, as I can't mount sources from Mac9P either), and I wish to have
an ARM Inferno compiler to start compiling against the Parallella,
following the guide at lynxline blog, and the boot up process at
parallella.org. I am yet to try anything, I think I'll leave it to tomorrow
at this stage.


On Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 6:12 PM, dante  wrote:

> Hi Shane,
>
> Removing the compile argument won't help (leads to errors somewhere else).
> I think that the most expedient solution is Ramkrishnan's.
>
> In order to catch this sort of errors, some sort of "continuous
> integration" would be needed.
> I have no idea how this could be done without investing into a real Mac
> machine, which is costly.
>
> I reported the error to the person shown in the Hg commits; there was
> unfortunately no response yet.
> Does anyone know which is the proper channel to report issues with Inferno?
>
> Shane, I'm just curious: did you try to install Inferno for reasons
> similar to mine (here below)?
>
> In tried to install Inferno because I thought that it was the simplest way
> to access (at least the file system of) my Plan9 Raspberry Pi from my Mac.
> The other solutions I tried are awkward:
> 1. Plan9 under Virtual Box (don't want to pay for VMWare/Parallels).
> Configured network card according to Richard Miller's suggestion.
> Boots, but sometimes it doesn't, requiring to restart the program.
> Network works only sometimes.
> 2. Plan9 from user space, installed over Brew.
> It works, but I don't see there any way to import (mount) the remote
> file system locally.
>
> Cheers,
> Dante
>
>
> On 21.07.2014 04:55, Shane Morris wrote:
>
>> Hello again 9fans,
>>
>> I'm also trying to compile hosted Inferno for OS X 10.9, all seems to
>> go well until the "mk install" giving this error message:
>>
>>  shanes-air-2:inferno-os boris$ PATH=`pwd`/MacOSX/386/bin:$PATH mk
>> install
>> (cd lib9; mk  install)
>> cc -c -arch i386 -mmacosx-version-min=10.4
>> -Wno-deprecated-declarations -Wuninitialized -Wunused -Wreturn-type
>> -Wimplicit -Wno-four-char-constants -Wno-unknown-pragmas -pipe
>> -fno-strict-aliasing -no-cpp-precomp -mno-fused-madd
>> -I/Users/boris/Documents/inferno-os/MacOSX/386/include
>> -I/Users/boris/Documents/inferno-os/include -Os convD2M.c
>> clang: error: unknown argument: '-mno-fused-madd'
>> [-Wunused-command-line-argument-hard-error-in-future]
>> clang: note: this will be a hard error (cannot be downgraded to a
>> warning) in the future
>> mk: cc -c -arch ...  : exit status=exit(1)
>> mk: for j in ...  : exit status=exit(1)
>> shanes-air-2:inferno-os boris$
>>
>> Does anyone have any insight?
>>
>> Many thanks!
>>
>> Shane.
>>
>
>

[9fans] Compiler Message

[Shane Morris]

Hello again 9fans,

I'm also trying to compile hosted Inferno for OS X 10.9, all seems to go
well until the "mk install" giving this error message:

shanes-air-2:inferno-os boris$ PATH=`pwd`/MacOSX/386/bin:$PATH mk install
(cd lib9; mk  install)
cc -c -arch i386 -mmacosx-version-min=10.4 -Wno-deprecated-declarations
-Wuninitialized -Wunused -Wreturn-type -Wimplicit -Wno-four-char-constants
-Wno-unknown-pragmas -pipe -fno-strict-aliasing -no-cpp-precomp
-mno-fused-madd -I/Users/boris/Documents/inferno-os/MacOSX/386/include
-I/Users/boris/Documents/inferno-os/include -Os convD2M.c
clang: error: unknown argument: '-mno-fused-madd'
[-Wunused-command-line-argument-hard-error-in-future]
clang: note: this will be a hard error (cannot be downgraded to a warning)
in the future
mk: cc -c -arch ...  : exit status=exit(1)
mk: for j in ...  : exit status=exit(1)
shanes-air-2:inferno-os boris$

Does anyone have any insight?

Many thanks!

Shane.

[9fans] ANTS and Atoms

[Shane Morris]

Hello 9fans,

If I were to follow these commands:

DNSSERVER=8.8.8.8
ip/ipconfig
ndb/cs
ndb/dns -r
mkdir ants
9fs ants.9gridchan.org
dircp /n/ants.9gridchan.org/rootlessnext ants
cd ants
build isoinstall
build worker
cd cfg
stockmod
fshalt


On a vanilla 9atom VM install, would it erase the /bin directory of the
9atom installation? I'd like to play with the ANTS Toolkit, but I'd also
like to have all of the /bin folder there locally, rather than populated by
"addsources." I've also installed the contrib GUI into 9atom thus far.

Many thanks!

Shane.

[9fans] Brasil

[Shane Morris]

Hello 9fans,

I've been doing some research, and come across Brasil, which, if I've got
this right, was a co-operating system minimal Inferno layer used on the
Blue Gene/L project. Now, if I've got that wrong, please tell me...!

This interests me, of course, as I prepare to bring up my Parallella board
(I still need a fan for it - tsk tsk). Is there any source for Brasil
available to the public, as my Google searches isn't showing any repos (but
I did get this:
http://graverobbers.blogspot.com.au/2009/05/few-words-on-brasil.html)? I
understand the project to the Blue Gene/L was many years ago, and all of
the IBM references on their website seem to have disappeared in the interim.

Many thanks!

Shane.

[9fans] Having trouble connecting to sources

[Shane Morris]

Hi 9fans,

I seem to be having trouble connecting to the sources server. My Plan 9 VM
tells me "timeout" and Mac9P tells me "no permission." I was able to access
fine the other morning by Mac9P. Is there an outage at the moment, or have
I botched something in my config?

Many thanks!

Shane.

Re: [9fans] Building a Raspberry Pi image / Keyboard support

[Shane Morris]

Kenji, I think others are using ethernet to wifi bridges - if I were in the
same position, I would too. USB wifi support probably isn't what it could
be, for obvious reasons. I was using a DX Chinese wifi bridge until I
realised it was beyond hope, it would shut down within five seconds of
being powered on, and cycle over and over. I even had a Linux Python script
to configure the thing for my old wireless network before I moved...
needless to say, it got thrown in a bin. Hopefully you can do better...!

Good luck!




On Sun, Jul 6, 2014 at 11:15 AM,  wrote:

> > I use a standard dell keyboard and LCD display at 1920x1600.
>
> Wow, you have big screen!
> I only have a 20" small LCD TV, I don't watch TV much.
>
> > its the perfect plan9 terminal IMHO.
>
> Indeed!
> pi can deal with wireless network?
>
> Kenji
>
> PS: I decided to perchase it.
>
>
>

Re: [9fans] styx.c

[Shane Morris]

Many thanks Charles!

Shane.


On Fri, Jul 4, 2014 at 6:26 AM, Charles Forsyth 
wrote:

> it's in lib/lego under the root of the Inferno distribution. you can look
> at it on inferno-os on googlecode
> https://code.google.com/p/inferno-os/source/browse/#hg%2Flib%2Flego
>
>
> On 3 July 2014 21:22, Shane Morris  wrote:
>
>> Hello 9fans,
>>
>> Is there a link to the "styx.c" used in the Vita Nuova Styx-on-a-Brick
>> implementation that was used on the Lego RCX? I'd like to look at the code
>> in source form, after reading
>> http://doc.cat-v.org/inferno/4th_edition/styx-on-a-brick/.
>>
>> Many thanks!
>>
>> Shane.
>>
>
>

[9fans] styx.c

[Shane Morris]

Hello 9fans,

Is there a link to the "styx.c" used in the Vita Nuova Styx-on-a-Brick
implementation that was used on the Lego RCX? I'd like to look at the code
in source form, after reading
http://doc.cat-v.org/inferno/4th_edition/styx-on-a-brick/.

Many thanks!

Shane.

Re: [9fans] Kabini or Raspberry Pi?

[Shane Morris]

Oh, and the RaspberryPi Mini ITX case - well, motherboard, see here:

http://www.geekroo.com/products/795

Enjoy!


On Tue, Jul 1, 2014 at 10:39 AM, Shane Morris 
wrote:

> Hi Kenji,
>
> I can't vouch for the driver support of such a motherboard, thats best
> left to others. I must say, that is a nice looking motherboard, and I for
> one would be most curious if you were to get it working.
>
> Another alternative, that I am looking into with NUCs is perhaps a Xen
> server, again, better left to others to tell you the support, but at the
> risk of hijacking the thread (please fork it if you have info on Xen) if
> anyone has any information on Plan 9 and Xen, that would be most welcome
> too.
>
> Good luck with the venture and your retirement, and interesting news to
> hear the atomic power facilities are curtailing in your part of the world.
> We should talk about this in future, privately.
>
> Many thanks!
>
> Shane.
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 1, 2014 at 10:28 AM,  wrote:
>
>> After I retired job (strictory semi-retired) I'm now running Plan9
>> only in my house.   Now, I'm hesitating to setup a C2D machine
>> as CPU/Auth/File server machine.It eats high level of power.
>> Here in Japan, all the atomic power facilities is stopping.
>> In personal house, high performance is not so neccessary,
>> because most of the work will be done in terminals these days.
>> However, drawterm looks like very attractive for such purpose.
>> Then, CPU server is neccessary which is running all the day.
>>
>> I found AMD Kabini based onboard energy save motherboard
>> called A68N-5000(Biostar), which looks like very attractive
>> for my Plan9 CPU/Auth/File server.   Another candidate
>> is raspberry pi.   However, I wonder it has such as mini-ITX
>> case and power?
>>
>> How do you think about this?
>>
>> Kenji
>>
>>
>>
>

Re: [9fans] Kabini or Raspberry Pi?

[Shane Morris]

Hi Kenji,

I can't vouch for the driver support of such a motherboard, thats best left
to others. I must say, that is a nice looking motherboard, and I for one
would be most curious if you were to get it working.

Another alternative, that I am looking into with NUCs is perhaps a Xen
server, again, better left to others to tell you the support, but at the
risk of hijacking the thread (please fork it if you have info on Xen) if
anyone has any information on Plan 9 and Xen, that would be most welcome
too.

Good luck with the venture and your retirement, and interesting news to
hear the atomic power facilities are curtailing in your part of the world.
We should talk about this in future, privately.

Many thanks!

Shane.


On Tue, Jul 1, 2014 at 10:28 AM,  wrote:

> After I retired job (strictory semi-retired) I'm now running Plan9
> only in my house.   Now, I'm hesitating to setup a C2D machine
> as CPU/Auth/File server machine.It eats high level of power.
> Here in Japan, all the atomic power facilities is stopping.
> In personal house, high performance is not so neccessary,
> because most of the work will be done in terminals these days.
> However, drawterm looks like very attractive for such purpose.
> Then, CPU server is neccessary which is running all the day.
>
> I found AMD Kabini based onboard energy save motherboard
> called A68N-5000(Biostar), which looks like very attractive
> for my Plan9 CPU/Auth/File server.   Another candidate
> is raspberry pi.   However, I wonder it has such as mini-ITX
> case and power?
>
> How do you think about this?
>
> Kenji
>
>
>

Re: [9fans] For the more esoteric mind...

[Shane Morris]

"There is no fork..." ^.~


On Tue, Jul 1, 2014 at 9:50 AM, Riddler  wrote:

> Hah, never seen these before.
> Love the ”Follow the white rabbit" one Peter!
>

Re: [9fans] For the more esoteric mind...

[Shane Morris]

Yes, I've seen the 9front "propaganda" pictures - particularly love the
German Engineering pics!


On Tue, Jul 1, 2014 at 5:05 AM,  wrote:

> Feel free to borrow any of the images from here:
>
> http://9front.org/propaganda/
>
> sl
>
>

[9fans] For the more esoteric mind...

[Shane Morris]

Hello 9fans,

I have an itching need for some Plan 9 promotional posters for my new room
in the student accommodation here in Newcastle. I was thinking of getting
the immortal IWP9 4e "Submit" poster printed on glossy paper at about A3
size, and mounting it on my wall, and possibly the "Time Tunnel" logo in
the PDF that floated through the group earlier in the year.

However, if anyone has any promotional material they have obtained, and
willing to part with, or otherwise had produced themselves, and are willing
to part with, I'd be most interested.

I wonder what the Newcastle Uni CompSci people are going to think of my
inane Plan 9 ramblings... perhaps these posters will persuade them, I am
the real deal...

Many thanks!

Shane.

[9fans] OT - ATTN: Steve Stallion

[Shane Morris]

Hi 9fans,

This is more a poke for both Steve and I, concerning some work I have
for him. I am moving to a city 500km away from where I am now, and he
is travelling, and likely my offer of work could get lost in the
cracks. Just so the email doesn't get lost in the cracks, I thought a
poke here might direct him to the email.

Totally off topic for most, it does actually involve Plan 9...! I hope
he gets back to me so I might be able to outline the proposal to the
community...

Many thanks!

Shane.

Re: [9fans] VirtualBox, Mavericks, and Plan 9

[Shane Morris]

Hi Kenji,

As Joseph said, shorthand for "Thanks for correcting me on that, and
giving me the knowledge I needed, or that I asked for..." It is
probably a Western-ism, a cultural thing of America/ United Kingdom/
Australia, if not others. I've been using it since I could talk, and
started asking the big questions as to "Why is it so...? Is it like
this? No? I stand corrected..."

Many thanks!

On 5/23/14, Joseph Thompson  wrote:
> On May 22, 2014 10:18:32 PM EDT, kokam...@hera.eonet.ne.jp wrote:
>>> Ok, I stand corrected.
>>
>>Off topic, sorry.
>>
>>I saw this phrase some times here.
>>What it does mean?
>>
>>I know it's meaning I think.
>>What I want to know is why they say just 'thanks'.
>>Is this something some culture related?
>>
>>Kenji
>
> It's an old phrase, basically shorthand for "I was wrong, you were correct,
> thanks for the correction."
>
>

Re: [9fans] VirtualBox, Mavericks, and Plan 9

[Shane Morris]

Just booted the VM using WLAN and my phones wireless hotspot, came up
almost instantly. Now the real work begins - configuration...

On 5/23/14, Shane Morris  wrote:
> Ok, I stand corrected.
>
> On 5/23/14, s...@9front.org  wrote:
>>> I was under the understanding Plan 9
>>> didn't work under VMWare...
>>
>> http://plan9.stanleylieber.com/vmware/img/fusion.png
>>
>> sl
>>
>>
>

Re: [9fans] VirtualBox, Mavericks, and Plan 9

[Shane Morris]

Ok, I stand corrected.

On 5/23/14, s...@9front.org  wrote:
>> I was under the understanding Plan 9
>> didn't work under VMWare...
>
> http://plan9.stanleylieber.com/vmware/img/fusion.png
>
> sl
>
>

Re: [9fans] VirtualBox, Mavericks, and Plan 9

[Shane Morris]

Aram, if you have a bunch of settings that work under VMWare Fusion
for Plan 9, then I am all ears. I was under the understanding Plan 9
didn't work under VMWare...

On 5/23/14, Jeff Sickel  wrote:
>
> On May 22, 2014, at 9:49 AM, Aram Hăvărneanu  wrote:
>
>>> Ah, ruby, yet another technology I have zero use for on my systems.
>>
>> That technology is already installed on your system.
>
> And not used.  Wasted bits on the ssd.
>
>   http://hadihariri.com/2014/04/21/build-make-no-more/
>
>
>
>

[9fans] VirtualBox, Mavericks, and Plan 9

[Shane Morris]

Hi 9fans,

I am running the latest VirtualBox on the latest Mavericks, and after an
install of 9atom, go to run the resulting image, and execution stops at the
"/bin/rc" command, just before entry into Rio.

I noticed this same problem on my Macbook Air on 10.8 - I thought I had
just botched my previous image, it appears not.

All settings should be correct to what the pertinent blogs say the settings
should be (ie, IDE hard drive, 1000MT Server network card, etc).

Any help, criticism, explanations, etc, are most welcome!

Shane.

Re: [9fans] RaspberryPi, monitor energy saving

[Shane Morris]

Yeah, I was kind of the mentality of "Well, if its HDMi, its basically
single link DVI..." Of course, it is its own standard, CEC is probably the
simplest way of achieving this, there is a CEC-serial bridge, various
websites have them. I've looked into them before, before I started using
all Macs because of my job. The old Pi sees little use these days =(

The thing with the CEC-serial bridge is, do I spend $*x* on this device, to
save $*y *worth of power over *z* period of time, and at the end of the
day, am I making an acceptable ROI? YMMV. I just had this same debate with
a bloke from the Czech Republic about the Australian Government incentive
scheme for household solar panels, and no energy storage facilities. Again,
YMMV.


On Fri, May 16, 2014 at 6:45 PM, Steve Simon  wrote:

> i believe that this works for vga attached monitors, vesa says that when
> the clocks
> disappear on the sync the monitor should shutdown.
>
> the raspberry pi uses hdmi and also it doesn't use a vesa bios, it has a
> gpu bios
> which does a similar job but is not standardised, and, though it is
> documented,
> it can be tough to use (for me at least).
>
> i am happy to be contradicted on any of this of couse.
>
> -Steve
>
>
>
>
> On 16 May 2014, at 04:53, Shane Morris  wrote:
>
> This might be wildly off the mark, but is there something VESA related to
> do this, VGA monitors, et al?
>
> I prepare to stand flamed. ^.^
>
>
> On Fri, May 16, 2014 at 8:26 AM, Bakul Shah  wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 15 May 2014 22:04:34 BST "Steve Simon" 
>> wrote:
>> > Its just wonderful to have a raspberry pi as a plan9 terminal,
>> > but the energy saving of the pi is outweighed by the monitor I use.
>> >
>> > The Pi's display code blanks the screen after a while but this does
>> > not shutdown the monitor.
>> >
>> > I dug a little and it seems I need to send CEC (Consumer Electronics
>> Control)
>> > messages over HDMI - Via a Pi GPU entrypoint.
>> >
>> >
>> > Porting libcec looks a little painful especially as I only need to be
>> able
>> > to send two messages (turn on and turn off).
>> >
>> > Anyone know anything about this stuff? is CEC what I need or is there
>> some
>> > other (simpler) way?
>>
>> May be use a gpio pin to control a switch?!
>>
>>
>

Re: [9fans] RaspberryPi, monitor energy saving

[Shane Morris]

This might be wildly off the mark, but is there something VESA related to
do this, VGA monitors, et al?

I prepare to stand flamed. ^.^


On Fri, May 16, 2014 at 8:26 AM, Bakul Shah  wrote:

> On Thu, 15 May 2014 22:04:34 BST "Steve Simon"  wrote:
> > Its just wonderful to have a raspberry pi as a plan9 terminal,
> > but the energy saving of the pi is outweighed by the monitor I use.
> >
> > The Pi's display code blanks the screen after a while but this does
> > not shutdown the monitor.
> >
> > I dug a little and it seems I need to send CEC (Consumer Electronics
> Control)
> > messages over HDMI - Via a Pi GPU entrypoint.
> >
> >
> > Porting libcec looks a little painful especially as I only need to be
> able
> > to send two messages (turn on and turn off).
> >
> > Anyone know anything about this stuff? is CEC what I need or is there
> some
> > other (simpler) way?
>
> May be use a gpio pin to control a switch?!
>
>

Re: [9fans] Plan9 users in Poland

[Shane Morris]

Pretty certain you're not - search the archive for Krystian Lewandowski. He
worked on GPIO code on the RaspberryPi port of Plan 9.


On Fri, Apr 11, 2014 at 9:28 PM, Szymon Olewniczak  wrote:

> I'm very curious about that so I would like to ask if there are any Plan
> 9 users in Poland or am I the only one in my entire country?
>
> BR,
> Szymon
>
>

Re: [9fans] Network Error

[Shane Morris]

Ok. I'll get you that output this afternoon.

Thanks again!


On Fri, Apr 4, 2014 at 8:07 AM, erik quanstrom wrote:

> > It might be the adapter type - I was sure I had selected the PRO/1000 MT
> > Server, but looking at the screenshot, its the PRO/1000 T Server. I'll
> look
> > into it when I get home from uni this afternoon, might just reinstall, I
> > haven't done anything with the image yet.
> >
> > Erik, if I run into any more problems after verifying the adapter type,
> > I'll be sure to post those outputs for you.
>
> we'll have to look at the dids to be sure.  i wouldn't want to gloss over
> a real issue by easter egging.
>
> - erik
>
>

Re: [9fans] Network Error

[Shane Morris]

Hi Pete,

It might be the adapter type - I was sure I had selected the PRO/1000 MT
Server, but looking at the screenshot, its the PRO/1000 T Server. I'll look
into it when I get home from uni this afternoon, might just reinstall, I
haven't done anything with the image yet.

Erik, if I run into any more problems after verifying the adapter type,
I'll be sure to post those outputs for you.

Many thanks!


On Fri, Apr 4, 2014 at 7:37 AM,  wrote:

>  Have you tried the other adapters in VirtualBox? All my set-ups are
> using the Intel PRO/1000 MT Server (82545EM).
> Pete
>
>
> *From:* Shane Morris 
> *Sent:* Thursday, 3 April 2014 20:34
> *To:* Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net>
>
> Hello 9fans,
>
> I have re-installed 9atom on my Crunchbang Linux system under VirtualBox.
> I am now using a USB based wifi adapter which works under the Crunchbang
> side of things. However, under Plan 9, there is no ethernet file, as shown
> in the attached screenshot.
>
> My settings in VirtualBox are attached also.
>
> Many thanks!
>
> Shane.
>

Re: [9fans] Network Error

[Shane Morris]

Ack, I've shut the computer down, so I can head to uni - on my Macbook now.
Can I get back to you on that one please Erik?

Many thanks!


On Fri, Apr 4, 2014 at 6:38 AM, erik quanstrom wrote:

> > I have re-installed 9atom on my Crunchbang Linux system under
> VirtualBox. I
> > am now using a USB based wifi adapter which works under the Crunchbang
> side
> > of things. However, under Plan 9, there is no ethernet file, as shown in
> > the attached screenshot.
> >
> > My settings in VirtualBox are attached also.
>
> so what's the output of pci?
>
> - erik
>
>

Re: [9fans] GSoC proposal: Alternative window system

[Shane Morris]

Cohesive compilation of hacks?


On Wed, Mar 19, 2014 at 7:56 PM, Bence Fábián  wrote:

> We already have a lot of hacks to make rio tiling.
> In my opinion the most interesting/worthwhile
> projects mentioned on that wiki is to make things
> touchscreen friendly.
>
>
> 2014-03-19 9:36 GMT+01:00 Caleb Malchik :
>
> Greetings,
>>
>> I am a student interested in participating in GSoC under Plan 9. My
>> project would involve writing a new window manager as an alternative to rio:
>>
>> http://www.plan9.bell-labs.com/wiki/plan9/alternative_
>> window_system/index.html
>>
>> I thought I'd say a few words informally as my proposal is not yet ready
>> for upload, and it would be good to get some feedback in the remaining days
>> before the deadline.
>>
>> I have experience with C and Linux, but plan9port is the extent of my
>> first-hand experience with Plan 9. I've read some of the papers and other
>> resources and I am intrigued by the ideas behind Plan 9 and the clean
>> implementation of those ideas. I intend to start using Plan 9 natively or
>> in a VM soon, and I am confident I could get comfortable with the
>> environment before the start of the summer.
>>
>> For my project, I would build a tiling window manager similar to dwm
>> (what I use on Linux). I think a dwm-style interface that could be
>> controlled from the keyboard would provide a nice contrast to what we
>> already have with rio, and as we see from dwm the implementation of such an
>> interface needn't be complex. Development would involve modifying the rio
>> source code to implement the basic functions of a
>> tiling/keyboard-controlled window manager one by one.
>>
>> Let me know if this sounds like a good summer-sized project for someone
>> who is not yet well acquainted with Plan 9.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Caleb Malchik
>>
>>
>

Re: [9fans] 9atom Boot Error

[Shane Morris]

No, I'd gone through the install process for the second image, and I still
got the "No bootfile" error even though I had reinstalled using the updated
image. Sorry for not being clear enough.


On Sun, Mar 2, 2014 at 12:41 PM, erik quanstrom wrote:

> On Sat Mar  1 19:13:08 EST 2014, edgecombe...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> > Erik, I tried the second image in the list you gave me, same error - "No
> > bootfile."
> >
> > I think I might try wiping the disk completely with a Linux installer,
> then
> > try the first image.
>
> a number of bioses have an f10 boot override option.  it may be
> that your machine simply isn't trying to boot cd/usb.
>
> - erik
>
>

Re: [9fans] 9atom Boot Error

[Shane Morris]

Erik, I tried the second image in the list you gave me, same error - "No
bootfile."

I think I might try wiping the disk completely with a Linux installer, then
try the first image.


On Sun, Mar 2, 2014 at 11:03 AM, Erik Quanstrom wrote:

> I'm not sure what you mean by new disks.
>
> - erik
>
>
> Adriano Verardo  wrote:
>
> >Does thi iso deal with new disks ?
> >>> I've written the uncompressed file to a flash stick, and tried booting
> my
> >>> dual core Pentium - no dice. Won't even recognise theres a flash stick
> >>> plugged in with a disk image written to it. Likewise, my Mac said it
> wasn't
> >>> able to read the flash stick once I had done the "dd" command.
> >>>
> >>> Is there an .ISO for that disk image you linked me to?
> >> that's unfortunate.  did you check that the usb device is in the bios
> >> boot order?
> >>
> >> if that doesn't work, here are two cd images.  the first one has the
> >> best chance of working, but it locks up on some hardware.  it treats
> >> the cd as a disk image, so we can pack a few more things in than
> >> we could emulating a 1.44mb floppy.
> >>
> >>  http://ftp.9atom.org/other/+9atom.nboot.iso.bz2
> >>  http://ftp.9atom.org/other/+9atom.iso.bz2
> >>
> >> - erik
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
>

Re: [9fans] 9atom Boot Error

[Shane Morris]

Erik,

I've written the uncompressed file to a flash stick, and tried booting my
dual core Pentium - no dice. Won't even recognise theres a flash stick
plugged in with a disk image written to it. Likewise, my Mac said it wasn't
able to read the flash stick once I had done the "dd" command.

Is there an .ISO for that disk image you linked me to?

Many thanks!

Shane.


On Fri, Feb 28, 2014 at 8:11 AM, erik quanstrom wrote:

> On Thu Feb 27 16:07:12 EST 2014, edgecombe...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> > Quick question Erik - is it ok to just "dd" that uncompressed file to a
> > flash stick on my Macbook?
>
> unless there's something magic about mac flash sticks, i do the same
> thing to test.  except with plan 9.
>
> - erik
>
>

Re: [9fans] A new GSoC project?

[Shane Morris]

Wow. Theres a reversal if I ever saw one.

Good news for us - I know the RPi GPU isn't capable of GPGPU, but we might
be able to speed things up a bit?


On Sat, Mar 1, 2014 at 9:05 AM, Bakul Shah  wrote:

> http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/6299
>
> Broadcom announced the release of full documentation for the
> VideoCore IV graphics core, and a complete source release of
> the graphics stack under a 3-clause BSD license. The source
> release targets the BCM21553 cellphone chip, but it should be
> reasonably straightforward to port this to the BCM2835,
> allowing access to the graphics core without using the blob.
>
> Reg level doc & sources @ http://www.broadcom.com/support/
>
>

Re: [9fans] 9atom Boot Error

[Shane Morris]

Quick question Erik - is it ok to just "dd" that uncompressed file to a
flash stick on my Macbook?

Many thanks!


On Fri, Feb 28, 2014 at 7:55 AM, Shane Morris wrote:

> Thanks Erik, I'll try that tonight, let you know how it goes.
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 28, 2014 at 7:52 AM, erik quanstrom wrote:
>
>> On Thu Feb 27 15:35:31 EST 2014, edgecombe...@gmail.com wrote:
>>
>>
>> > Hello 9fans,
>> >
>> > Tried installing 9atom on a dual core Pentium that worked with 9front,
>> and
>> > got this error in the screenshot after I had installed. Any clues on
>> where
>> > I'd gone wrong would be great!
>>
>> looks like you used an older image with the pae option.  try
>>
>> http://ftp.9atom.org/other/+usbinstamd64.bz2
>>
>> - erik
>>
>>
>

Re: [9fans] 9atom Boot Error

[Shane Morris]

Thanks Erik, I'll try that tonight, let you know how it goes.


On Fri, Feb 28, 2014 at 7:52 AM, erik quanstrom wrote:

> On Thu Feb 27 15:35:31 EST 2014, edgecombe...@gmail.com wrote:
>
>
> > Hello 9fans,
> >
> > Tried installing 9atom on a dual core Pentium that worked with 9front,
> and
> > got this error in the screenshot after I had installed. Any clues on
> where
> > I'd gone wrong would be great!
>
> looks like you used an older image with the pae option.  try
>
> http://ftp.9atom.org/other/+usbinstamd64.bz2
>
> - erik
>
>

Re: [9fans] NDB Error

[Shane Morris]

Ok, got it working now - was just pinging google.com.au.


On Tue, Feb 25, 2014 at 3:29 PM, Shane Morris wrote:

> Ok, I'd copied the dist over, and still I get the same error. Let me try
> again.
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 25, 2014 at 8:46 AM, Bence Fábián  wrote:
>
>> or copydist maybe because i don't see that among the done tasks
>>
>>
>> 2014-02-24 22:40 GMT+01:00 Iruatã Souza :
>>
>> to avoid confusion: it is a 9front install
>>>
>>> On Mon, Feb 24, 2014 at 6:27 PM, Shane Morris 
>>> wrote:
>>> > Hello 9fans,
>>> >
>>> > I get the error as seen in the screenshot - I highly suspect this is
>>> because
>>> > the internet connection I'm using at present is pretty dodgy, but I
>>> stand to
>>> > be corrected if I'm wrong about this. I am using DCHP for the bridging
>>> on my
>>> > Mac. I will try to reinstall when I'm at uni later today.
>>> >
>>> > Many thanks!
>>> >
>>> > Shane.
>>>
>>>
>>
>

Re: [9fans] NDB Error

[Shane Morris]

Ok, I'd copied the dist over, and still I get the same error. Let me try
again.


On Tue, Feb 25, 2014 at 8:46 AM, Bence Fábián  wrote:

> or copydist maybe because i don't see that among the done tasks
>
>
> 2014-02-24 22:40 GMT+01:00 Iruatã Souza :
>
> to avoid confusion: it is a 9front install
>>
>> On Mon, Feb 24, 2014 at 6:27 PM, Shane Morris 
>> wrote:
>> > Hello 9fans,
>> >
>> > I get the error as seen in the screenshot - I highly suspect this is
>> because
>> > the internet connection I'm using at present is pretty dodgy, but I
>> stand to
>> > be corrected if I'm wrong about this. I am using DCHP for the bridging
>> on my
>> > Mac. I will try to reinstall when I'm at uni later today.
>> >
>> > Many thanks!
>> >
>> > Shane.
>>
>>
>

Re: [9fans] Setting 9pi Start State / Drawterm to 9pi

[Shane Morris]

Just to quickly hijack this thread, would this Python code work on Plan 9?

https://github.com/philsmd/vap11g

Many thanks!


On Sun, Feb 23, 2014 at 3:59 PM, Brian Vito  wrote:

> Thank you, that's good to know. What instructions would you suggest I
> start with for setting up a full cpu + auth + fossil server or mounting
> the pi file system remotely with 9fs from Windows or Mac OS X?
>
> I'm not particularly interested in overclocking, but was curious how Plan
> 9 might respond if I were to play around with it a little.
>
> If you'll indulge two more quick questions, I would very much appreciate
> it. (1) Is there any support for the Edimax EW-7811Un USB-WiFi adaptor --
> or any other USB-WiFi adaptor? Or would an ethernet to WiFi adaptor be the
> only option? And (2), is it advisable or necessary to update the 9pi
> distribution's firmware files from
> https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/ at any time or from time to
> time?
>
> Once I figure out how to customize the startup to run my own acme.dump (I
> think some of the earlier answers will help me fix that) and anything else
> related to getting things set up that might be useful to other new users, I
> plan on posting easy instructions at http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/plan9/.
>
> Thanks, 𝔹
>
> On Sat, Feb 22, 2014 at 6:00 AM, <9fans-requ...@9fans.net> wrote:
>
>>
>> Date: Sat, 22 Feb 2014 07:52:26 +
>>
>> From: Richard Miller <9f...@hamnavoe.com>
>> To: 9fans@9fans.net
>> Subject: Re: [9fans] Setting 9pi Start State / Drawterm to 9pi
>> Message-ID: 
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>>
>>
>> > So if I were to want to connect to my 9pi at home from my office, would
>> I
>> > have to make the 9pi into a cpu server?
>>
>> If you just want to use drawterm to connect, the reply you quoted shows a
>> simple way.  If you want to use more plan 9 capabilities, like mounting
>> the
>> pi file system remotely with 9fs, or connecting with a different user
>> name,
>> setting up a full cpu + auth + fossil server gives you that (and gives you
>> a chance to understand plan 9 more thoroughly).
>>
>> > Also, I was wondering if Plan 9 uses the Raspberry Pi's GPU. In other
>> > words, should I allocate the smallest amount of memory to the GPU (I
>> think
>> > 16 is the minimum) rather than the default of 64? And in that case, I
>> would
>> > also assume that overclocking the GPU wouldn't be of any benefit.
>>
>> The 9pi.img already sets gpu ram size to the minimum.  Plan 9 doesn't use
>> the gpu's accelerated graphics api, but the gpu is still doing some
>> low-level
>> functions behind the scenes.
>>
>> I wouldn't advise overclocking anything.  If you care that much about
>> speed,
>> why use a raspberry pi?
>>
>>

Re: [9fans] Utilite

[Shane Morris]

Actually, I think you'll find the Utilite has an i.MX6 processor, which is
not a Tegra 2. I'm not well versed enough in the code to know if the teg2
code will boot on something else.


On Sat, Feb 22, 2014 at 7:16 AM, Skip Tavakkolian <
skip.tavakkol...@gmail.com> wrote:

> it looks like it's a new CompuLab product based on their TrimSlice;  so
> the teg2 port should work.
>
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 21, 2014 at 9:49 AM, Jeremy Jackins 
> wrote:
>
>> I'm thinking of purchasing one of these:
>> http://utilite-computer.com/web/home
>> Just curious, has anyone tried to make one of them work on Plan 9?
>>
>
>

Re: [9fans] Raspberry Pi image

[Shane Morris]

So the "trade secret" thing explains why you don't see a port of Plan 9 for
every new and exciting device and board that comes out. It is a shame, but
these companies producing things like the GPUs in ARM devices insist on
proprietary licences.

As far as I can tell, the i.MX6 chip from Freescale is about as open as you
can get, I'm just trying to remember where someone said it had an over
1,000 page manual for the chip, and I'm hoping its not this very list,
otherwise I will look like a fool! The i.MX6, for that "openness" reason
has been a chip I've been meaning to get, and never gotten around to. The
UDOO board has the chip, and integrates an Arduino Due along for the ride.
Its reasonably cheap too, although availability is not something I've
looked at in a little while, and being one of those Kickstarter things, I
don't think availability is a priority past shipping them to backers.

I found the blog I was referring to:

http://lynxline.com/projects/labs-portintg-inferno-os-to-raspberry-pi/

And it is a detailed read, I've skimmed over his Season 2 with interest. He
cites your work regularly.

I think you can tell what I'm thinking by mentioning the i.MX6, but I'm not
pressuring you to make a port, or even get a board with the chip on it. I
just think it would be interesting having Plan 9 on a multicore ARM chip,
but as I said, I'm pretty certain its open enough, but please do not quote
me - I'd hate to be horribly wrong!

Many thanks for your description!


On Wed, Feb 19, 2014 at 9:00 PM, Richard Miller <9f...@hamnavoe.com> wrote:

> > I'd be curious to know the methodology for producing this port as well.
>
> OS porting is something of a black art.  I've been doing it for a while
> (
> http://www.usenix.org/legacy/publications/library/proceedings/usenix98/invited_talks/miller.ps
> )
> and it's not getting any easier.  Hardware vendors used to provide
> meticulously accurate reference manuals describing device behaviour at a
> register level, along with a programming manual explaining the sequence of
> operations required for standard procedures like device initialisation and
> error recovery.  Too often nowadays the best you'll get is a sketchy and
> inaccurate datasheet, and at worst the datasheet will be a "trade secret"
> and the only option is to reverse engineer many thousand lines of badly
> written linux driver.
>
> For the Raspberry Pi port, excellent documentation was available at least
> for the arm cpu.  Plan 9 kernels already existed for armv5 and armv7
> architectures, so I was mostly able to interpolate between the two to
> produce the low-level assembly parts of the kernel for the Pi's armv6.
> Hardware floating support for the kernel had already been done at the Labs
> for the teg2, and vfp code generation for the 5l linker was straightforward
> to add, using arm manuals.
>
> The rest of the work was creating device drivers, some easily adapted from
> other Plan 9 instances (eg uart and lcd display), some written from scratch
> using Broadcom's BCM2835 datasheet (eg sd/mmc).  By far the hardest driver
> was for the usb host adapter, which on the Pi is very non-standard and has
> no officially available documentation.  I couldn't face the prospect of
> digesting the linux driver (which is huge, unreadable, and at the time was
> known not to work reliably).  Luckily a web search turned up datasheets
> for some apparently very similar devices, which I was able to work from.
> Even so, writing and debugging the usb driver accounted for most of the
> time
> and effort of the whole project.
>
>
>

Re: [9fans] Raspberry Pi image

[Shane Morris]

I'd be curious to know the methodology for producing this port as well.
There is a site where a fellow is describing his efforts to port Inferno to
RPi, that is certainly interesting reading... and I haven't checked his
progress in a while, so I should.

Many thanks!

Shane.
On Feb 19, 2014 9:25 AM, "Yoann Padioleau"  wrote:

> Yes, thx Richard.
>
> But how this image was produced? just mk in the sys/src/9/bcm/
> official plan9 distribution or do you have a custom plan9?
>
> On Feb 18, 2014, at 1:05 PM, Richard Miller <9f...@hamnavoe.com>
>  wrote:
>
> >> Thank you for creating the Raspberry Pi port.  I had always wanted to
> >> use Plan 9, but I was not able to until this port was created, because
> >> I didn't have any compatible hardware.
> >
> > Yes, that's why I did it -- to give people a low-cost way to try Plan 9,
> > and also to give Plan 9 users a way to try the Raspberry Pi.  I'm glad
> > to know it's been useful.
> >
> >
>
>
>

[9fans] Inferno on XMOS

[Shane Morris]

Hello 9fans,

Has anyone considered running Inferno on an XMOS system? Their StartKIT is
US$15 (plus US$30 P&P to Australia, which is a bugbear, otherwise I'd get
one), and an 8Mbyte SDRAM "slice" (their name for an expansion card) is
US$40. I seem to remember seeing Inferno live natively in as low as 2Mbyte
of RAM. Additionally, the StartKIT provides an RPi 26 pin header for
expansion cards developed for the RPi.

>From what I understand, FreeRTOS has been ported, and modules exist for
SPI, UART, I2C, etc. There is also in interboard link port next to the RPi
alike port on the StartKIT so one could conceivably have IEEE1588 ethernet
on one board (with ethernet slice), and Inferno running on the other board
with 8Mbyte of RAM. Or am I barking up the wrong tree here?

I have a need for a controller (or two, linked together as the case may
have you) that talks ethernet, talks TTL serial, talks SPI, and talks I2C
over an RPi alike port. I'd like it to be a hard, real time system, and the
XMOS chips are quite deterministic in that regard.

Anyway, these are all just thoughts, as mentioned, I could be full of it,
I'm not making any guarantees.

Thanks all!

Shane.

[9fans] Suggestion for the future

[Shane Morris]

Hello 9fans,

Taking into account the "Is that hardware available?" question, and knowing
this ain't, perhaps this could be a suggestion for future GSoCs or other
coding efforts when they are in fact available, because this looks like a
little bit of fun:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/do-it-yourself/edison.html
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/do-it-yourself/galileo-maker-quark-board.html

Both are Pentium x86 class SoCs, the Edison (the SD card one) is a dual
core 400MHz with wifi and Bluetooth, according to sources. I'm dreaming of
Nix, but thats just me.

The bulk of the work would be compiling drivers for the respective systems,
as both run Linux, and I imagine the source to the Linux drivers would be
open.

Thoughts from the 9fans?

Thanks!

Shane.

Re: [9fans] Inferno and the Parallella

[Shane Morris]

Thanks for the interesting debate.

I wish to, in the first instance, take an RTLSDR, sample 8MHz of RF
spectrum, use GNU radio to "fish out" any streams, pass those streams along
to the Epiphany chip, have the cores on the Epiphany chip decode the
streams, and return a result. Results are time sensitive, they must be
timestamped (syncfs?). Thats probably the most simple way of explaining
what I need done.

Erik said the chip is "powerful enough" to do full 9P, and he is probably
right. I thought Styx on a chip, with a payload program of the stream
decoder, might be easier to implement. These are only suggestions - I could
be barking up the wrong tree.

Charles - I sent you an email with further details.


On Thu, Feb 6, 2014 at 6:32 AM, Charles Forsyth
wrote:

>
> On 5 February 2014 18:03, Skip Tavakkolian wrote:
>
>> this isn't exactly GNU Radio, but porting librtlsdr to Plan 9 would
>> enable interesting signal processing applications.
>
>
> I don't remember that from last time, but it seems a good project.
>

Re: [9fans] Inferno and the Parallella

[Shane Morris]

You mention the word "heterogeneous" but I think it should take this tack:

For what I'd like to do, I would require GNU Radio running on the host (ie,
ARM) CPU. GNU Radio isn't going to run under Plan 9 on an ARM target, as
much as I'd like. You also mention "to be (much) more interesting than a
standard ARM..." but in effect, it already is.

I could be barking up the wrong tree here, and I made a suggestion of
Styx-on-a-chip to ease development times, and also student commitment, it
will have to talk to Linux at the end of the day, lets start now?


On Wed, Feb 5, 2014 at 11:46 PM, erik quanstrom wrote:

> > Oh, its ok. I like the GSoC idea. I just don't think I'm GSoC material,
> I'm
> > hardware type, even if I will be a uni student this year going forward -
> > "If it draws blood, its hardware" as the old maxim goes.
>
> it's great to hear the enthusiam, but sadly, it seems over
> ambitious.
>
> to work with this heterogeneous co-processor with the usual tools,
> and be any more interesting than a standard arm, i think at least
> the following needs to be done
> 1.  bootstrap the arm processor get plan 9 running.
> 1a. program the fpga with adapteva's binary blob.
> 1b. drivers for a minmal set of devices.
> 2.  write a compiler/assembler/linker for the epiphany multicore;
> populate /epi/include.  a emulator may need to be written.
> 3.  write the libmach hooks for the same
> 4.  write the asm for /sys/src/lib*/epi (or at least libc)
> 5.  decide what kind of operating framework the epi
> should have, and write the appropriate glue.  it's not
> clear to me that a standard kernel could work at all.
> (what kind of coherence model is there?)
>
> this can't be done by one gsoc student in a summer.
> and there's the open ended question of how to use the
> epi coprocessor.
>
> a very bright, gifted, experienced, stubborn, and diligent
> student might have some hope of accomplishing 1/1a or
> a significant part of 2.  but that's a stretch.  3, 4 seem
> to be properly sized for one student gsoc.  5 is unknown.
>
> so, in order to have something usable at the end, one would
> need 5 students, 5 mentors, someone to do 1b, and sort of a
> scrum master to help coordinate.
>
> i see several serious risks to this idea.
> a.  what if we get less than 5 students, or mentors, or slots?
> b.  sadly, not all students complete the summer.  how do we
> recover if even one person drops out?
> c.  do we have someone qualified to be scrum master for
> 10 people (5 students and 5 mentors)?  with enough time?
> d.  5 is open ended.
>
> this seems too big a leap, given the student success rate is
> not yet 100%.
>
> so if you're a student still excited about this project, reframing
> the problem so that it stands alone (even if it's just bootstrapping
> the arm chip) seems like the best option to me.
>
> now i could be wrong or overly pessamistic, so i'd love to
> hear other opinions.
>
> - erik
>

Re: [9fans] Inferno and the Parallella

[Shane Morris]

Seems there is some interest in this chip, and the board. As you said
Henry, state machines would run very quickly in parallel - I had some wad
arguing that an FPGA is the only thing you need, but nothing beats a hard
core for hard tasks. Grid it up in parallel, times sixteen, and thats a
fair bit of processing power.

I have already sent a few people emails concerning this, independently of
the list, to garner their opinions. Out of four people, only one has
replied, I suppose, Australia is on the other side of the world to most of
you guys, time zones and all. But I'm going to make an open call - if a
GSoC mentor in parallelism could be found, willing to advise the project,
could this be a GSoC project?

I suppose I should tender the idea on the wiki, but I'd rather not. Never
played with wiki's, nor had the interest to try. Too busy designing robots.
Tried a TAFENSW Moodle once, that was bad enough.


On Wed, Feb 5, 2014 at 5:32 PM, Henry Millican  wrote:

> Parallella seems very cool. I'll probably pick one up when I have free
> time.
>
> I've worked with the Zynq chip on board, which is also great. For $99 it's
> one hell of a dev board, considering you get an FPGA with hard ARM cores,
> as well as the Ephiphany chip.
>
> The Ephiphany processor fills in the gap between CPU and FPGA tasks in my
> opinion. Things that would require complex state machines on an FPGA could
> be done in parallel on the RISC cores very easily (and quickly). I can
> imagine doing some image processing or something (that doesn't lend itself
> well to FPGAs) of the like with this.
>
> I'll be following you guys and may have time to contribute, but I am just
> a hardware guy after all.
> --
>
> Henry
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 4, 2014 at 10:20 PM, Shane Morris wrote:
>
>> Oh, its ok. I like the GSoC idea. I just don't think I'm GSoC material,
>> I'm hardware type, even if I will be a uni student this year going forward
>> - "If it draws blood, its hardware" as the old maxim goes.
>>
>> The Parallella board is US$99, a far more modest investment in hardware
>> than a GizmoBoard as I had previously suggested, and packs more power for
>> the price, in terms of coding value. Whether it could be accepted as a
>> coding project of the type for GSoC, a mentor for it found, and other
>> logistical concerns are a issue for the GSoC organisers, but I suppose,
>> could it happen?
>>
>> An abstract topic for the time being.
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Feb 5, 2014 at 5:06 PM,  wrote:
>>
>>> > Thoughts? Comments? Critique? Flames?
>>>
>>> I guess this is the real value of efforts like GSOC, if only they
>>> could be extended to a much greater public either with an infinite
>>> budget or by pushing a far more socially-aware ethos.
>>>
>>> I'll refrain from pontificating further.
>>>
>>> ++L
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>

Re: [9fans] Inferno and the Parallella

[Shane Morris]

Oh, its ok. I like the GSoC idea. I just don't think I'm GSoC material, I'm
hardware type, even if I will be a uni student this year going forward -
"If it draws blood, its hardware" as the old maxim goes.

The Parallella board is US$99, a far more modest investment in hardware
than a GizmoBoard as I had previously suggested, and packs more power for
the price, in terms of coding value. Whether it could be accepted as a
coding project of the type for GSoC, a mentor for it found, and other
logistical concerns are a issue for the GSoC organisers, but I suppose,
could it happen?

An abstract topic for the time being.


On Wed, Feb 5, 2014 at 5:06 PM,  wrote:

> > Thoughts? Comments? Critique? Flames?
>
> I guess this is the real value of efforts like GSOC, if only they
> could be extended to a much greater public either with an infinite
> budget or by pushing a far more socially-aware ethos.
>
> I'll refrain from pontificating further.
>
> ++L
>
>
>
>

Re: [9fans] Inferno and the Parallella

[Shane Morris]

I suppose, if you bug me enough, and I have some time up my sleeve (like
3:30am in the morning when I can't sleep) I'll try typing a coherent reply.
I don't G+, I hardly ever use their 3D printing group, which I think has
some great suff, I think its another duplicity of an already old concept.

Then again, talking about old concepts, sometimes, when I could be
bothered, I go on #plan9 on Freenode IRC - boris_G is me, again, bug me
enough, and I might respond. I go on there for #neo900, #hackrf, a few
others.

As a last suggestion, interested persons email me directly, put something
along the lines of "Parallella" in the title, and I'll make an impromptu
mailing list. I've contacted a couple of specific people already, and I'd
imagine they'd want to be informed.

I hope the Parallella people reopen their preorders soon-ish, website says
January, no change in status yet.

Thanks!


On Wed, Feb 5, 2014 at 4:26 PM,  wrote:

> > Thoughts? Comments? Critique? Flames?
>
> Sounds like fun.  I would suggest keeping (some of) us posted.  Maybe
> the occasional posting on G+?
>
> ++L
>
>
>
>

[9fans] Inferno and the Parallella

[Shane Morris]

Hello 9fans,

I saw references to the GreenArrays chip on list, and did some more
investigation:

http://www.parallella.org/board/

I thought this may be a worthy target of even a Styx-on-a-chip
implementation. I have contacted their forums, and one of their moderators
said it would be a good idea.

I have already made contact with a member of the community who is playing
with their SDK for a single core - making a "grid on a chip" after that
would be an easy exercise I imagine. I recommended to him that he make a
Styx-on-a-chip implementation first, with a payload program (basically, a
fast floating point algorithm decoding a stream from a SDR, so the grid
decodes multiple streams in parallel), and see if that flies.

Thoughts? Comments? Critique? Flames?

Thanks!

Re: [9fans] GSoC '14

[Shane Morris]

Oh, I didn't say the Gizmo for a GSoC, it was a passing comment... I'd
probably pay someone to do it, and give me the time for it...

Now to make money building widgets at uni...


On Sun, Jan 26, 2014 at 5:28 PM, Steven Stallion wrote:

> On Sun, Jan 26, 2014 at 12:24 AM, Shane Morris 
> wrote:
> > Steve, Krystian in Poland has tackled GPIO on the RaspberryPi. I can
> fish up
> > his repos if needed...
>
> Very cool! I need to find some time to boot the pi I have at the
> house. It's been sitting in the box since I picked it up.
>
> Steve
>
>

Re: [9fans] GSoC '14

[Shane Morris]

Steve, Krystian in Poland has tackled GPIO on the RaspberryPi. I can fish
up his repos if needed...


On Sun, Jan 26, 2014 at 5:22 PM, Steven Stallion wrote:

> On Sat, Jan 25, 2014 at 10:38 PM, Salman Javaid 
> wrote:
> > Steven, this USB 3 [0] device driver implementation seems to be an
> > interesting project. Is this something you will be interested in?
> >
> > [0] http://www.plan9.bell-labs.com/wiki/plan9/TODO/index.html
>
> That's going to be a bit much to chew off for a student project. USB
> is a non-trivial mess of pain and frustration, even for the
> experienced. If someone is getting started with driver work, the most
> successful path will likely be implementing a simple part (even if
> it's an old one). Ethernet and UARTs come to mind - they tend to be
> the simplest. I think at one point there was a call out to get GPIO
> working on the Raspberry Pi - that would be a good summer project if
> it hasn't been done already. GPIO can be a lot of fun, especially if
> you have a couple of protoboards laying around.
>
> Anyhow, when it comes to GSoC it's far more important to focus on
> attainable goals - it's a lot more fun for the student (and the
> mentor) when something working comes out at the end.
>
> HTH,
>
> Steve
>
>

Re: [9fans] GSoC '14

[Shane Morris]

http://www.gizmosphere.org/why-gizmo/gizmoboard/

I'd like to see Plan 9 fully support this board. The chipset is a closed
ecosystem with embedded microcontroller capabilities, such as GPIO.
Anything you add on the PCI-e would need further drivers, obviously.


On Sun, Jan 26, 2014 at 3:33 PM, Steven Stallion wrote:

> On Sat, Jan 25, 2014 at 8:37 PM, Conor Williams
>  wrote:
> > ·A device driver for Plan 9 for an unsupported device
>
> I'd love to see this - device driver work can be difficult, though
> rewarding. I would be happy to mentor anyone willing to take up this
> challenge.
>
> Steve
>
>

Re: [9fans] GSoC '14

[Shane Morris]

Good work!


On Sun, Jan 26, 2014 at 3:15 PM, erik quanstrom wrote:

> On Sat Jan 25 23:05:56 EST 2014, edgecombe...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> > It did something, I recall. It was on the list much time after the GSoC
> had
> > finished, mostly working I believe. Looked good!
>
> the draw device in js was completed.  the student continues to make good
> and steady progress and is working on the server side at this point.
>
> - erik
>

Re: [9fans] GSoC '14

[Shane Morris]

It did something, I recall. It was on the list much time after the GSoC had
finished, mostly working I believe. Looked good!


On Sun, Jan 26, 2014 at 3:00 PM, Calvin Morrison wrote:

> Did anyone post a recoup of the GSOC 13 results? I'd like to see what
> happened, what process was made. Did that draw(3) html frontend ever
> get finished?
>
> On 25 January 2014 22:37, Shane Morris  wrote:
> > My vote is on the GUI builder - I'd like to see that one happen. Sorry, I
> > don't think I'm GSoC material, I just build hardware, and put the minimum
> > level of software on it to work...
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Jan 26, 2014 at 1:37 PM, Conor Williams <
> conor.willi...@gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >>
> >>·A device driver for Plan 9 for an unsupported device
> >>
> >> ·A GUI builder for the Plan 9 control graphics library
> >>
> >> ·Porting of the Tcl tool-kit Tk and the Tk GUI builder Xf
> >>
> >> ·VRML support for the Httpd
> >>
> >> ·Writing of an editor similar to Vi for Plan 9
> >>
> >> ·An Html front end to the PQ database system. This would involve
> >> adding PQ support to the Httpd
> >>
> >> ·Java support for Plan 9
> >>
> >> ·A lockable screen saver for Plan 9
> >>
> >> ·Mpeg support for Plan 9
> >>
> >> ·Addition of load balancing support into Plan 9
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Sun, Jan 26, 2014 at 2:14 AM, Steven Stallion 
> >> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> On Sat, Jan 25, 2014 at 7:42 PM, Conor Williams
> >>>  wrote:
> >>> > ok...
> >>>
> >>> Feel free to send your ideas to the list in the meantime...
> >>>
> >>> Steve
> >>>
> >>
> >
>
>

Re: [9fans] GSoC '14

[Shane Morris]

My vote is on the GUI builder - I'd like to see that one happen. Sorry, I
don't think I'm GSoC material, I just build hardware, and put the minimum
level of software on it to work...


On Sun, Jan 26, 2014 at 1:37 PM, Conor Williams wrote:

>·A device driver for Plan 9 for an unsupported device
>
> ·A GUI builder for the Plan 9 control graphics library
>
> ·Porting of the Tcl tool-kit Tk and the Tk GUI builder Xf
>
> ·VRML support for the Httpd
>
> ·Writing of an editor similar to Vi for Plan 9
>
> ·An Html front end to the PQ database system. This would involve
> adding PQ support to the Httpd
>
> ·Java support for Plan 9
>
> ·A lockable screen saver for Plan 9
>
> ·Mpeg support for Plan 9
>
> ·Addition of load balancing support into Plan 9
>
>
> On Sun, Jan 26, 2014 at 2:14 AM, Steven Stallion wrote:
>
>> On Sat, Jan 25, 2014 at 7:42 PM, Conor Williams
>>  wrote:
>> > ok...
>>
>> Feel free to send your ideas to the list in the meantime...
>>
>> Steve
>>
>>
>

[9fans] GreenArrays and Plan 9/ Inferno

[Shane Morris]

Hello 9fans,

I saw reference to the GreenArrays chips on the list a while back, had a
look, and was mighty impressed. Then I wondered, "Exactly what does Plan 9
or Inferno have to do with these chips, and how do they relate?"

I considered you could have the 144CPU chip with mini-Styx processing
routines, which would serve my needs well - I need to move in a whole heap
of file data, process it in various ways, and move it out again, quickly,
and the promise of 90 billion instructions per second really excited me.

Obviously, these processors aren't floating point processors, and thats
fine, I'm working with moving floating point sensor readings into and out
of the "grid on a chip" and doing some basic functions on them, in a file
based format. Its just the true potential that has me going "Wow, I can see
this cloudy outline, but it still looks cool..."

I admit, I may be barking right up the wrong tree here, and if I am, I will
stand corrected. I'm just wondering of the potential of these chips,
coupled with a fast FPGA and an PCI-e x1 link to an APU running Plan 9 as a
"head node." I have a programmer who has always wanted to play with FPGAs
as a technology, and I have several books on basic VHDL. But yeah, lets not
put the cart in front of the horse now, right?

Thanks everyone!

Re: [9fans] Alternative Plan 9 Logo

[Shane Morris]

Sounds good =)


On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 3:57 PM, Skip Tavakkolian  wrote:

> "Enlightened by Plan 9 Philosophy"
>
> On Jan 6, 2014, at 8:48 PM, lu...@proxima.alt.za wrote:
>
> >> "Powered by Plan 9 technology"
> >
> > "Powered by Plan 9 philosophy"?
> >
> > ++L
> >
> >
> >
>
>

Re: [9fans] Alternative Plan 9 Logo

[Shane Morris]

Then again, you might not want to sell technology. I differ the point.


On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 11:27 AM, Jacob Todd  wrote:

> It's just software, it doesn't need a slogan.
> On Jan 6, 2014 7:23 PM, "Shane Morris"  wrote:
>
>> I'd be interested in using it as a logo for my future syncfs work. Can
>> someone think of a catchy tagline? "Powered by Plan 9 technology" or
>> similar?
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 11:07 AM,  wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> At Mon, 6 Jan 2014 18:30:46 +0100,
>>> Bence Fábián wrote:
>>> >
>>> > Just start using it. That's how things got adopted by a community.
>>> >
>>>
>>> I would be flattered if people did.  Since there is apparently some
>>> interest I'll clean it up a bit and make the source files available.
>>>
>>> Peter
>>>
>>>
>>

Re: [9fans] Alternative Plan 9 Logo

[Shane Morris]

I'd be interested in using it as a logo for my future syncfs work. Can
someone think of a catchy tagline? "Powered by Plan 9 technology" or
similar?


On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 11:07 AM,  wrote:

>
> At Mon, 6 Jan 2014 18:30:46 +0100,
> Bence Fábián wrote:
> >
> > Just start using it. That's how things got adopted by a community.
> >
>
> I would be flattered if people did.  Since there is apparently some
> interest I'll clean it up a bit and make the source files available.
>
> Peter
>
>

Re: [9fans] Alternative Plan 9 Logo

[Shane Morris]

"Plan 9 Inside"?

I would buy products with that sticker.


On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 4:42 AM,  wrote:

> At Fri, 03 Jan 2014 17:11:02 -0500,
> Jay Kruer wrote:
> >
> > [1  ]
> >
> > [2  ]
> > Looks really nice. However, Glenda will forever hold a special place
> > in my heart. Perhaps this would be a good logo for 9front?
> >
>
> Thanks for the feedback.  I wasn't really intending to replace Glenda
> (that would be deeply wrong)---but I've always rather thought s/he was
> a mascot more than a logo.  As for 9 Front, they seem to already have
> a logo and distinctive aesthetic and I rather think they should stick
> with it (I particularly like their ironic choice of Helvetica).
>
> In anycase, it seems to me there isn't really a logo, badge, or visual
> device which represents a geneological conection with Plan 9 or
> indicates the use of Plan 9-derived technology.  This may be more what
> I had in mind rather than attempting to rebrand the Bell Labs Edition
> or 9 Front.
>
> Peter
>
>

Re: [9fans] sweet!

[Shane Morris]

As an infamous, here unnamed politician once said:

*Splat!*



I like your process. So easy, even I couldn't stuff it up ^.~


On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 6:13 PM, Conor Williams wrote:

> dear me...
>
> bought a cheap version of "Magic ISO Maker"
>
> img -> iso -> vm
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 6:06 AM, Shane Morris wrote:
>
>> Someone had alot of fun...!
>>
>> Meanwhile, I fried two SD cards this morning trying to get my Pi running
>> Plan 9 again, and now have no money to get another card or reader. The
>> things we do... and to think I wanted to try Krystians GPIO code...
>>
>> Good work Conor! I'm going to have to reread your thesis again.
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 4:59 PM, Conor Williams 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> usb 2 iso conversionp?
>>>
>>
>>
>

Re: [9fans] sweet!

[Shane Morris]

Someone had alot of fun...!

Meanwhile, I fried two SD cards this morning trying to get my Pi running
Plan 9 again, and now have no money to get another card or reader. The
things we do... and to think I wanted to try Krystians GPIO code...

Good work Conor! I'm going to have to reread your thesis again.


On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 4:59 PM, Conor Williams wrote:

> usb 2 iso conversionp?
>

Re: [9fans] "gpio device" for Plan 9

[Shane Morris]

I do remember some post asking about the status of the GPIO interfacing to
the Plan 9 OS some time ago, when you released the temperature readouts, I
had some hopes you might go on and address the GPIO functions, of which
until your work consisted solely of the serial port for debug purposes -
correct me if I'm wrong at any point other members of the list.

This of course opens up the Plan 9 OS for control applications - simply to
make a control application you read from or write to a file! I hope to
implement such an application to, in user space, discipline the free
running 1MHz oscillator from a 1PPS signal (thanks for your help on that
one Erik!). My next challenge will be to examine the output of a HID device
over USB, the Playstation 3 joypad, and integrate that into Plan 9 for the
"non-deterministic user interaction."


On Wed, Jan 1, 2014 at 11:04 AM, Krystian Lewandowski <
krystian@gmail.com> wrote:

> I don't mind! I don't think what i did is a major improvement - only some
> ideas of a begginer. BCM port in general was a milestone. I'm just trying
> to connect dots while learning something - and have some fun with it.
> Happy new year for you too.
> Krystian
>
> Wiadomość napisana przez Shane Morris  w dniu 1
> sty 2014, o godz. 00:16:
>
> My apologies for hijacking the thread, it is an interrelated work, and a
> practical example of your work Krystian. In any case, my hat is off to you
> for this work. Erik has noted I would get a reasonable accuracy within a
> seconds timeframe from the onboard oscillator, and disciplining it is well
> within the capabilities of the ARM microcontroller on the RPi board. If you
> were to observe any real drift over the 100usec range, I think you'd be
> asking for a new board...!
>
> Erik, clocking signals are received, not distributed... or to wit, the US
> Government distributes the clocking signals for me, by means of the GPS
> network. I would prefer to use GLONASS of course, but I am uncertain of how
> many "birds" in the Russian constellation are over Australia at any one
> time, and I am unsure of whether my chosen GPSDO is a GLONASS receiver. I'm
> assuming negative answers to both queries, although that is a matter for my
> own investigation, and in its due time.
>
> As an aside, I have priced Rockwell GPS modules with a 1PPS signal, the
> princely sum of US$9, free shipping. I thought this may be a good place to
> start my timing investigations with Plan 9 on the RPi, by seeing if I can
> get the RPi to consistently clock over a considerable period of time. The
> next challenge will be to make the whole lot happen "in respect to time"
> according to the non-deterministic input of the user. That input would be
> placed in time in both the ramfs, as well as the syncfs.
>
> Many thanks for entertaining my notions, in any case. Happy New Year to
> you both, and to the rest of the list!
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 1, 2014 at 9:57 AM, Krystian Lewandowski <
> krystian@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> Wiadomość napisana przez erik quanstrom  w dniu
>> 31 gru 2013, o godz. 20:50:
>>
>> > On Tue Dec 31 14:40:29 EST 2013, edgecombe...@gmail.com wrote:
>> >
>> >> Erik,
>> >>
>> >> Just for the purposes of edification (and curiosity), are you able to
>> >> elaborate on "long reads"? Its understandable such a scheme would be
>> >> implemented in the network drivers, but how exactly does it work, as
>> >> opposed to a polling scheme or an ISR? I will, of course, Google in a
>> sec
>> >> as well.
>> >
>> > it could be that i misunderstood the op's point.  what i understood
>> from the
>> > original post was a scheme was envisioned where a user process would
>> poll a
>> > status file to get interrupt status.  if i understood this correctly,
>> then providing
>> > an interrupt file that returns even 0 bytes when there's an interrupt
>> would be
>> > an alternative providing interrupt semantics to the up.  there are some
>> > bits to work out if the user process falls behind, but it's no
>> different than a
>> > network device.
>> >
>> > does that answer your question?
>> >
>> > - erik
>> >
>>
>> I'll answer at the bottom, to not make even more mess i did before. :)
>>
>> I'm not even sure what is my point of view. For ISR i was thinking about
>> an interrupt routine writing something (a single byte) to a file when an
>> interrupt occurs - writing using functions defined in qio - something
>> similar to /dev/kprint - reading user proce