Plan 9 Wiki Wish List

-as of Fri Oct 24 06:04:01 EDT 2014-

This page is a wish list for the Plan 9 Wiki documentation. Feel free to add items you think should be included in the Wiki, or remove items that have been added.

Make a wish list for documentation additions, changes, and removals.
Make sandbox editable via 9p

NETWORKING

How does one test whether the network connection is up? ip/ping? (Yes, but first you must run 'ip/ipconfig ether /net/ether0 your-ip-address' or just 'ip/ipconfig') - it is often useful to cat /net/ndb and cat /net/ipselftab to verify networking parameters are set correctly.

Does 'ip/ipconfig ether /net/ether0 unbind' set the card to a state where it can be reassigned with 'ip/ipconfig -g ga.te.way.addr ether /net/ether0 ip.a.d.dr net.m.a.sk' or is there more to do?

Must the first server on the network (which will be the dhcp and auth server) set its IP in /rc/bin/termrc (or cpurc) or can a well-formed /lib/ndb/local assign it? Answer: This can absolutely be set in /lib/ndb/local. To do this add an entry for the machine's MAC address to the ndb file as ether=MACADRESS and then invoke ip/ipconfig -N. The -N flag instructs ipconfig(8) to retrieve parameters from /lib/ndb/local.
If after assigning the IP in /rc/bin/termrc and not getting a "can't look up my ip" error from /ndb/dns, if one can't ip/ping anything, what are the possible problems? Answer: to troubleshoot, first verify that the ethernet device (#l) is bound to /net. Look at /net/ndb and /net/ipselftab to check if the internet connection is configured correctly. Ping is not always the best troubleshooting tool. You might also try a srv tcp!something.on.local.subnet!port if you have any listening services on any machines on your local network. Even non plan-9 services can still be posted as a file descriptor in /srv to see if the machine is able to dial out.

WIKI DOCS

Some docs on how to set up the wiki would be nice. The man page is a little thin, and there are a few html pages missing in the distribution (create.html for one). When the wiki does work, editing a page produces

Object not found
The object %s open %s failed: %r does not exist on this server.

Note: wikifs must be started before httpd.

IDEAL INSTALLATION

CPU servers, File servers, auth servers, terminal servers... is there an overview of what the minimum recommended Plan 9 system somewhere? The docs hint that a standalone cpu server would be a good thing, as would a file server, and also an auth server. What is the ideal, and what are lesser but acceptable alternatives?

-- Added page for the above at Expanding your Grid. Mycroftiv.

You can do most things logging in as "glenda" or "none" with the default installation. However, part of the idea behind Plan 9 is being able to import resources from other machines and use them as if they were local. You can expand on the default installation by making it a hybrid CPU, Authentication, DHCP, and kfs file server. Follow the instructions in Configuring a standalone CPU server. It's recommended you read the following pages before attempting it:

Kfs file system configuration - set up new users
Compiling kernels - you need to recompile the kernel

After converting your installation into a hybrid cpu/auth/kfs server it'll still seem pretty much the same as before. The difference is you can now serve other Plan 9 terminals and systems. See:

Network configuration - set up the database to serve up the right DHCP info to other Plan 9 clients

Remember to setup authentication properly and add users to the keyfs database. I think the syntax for auth(8) would be

auth/changeuser -p username

this should generate the necessary keys for 'username'.

On another machine you can then begin to experiment compiling the kernel for a terminal which uses the CPU, disk, or both from the server. Play around with the 'pcdisk' kernel config file instead of the 'pccpudisk' config file. My instructions are a bit brief but should give you some idea of what you're aiming for.

Other important configuration files are /rc/bin/cpurc* for CPU servers, and /rc/bin/termrc* for setting up terminals. In the network database (/lib/ndb/local) of the server, you should setup the configuration for terminals with lines like

ip=192.168.0.3 sys=aquitania ether=abc12345def
	cpu=your_cpu_server_ip_or_name
	fs=you_file_server_ip_or_name
	ether=001234fedabc
	bootf=/386/9pxeload

Sometimes it's hard to read web documentation without a web-browser... you can use the VNC client if you have a spare machine:

vncv machine_running_VNC_server

DEVICE DRIVER HOWTO

It would be nice if the Wiki had sections on how to write device drivers for vga, ether, and so on, describing the "theory of operations." Also, waserror()/poperror()/... stuff is really confusing. I'd like to see explanations on what they are for, when to use and how to use them.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&frame=right&th=f86d32adf40c6c11&seekm=4027e73e735755ac2e8dfcc603505f29%40plan9.bell-labs.com#link1
The notes on the Plan 9 kernel (3rd edition) describe the internals of the kernel. Most things are still useful to understand the source of the 4th edition.

http://www.9atom.org/magic/man2html/9/error Some kernel facilities are described in Charles Forsyth's section 9 of the manual.