> rio is such a minor thing to run on today's massive machines, I'm not > sure I really see the problem in starting it on your cpu server > anyway. I frequently set them up to launch into rio because: > 1. It's easier to fix things when I can cat /dev/kprint in a window > rather than have it constantly interrupting me > 2. I like to be able to interrupt programs > 3. It's nice to run more than one thing at once, have a graphical editor, etc. > 4. Full-screen stats is pretty > > Of course, none of these reasons matter to you, since you don't run > rio on your servers AND you don't think there's any reason to lock > them (I agree!), I'm just pointing out that graphical lockers and rio > in general are far from useless on a cpu server.
i'll buy that. but i think you're missing the basic reason that the plan 9 cpu console is so minimal. there's no reason to use one, unless you are doing the most basic of system maintence. and using one is not without risk. for example - you've got admin privs. it's easy to forget any abuse this. - an errant ^T^Tr ^P or vulcan nerve pinch reboots the server and not your terminal. here are some additional reasons that rio makes life more difficult - the serial console is now useless; no fixing or rebooting the machine from home - you need a kvm port or a real keyboard/video/mouse to fiddle with the machine even locally. for me, the loss of the serial console alone makes running rio on a cpu server a non starter. the serial console has saved me a good 3-4 trips into the office this year. - erik
