Post by Kyle Laracey>> But as Federico mentioned, you might not want pcdisk--that's for
>> running with a kfs root, which isn't officially supported any more. If
>> you were looking at the 3e guide, that might explain it. These days,
>> for a terminal, you probably want pcf (pc + fossil).
>
> for a terminal, ideally one would be booting off a file server,
> and have no local storage.
>
> but local storage can't be avoided,
> as i see it, on a standalone terminal, simple, speedy, safe
> would trump fs features. so kfs can't just be excluded.
>
> your tradeoffs may vary. :-)
>
> - erik
>
There's certainly reasons for using kfs, but for a new user I'd
probably recommend fossil simply because the documentation and most
9fans will assume you're using fossil.
But yeah, *best* option is to netboot a 9pc kernel, it's lovely to
just hit the power button when you're done working.
John
Wow so do you guys actually netbook Plan9? Where's the central
server? where you work / university or something? Or do you just
have it set up at your homes? Sounds pretty cool...
Here at work, we've got a cpu/auth/file server running fossil and
venti off a Coraid storage appliance, sitting in the machine room. We
netboot some terminals and a 32-core test server from it.
At home, I've got a cpu/auth/file server running on an old Thinkpad,
but I generally just drawterm in since 1. it's a hassle to plug
yourself into the wired network and 2. I rarely have a netbootable
terminal at home.
Netbooting is great, though. You can also cheat and install Plan 9 on
the disk, but then specify that root is from a remote server, meaning
your kernel will boot from the hard drive but after bootup it's
basically idle.
John