shithub: docs.9front.org

ref: 9a1b623e8e130ea5be97e1f8fadac1a7a1fa544a
dir: /cpu-setup.md/

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# Setting up a networked 9front machine

1. First off, we'll make our life bearable by setting up a
   temporary cpu service listener. This will let us access the
   new system with `rcpu(1)` or `drawterm(1)`, instead of having
   to suffer some terrible VNC console or similar.

   Make sure the machine has network access, then run the following:

	echo 'key proto=dp9ik dom=9front user='$user' !password=BADBADDIE' >/mnt/factotum/ctl
	aux/listen1 -t 'tcp!*!rcpu' /rc/bin/service/tcp17019

2. Complete the standard installation using inst/start, then reboot
   into a newly installed system.

   The following steps assume the cwfs(4) was selected as the
   file server, and that the basic networking works.

3. Start with adding your own user to the file server, also add
   it to some standard groups:

	; con -C /srv/cwfs.cmd
	newuser kvik
	newuser sys +kvik
	newuser adm +kvik
	newuser upas +kvik

   Before proceeding, restart the machine and log in with the new
   user, then run:

	/sys/lib/newuser

   This will set up your home directory.
 
4. Setting up the CPU listener

   For CPU listener to get started at boot time it is enough to set
   the `service=` parameter in `plan9.ini`:

	service=cpu

5. Setting up hands-free booting

   While booting the system will prompt for several parameters
   like the disk partition to mount, user name and password, and
   possibly some others.
   This is an issue for CPU servers which usually boot in the dark,
   with no one present at the console to confirm the defaults.
   We want to specify and confirm these parameters up front instead.

   First, we want to skip the `bootargs` prompt asking us to select
   the partition to boot from.  This is done by changing the `plan9.ini`
   key `bootargs=` to `nobootprompt=`; the value stays the same.

	bootargs=local!/dev/sdF0/fscache
	# change to...
	nobootprompt=local!/dev/sdF0/fscache

   Next we'll store the hostowner authentication credentials. These
   must be stored in the so-called NVRAM, which is just a small disk
   partition on PC systems.  We can write to it with the `auth/wrkey(8)`
   command.

   **NOTE** Make very sure to enter correct information when prompted.
   It is very common for people to mistype their password, or specify
   a wrong authentication domain, or even username, which will cause
   very hard to diagnose problems later on.  The same information will
   be asked for later when creating an auth user and configuring the
   authentication server.

   **NOTE 2** If you have followed the step 1. then it is best to
   explicitly specify the `nvram` partition that you want to write to.
   On PC some automatic process is used to find a suitable partition.
   It is very likely that this process will guess wrong.  Use the
   `nvram=` environment variable to select the correct partition:

	; nvram=/dev/sdF0/nvram auth/wrkey
	bad nvram des key
	bad authentication id
	bad authentication domain
	authid: kvik
	authdom: a-b.xyz
	secstore key: <press enter to skip>
	password: <type your password>

6. Setting up the AUTH server

   We are almost done and ready to reboot, but almost nothing set
   up above will work before an authentication server is running.

   First we'll have to make sure that the authentication server
   process starts during boot. This is done automatically by the
   CPU machine's bootup procedure if it learns that it is supposed
   to be the authentication server.  We tell it so by adding an
   entry in the system network database which associates the
   machine, the auth server, with an authentication domain that
   it will serve.

   Add the following entry on a line of its own in the file
   `/lib/ndb/local`, replacing the domain with some domain or string
   of your own:

	auth=dum authdom=a-b.xyz

   This associates the machine named `dum` with the authentication
   domain `a-b.xyz`. Remember that this was the same authdom: that we
   stored in the machine's nvram with `auth/wrkey`.

   **NOTE** this entry is independent from everything else in this
   file. Do not add it to either the `ipnet=` entry, or the `sys=`
   line.

   On next reboot the machine `dum` will figure out it's supposed
   to be an authentication server and start the services it needs
   to act as one.

   Now we can add users to the auth server. For this start a temporary
   `keyfs(4)`, then use `auth/changeuser(8)` command to add users:

	; auth/keyfs
	; auth/changeuser kvik
	Password: <same as what's in nvram>
	Confirm password: 
	assign new Inferno/POP secret? [y/n]: n
	Expiration date (YYYYMMDD or never)[never]: 
	Post id: 
	User's full name: 
	Department #: 
	User's email address: kvik@a-b.xyz
	Sponsor's email address: 
	user kvik installed for Plan 9

   Final step involves letting our new user "speak for" other users.
   This is neccessary if the hostowner of the machine
   running the auth server is someone other than `glenda`, which
   is the case here.

   Simply add the following entry to the file `/lib/ndb/auth`:

	hostid=kvik
		uid=!sys uid=!adm uid=*

7. Reboot

	fshalt -r

   After reboot the machine should bring itself up automagically and
   let you connect to it using `drawterm` or `rcpu`.