4 ms·

Inferno Raspberry Pi image – beta release

95 points by neverm0re 12y ago

f2f 12y ago
Great news! This will finally bring Amoeba into the mainstream!
phaer 12y ago
2014, year of the Plan 9 desktop ;)
caseyf7 12y ago
Why would I want to run this on my Pi?
- codezero 12y ago
  Why would you have a Pi instead of a MacBook Pro? Rhetorical question is rhetorical.
  - insky 12y ago
    Why is that a rhetorical question? It's a perfectly valid question.
    - codezero 12y ago
      Because the Raspberry Pi is basically an experimentation/testbed platform. It's meant to do basically anything which is why one might install Inferno, or any other OS on it. Furthermore, it's backed by an SD card, so it's not as if any OS you choose completely monopolizes the platform. You don't need to choose just one when dealing with it. If your Raspberry Pi is your only computer, then yeah, maybe this isn't for you, it does clearly say beta release on the page.
      - AndyJPartridge 12y ago
        Yes, as you say. The beauty of the Pi is the fact you can have a variety of SD cards with different OS/Configurations and easily swap between them and play with them. It is a very cheap educational tool. I have 4 of them, and they also make great network storage tools. Add a HDD, the transmission software and you can easily download TV shows and stream them to you 1080p TV for example. £27 in the UK, absolute bargain.
        gcb0 12y ago
        Except for the price, you can have the same flexibility with any other computer. Well any other non Apple device actually, i run Linux on my hp touchpad tablet...
    - myg204 12y ago
      It's a cheap platform to play with. The hardware is sure to be supported (as you can see from the guide).
mjl- 12y ago
fun to see. inferno is an impressive system. be sure to click to the repository, it has an overview of the 26 steps (so far) to get to the point where it is now. also congrats to the author for getting to this stage, with steady improvements.
SixSigma 12y ago
A compressed image of a bootable plan9 SD card for the Raspberry Pi is available from this link: http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sources/contrib/miller/9pi.img.gz
xkarga00 12y ago
Can someone explain the main differences between Plan 9 OS and Inferno? Why should I use one of them?
- xiaq 12y ago
  plan 9 is the earlier effort of re-engineering Unix and runs on hardware. It was meant to replace Unix, but it never did. With inferno they went the VM route (the dis VM) and built it so that it runs on myriad platforms, from Unix and ActiveX. It still runs on hardware though. The intension was that you can run a network of hosted and native inferno installations, making it easier to adopt. Unfortunately, inferno saw no widespread adoption either. The underlying filesystem concept is basically the same (the latest version of 9p and Styx are identical), but the programming environment changed a lot (you write limbo to run on dis). Also the user space programs were rewritten and get overhauled a bit. The community never get divergent enough though; inferno people tend to identify themselves as part of the plan 9 community.
  - shimon_e 12y ago
    With most of the inferno team working for Google; I wonder why android hasn't adopted any of inferno's technology.
    - pjmlp 12y ago
      Most likely, because at the beginning the Android team got a few well known Sun/JVM expatriates on their architecture team, like Chet Haase and Romain Guy among others. Does anyone from Plan 9/Inferno work on the Android team at all?
    - JIghtuse 12y ago
      Well, Rob Pike created Go based on Limbo. This language becomes more and more popular. It is not in Android, but Google actively use it (probably in Google Play too).
    - xiaq 12y ago
      Most of the team? I only know that Rob Pike and Russ Cox are Google employers. And I have the impression that they are working mostly on Golang and some distributed infrastructures. Did they employ any other inferno developers?
ritonlajoie 12y ago
Hello i would like to try that in virtualbox since I don't have a RPI. How one would go to load an .img file in virtualbox ? Should I try to convert it to some .iso and boot with it ?
- rm445 12y ago
  Are you very specifically interested in running an ARM port targeted at the Raspberry Pi? If you just want to try Inferno or Plan 9 generally, try: http://www.vitanuova.com/inferno/downloads.html http://www.vitanuova.com/inferno/downloads.html http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9/download.html http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9/download.html
- Narishma 12y ago
  VirtualBox is for x86 CPUs only. It doesn't support ARM. You need something like qemu instead.
rcarmo 12y ago
Tried it, seems there's something wrong with the image: https://code.google.com/p/inferno-rpi/issues/detail?id=1 https://code.google.com/p/inferno-rpi/issues/detail?id=1 (gonna try a second SD card anyway) I have high hopes for this, though, since Inferno is a lot of fun to tinker with.

95 points by neverm0re 12y ago

f2f 12y ago

Great news! This will finally bring Amoeba into the mainstream!

phaer 12y ago

2014, year of the Plan 9 desktop ;)

caseyf7 12y ago

Why would I want to run this on my Pi?

codezero 12y ago
Why would you have a Pi instead of a MacBook Pro? Rhetorical question is rhetorical.
- insky 12y ago
  Why is that a rhetorical question? It's a perfectly valid question.
  - codezero 12y ago
    Because the Raspberry Pi is basically an experimentation/testbed platform. It's meant to do basically anything which is why one might install Inferno, or any other OS on it. Furthermore, it's backed by an SD card, so it's not as if any OS you choose completely monopolizes the platform. You don't need to choose just one when dealing with it. If your Raspberry Pi is your only computer, then yeah, maybe this isn't for you, it does clearly say beta release on the page.
    - AndyJPartridge 12y ago
      Yes, as you say. The beauty of the Pi is the fact you can have a variety of SD cards with different OS/Configurations and easily swap between them and play with them. It is a very cheap educational tool. I have 4 of them, and they also make great network storage tools. Add a HDD, the transmission software and you can easily download TV shows and stream them to you 1080p TV for example. £27 in the UK, absolute bargain.
      - gcb0 12y ago
        Except for the price, you can have the same flexibility with any other computer. Well any other non Apple device actually, i run Linux on my hp touchpad tablet...
  - myg204 12y ago
    It's a cheap platform to play with. The hardware is sure to be supported (as you can see from the guide).

mjl- 12y ago

fun to see. inferno is an impressive system. be sure to click to the repository, it has an overview of the 26 steps (so far) to get to the point where it is now. also congrats to the author for getting to this stage, with steady improvements.

SixSigma 12y ago

A compressed image of a bootable plan9 SD card for the Raspberry Pi is available from this link: http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sources/contrib/miller/9pi.img.gz

xkarga00 12y ago

Can someone explain the main differences between Plan 9 OS and Inferno? Why should I use one of them?

xiaq 12y ago
plan 9 is the earlier effort of re-engineering Unix and runs on hardware. It was meant to replace Unix, but it never did. With inferno they went the VM route (the dis VM) and built it so that it runs on myriad platforms, from Unix and ActiveX. It still runs on hardware though. The intension was that you can run a network of hosted and native inferno installations, making it easier to adopt. Unfortunately, inferno saw no widespread adoption either. The underlying filesystem concept is basically the same (the latest version of 9p and Styx are identical), but the programming environment changed a lot (you write limbo to run on dis). Also the user space programs were rewritten and get overhauled a bit. The community never get divergent enough though; inferno people tend to identify themselves as part of the plan 9 community.
- shimon_e 12y ago
  With most of the inferno team working for Google; I wonder why android hasn't adopted any of inferno's technology.
  - pjmlp 12y ago
    Most likely, because at the beginning the Android team got a few well known Sun/JVM expatriates on their architecture team, like Chet Haase and Romain Guy among others. Does anyone from Plan 9/Inferno work on the Android team at all?
  - JIghtuse 12y ago
    Well, Rob Pike created Go based on Limbo. This language becomes more and more popular. It is not in Android, but Google actively use it (probably in Google Play too).
  - xiaq 12y ago
    Most of the team? I only know that Rob Pike and Russ Cox are Google employers. And I have the impression that they are working mostly on Golang and some distributed infrastructures. Did they employ any other inferno developers?

ritonlajoie 12y ago

Hello i would like to try that in virtualbox since I don't have a RPI. How one would go to load an .img file in virtualbox ? Should I try to convert it to some .iso and boot with it ?

rm445 12y ago
Are you very specifically interested in running an ARM port targeted at the Raspberry Pi? If you just want to try Inferno or Plan 9 generally, try: http://www.vitanuova.com/inferno/downloads.html http://www.vitanuova.com/inferno/downloads.html http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9/download.html http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9/download.html
Narishma 12y ago
VirtualBox is for x86 CPUs only. It doesn't support ARM. You need something like qemu instead.

rcarmo 12y ago

Tried it, seems there's something wrong with the image: https://code.google.com/p/inferno-rpi/issues/detail?id=1 https://code.google.com/p/inferno-rpi/issues/detail?id=1 (gonna try a second SD card anyway) I have high hopes for this, though, since Inferno is a lot of fun to tinker with.