vx32

Local 9vx git repository for patches.
git clone git://r-36.net/vx32
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README (3901B)

      1 Welcome to Plan 9 VX.
      2 
      3 Plan 9 VX has been built and run successfully on Linux 2.6
      4 (Ubuntu Gutsy and Hoary), FreeBSD 7, and OS X 10.4.11.
      5 It is likely that it will work on newer machines too.  
      6 
      7 In addition to the code in this directory, you need a copy
      8 of a Plan 9 distribution tree.  If you need one, you can find
      9 a stripped-down tree at http://swtch.com/9vx/9vx.tgz.
     10 (That file also contains a pre-built 9vx binary.)
     11 
     12 The easiest way to invoke 9vx is to copy it to the root of 
     13 a Plan 9 distribution tree, cd into that directory, and run "9vx".
     14 Alternately, you can tell 9vx where the root is with the -r flag:
     15 
     16 	9vx -r /var/tmp/plan9
     17 
     18 9vx also takes a -u flag to set the user name.  If you are using
     19 a stock distribution tree, you will get a better environment 
     20 if you run
     21 
     22 	9vx -u glenda
     23 
     24 to log in as the default user, glenda.
     25 
     26 If all goes well, 9vx should fork itself into the background and
     27 an X11 window should appear running rio, the Plan 9 window
     28 manager (or, if not acting as glenda, a shell prompt).
     29 Even on Darwin, the graphics are via X11.  I have the relevant
     30 Carbon code in another project, but I need to merge it in.
     31 
     32 There is also a "-t" option, which causes 9vx to use
     33 the terminal on standard input/output for I/O instead of 
     34 creating an X console.  This option also keeps 9vx from forking
     35 itself into the background.  It's useful mainly for debugging.
     36 
     37 At this point you have a Plan 9 system, and it should behave
     38 not much differently from any other Plan 9 system.  If it 
     39 behaves differently in a bad way, please send email to 
     40 rsc@swtch.com to report a bug.
     41 
     42 The 9vx kernel provides the following devices that provide
     43 access to host resources.
     44 
     45 	#A	audio (via /dev/dsp; #A1 is /dev/dsp1, etc.)
     46 	#i	draw (via X11)
     47 	#I	ip stack (including cs)
     48 	#m	mouse, snarf (via X11)
     49 	#Z	local file system (#U is /; #Uplan9 is -r root)
     50 
     51 Notice that done of these enforce permissions--they all
     52 execute as the user who started 9vx--so it wouldn't be a
     53 great idea to use 9vx as a replacement for a multiuser system.
     54 Even the user "none" has full access to the local file system via #Z.
     55 
     56 Enjoy!
     57 
     58 Russ Cox
     59 rsc@swtch.com
     60 June 2008
     61 
     62 
     63 P. S.  Some people have reported getting the following error:
     64 
     65 9vx: ../../src/xcb_lock.c:33: _XCBUnlockDisplay: \
     66 	Assertion `xcb_get_request_setn(dpy->xcb->connection) \
     67 	== dpy->request' failed.
     68 
     69 This is a problem with the X11 libraries that has been known
     70 since January and was supposedly fixed in the latest X11 library
     71 sources in March, but the big Linux distributions haven't picked
     72 up the fixes yet.  See these URLs:
     73 
     74 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mobile/+bug/185311
     75 http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xcb/2008-March/003347.html
     76 https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14211
     77 http://forum.tuxx-home.at/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=565
     78 
     79 Supposedly, the XCB error can only happen in improperly locked
     80 X programs, but they seem to assume that you're using LockDisplay
     81 and UnlockDisplay to mediate access to the X server instead of
     82 using your own locks, something that is explicitly permitted in the
     83 manual page.  I think they're code is just broken.  If you find locking
     84 errors in the 9vx x11 code, I'd like to know about them.
     85 
     86 P. P. S.  Plan 9 VX is much more demanding of the OS than 
     87 libvx32 itself is.  Some systems, usually older ones, are *not*
     88 compatible with Plan 9 VX.
     89 
     90 Plan 9 VX is known *not* to work on old Linux systems running
     91 Linux 2.4 kernels or the old LinuxThreads pthreads implementation
     92 that was the default on 2.4-based systems but crept into some 
     93 2.6 distributions.
     94 
     95 Plan 9 VX is known *not* to work on FreeBSD 6, due to an 
     96 incompatibility between libkse (the implementation of pthreads)
     97 and libvx32.  FreeBSD 7 replaced libkse with a new thread library
     98 that is just great.
     99 
    100 COMPILATION ERRORS?
    101 The libpcap development libraries are needed to compile this
    102 version of 9vx. Alternatively, set PLAN9PCAP to nopcap in the
    103 Makefrag file.
    104 
    105