On Thu, 13 Jan 2011, Brian L. Stuart wrote: > > I could run a headless box as a Plan9 auth/cpu, fs server. Then, > > if I want to this Plan9 server, is there a minimum Plan9 install > > that I could put on the spare partition that I have? > > With this setup available, there are several ways you can go. As a > lot of people have suggested, you can install a cpu/auth/fs server > on the headless machine and use drawterm to be a terminal talking to
Got it! > him. An even more Plan9-like way of doing it is to net-boot a Plan9 > terminal from your cpu/auth/fs machine. If you want to boot your > main box that way, you can without installing anything on it. From > within Linux, you can do the same thing in virtualbox. In fact, I > have a virtualbox terminal running right now on my machine. It's > net booted, taking its Plan9 kernel from a Plan9 machine that > provides DHCP service and it mounts its root from a Ken FS machine. > At home, I use 9vx taking its root from a Plan9 fossil/venti file > server. So the NIC in your Linux box must have to be PXE capable? Truth be told, I've never set up a net-booting system. The Plan ( server would have to have enough disk space to store its own stuff, plus the workstation's file system? Could get dicey, if you've got a few workstations net-booting, could it not? > > for a long time: a 486DX running FreeBSD as a mailserver; another > > running as a webserver; another couple running primary and slave > > nameservers; and one dual-homed FreeBSD box routing and doing > > firewall/natd. > > The only problem you'd run into there is that Plan9 doesn't > currently have a NAT implementation. I should be able to hang the Plan 9 server off my router without any problems, should I not? The router NATs .. > > The above sounds like a job for Plan9 :) But my point is - is that > > I don't need to set up a LAN to enjoy Linux or FreeBSD. Can I use > > Plan9 standalone in a dedicated partition? > > Yes, the default install from the CD sets up a stand-alone machine. > And for most of us, that's the starting point from which we > configure any specialized machines such as cpu, auth, or file > servers. And you can get a pretty good feel for what Plan9 is about > with a stand-alone machine. However, some parts of the system make > a lot more sense when you experience them in a networked > environment. Auth is a good example of this. I see your point - because Plan 9 was after all, built as a distributed system. I'll give it a shot on that P-I mentioned in another post. > But whichever path(s) you take, I hope you'll find Plan9 is a great > system, just as we do. I'm in trouble already ... -- Duke
