When running the plan9 installer in Xen, partdisk fails strangely:
init: starting /bin/rc
/bin/dossrv: serving #s/dos
dev 3 sector 18, write: 0, should be 4608
dev 3 sector 0, write: 0, should be 4608
dev 3 sector 18, write: 0, should be 4608
dev 3 sector 9, write: 0, should be 4608
dev 3 sector 4248, write: 0, should be 4608
use DMA for ide drives[yes]: no
rio: can't open display: initdisplay: /dev/draw/new: unknown device in #
filename
failed to start rio. you can start a text-based installation by running
inst/textonly
init: starting /bin/rc
% inst/textonly
Sun Oct 2 02:16:21 BST 2011 Installation process started
--------------------------------------
Preparing menu...
The following unfinished tasks are ready to be done:
configfs - choose the type of file system to install
stop - save the current installation state, to be resumed later
Task to do [configfs]:
--------------------------------------
You can install the following types of file systems:
fossil the new Plan9 fileserver
fossil+venti fossil + a archival dump server
File system (fossil, fossil+venti)[fossil]:
--------------------------------------
Preparing menu...
The following tasks are done:
configfs - choose the type of file system to install
The following unfinished tasks are ready to be done:
partdisk - edit partition tables (e.g., to create a plan 9
partition)
stop - save the current installation state, to be resumed later
Task to do [partdisk]:
--------------------------------------
The following disk devices were found.
sd00 - Xen block device
sd01 - Xen block device
Disk to partition (sd00, sd01)[no default]: sd00
The disk you selected HAS NO master boot record on its first sector.
(Perhaps it is a completely blank disk.)
You need a master boot record to use the disk.
Should we install a default master boot record?
Install mbr (y, n)[no default]: y
mbr: reading boot sector: './disk' file does not exist
This is disk/fdisk; use it to create a Plan 9 partition.
If there is enough room, a Plan 9 partition will be
suggested; you can probably just type 'w' and then 'q'.
/bin/disk/fdisk: diskread 68 at 0.446: './disk' file does not exist
--------------------------------------
Preparing menu...
The following tasks are done:
configfs - choose the type of file system to install
The following unfinished tasks are ready to be done:
partdisk - edit partition tables (e.g., to create a plan 9
partition)
stop - save the current installation state, to be resumed later
Task to do [partdisk]: mercury# ls
Note the lines:
mbr: reading boot sector: './disk' file does not exist
and
/bin/disk/fdisk: diskread 68 at 0.446: './disk' file does not exist
I have made sure that DMA is off, and that the disk is writeable in the Xen
config file.
This was tested with "plan9.iso" from
http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9/download.html, as well as 9atom.
Here are some useful bits of information:
If I run "disk/fdisk -a /dev/sd00/data" in rc, I get the same response:
/bin/disk/fdisk: diskread 68 at 0.446: './disk' file does not exist
% cat > /dev/sd00/data
hello, world
cat: write error copying <stdin>: './cat' file does not exist
%
When I specify the entire path to /bin/disk/fdisk, the "'./disk' file does not
exist" part doesn't happen.
/bin/disk/fdisk: diskread 68 at 0.446:
echo asdfasdfsdf > /dev/sd00/data && cat /dev/sd00/data
returns nothing, ie, the disk doesn't seem to have been written to.
% cat /dev/sd00/ctl
inquiry Xen block device
geometry 2097152 512
part data 0 2097152
% ls -l /dev/sd00
--rw-r----- S 0 glenda glenda 0 Feb 11 2010 /dev/sd00/ctl
--rw-r----- S 0 glenda glenda 1073741824 Feb 11 2010 /dev/sd00/data
-lrw------- S 0 glenda glenda 0 Feb 11 2010 /dev/sd00/raw
Thank you very much to 'f2f' and 'lmnopqr' in #plan9 on freenode for their help
in trying to figure this out.
Thanks,
Alan C. Fisher
