.CH "Introduction to 9front"
.FS
.PP
.BP "img/9frontsystem.eps"
.FE
.SH 1 "What is 9front?"
.PP
Plan9front (or 9front) is a fork of the
Plan 9 from Bell Labs\c
.NS
https://9p\&.io/plan9/
.NE
operating system\&.
The project was started to remedy a perceived lack of devoted
development resources inside Bell Labs, and has accumulated various
fixes\c
.NS
http://git\&.9front\&.org/plan9front/plan9front/HEAD/info\&.html
.NE
and
improvements\&.\c
.NS
fqa1\&.html#1\&.3\&.1
.NE
.PP
This FQA specifically covers only the most recent release of 9front\&.
.SH 2 "Cirno"
.FS
.PP
.BP "img/cirno.eps"
.FE
.PP
At some point, Cirno\c
.NS
http://touhou\&.wikia\&.com/wiki/Cirno
.NE
became
associated with 9front\&. Details are sketchy, but this image has been in
the wiki since the Google Code days, so I'm leaving it in\&.
.PP "Pro\&."
.LS
.LI
girl
.LI
has magical powers
.LI
associated with 9
.LI
upsets kfx
.LI
she is known to be the strongest
.LE
.PP "Alternatives\&."
.FS
.PP
.BP "img/tuttleglenda.eps"
.FE
.FS
.PP
.BP "img/grumpycatno.eps"
.FE
.SH 1 "On what systems does 9front run?"
.PP
9front runs on the following platforms:
• 386
• amd64
• arm
• arm64
• mips
.PP
Read:
\fIFQA 3\&.2 \(hy Selecting Hardware\fP\c
.NS
fqa3\&.html#3\&.2
.NE
.SH 1 "Why might I want to use 9front?"
.PP
It is very likely that you do not\&.
.PP
New users frequently want to know whether 9front is superior to some
other free UNIX\(hylike operating system\&. Consider: The question is largely
unanswerable\&. What are your criteria? Why are you even using computers
in the first place? Exploring these questions and the implications that
derive therefrom may help you sharpen your perceptions and eventually
come to some sort of conclusion about which operating system you prefer
to use for daily tasks\&.
.PP
Ultimately, whether or not 9front is for you is a question only you can
answer\&.
.PP
Note: The above text is lightly plagiarized from the
OpenBSD FAQ\&.\c
.NS
http://www\&.openbsd\&.org/faq/
.NE
.SH 2 "Why might I not want to use 9front?"
.PP
Hold up\&. Before you get too excited, consider the following possibilities:
.LS
.LI
You just realized you don't want to use Plan 9 at all\&.
.LI
You don't like the people who use and/or work on 9front\&.
.LI
You don't like 9front's propaganda\&.
.LI
You prefer less functionality from your obscure OS, and/or you prefer
to ignore 9front's public commit history and complain later because
nobody informed you about bug fixes and new programs\&.
.LI
You have technical objections to specific changes 9front made to the
original Bell Labs code\&.
.LI
You're not sure right now, but you'll know it when you see it\&.
.LE
.PP
Okay, carry on\&.
.SH 3 "Why did 9front stop making fun of Nazis?"
.FS
.PP
.BP "img/pipe.eps"
.FE
.PP
Because you asked us to\&.
.LS
.LI
People complained it was done in poor taste\&.
.LI
People reliably interpret any depiction of a thing as an endorsement
of same\&.
.LI
We're tired of explaining this shit to people who just call us liars
anyway\&. (To be fair, look at the world around us today\&. Why cloud the
issue?)
\fII'm through explainin the shit \(em Ice T\fP\c
.NS
https://www\&.youtube\&.com/watch?v=4FWCSBpG5q8
.NE
.LI
Cognitive dissonance\&.
.LE
.PP
Read:
\fIAppendix L \(hy Ruby\fP\c
.NS
appendixl\&.html
.NE
.PP
Possibly related:
\fIDer Anbräuner\fP\c
.NS
https://www\&.nytimes\&.com/2020/10/22/arts/design/neo\(hyrauch\&.html
.NE
.PP
Definitely relevant:
\fIThey Live and the secret history of the Mozilla logo\fP\c
.NS
https://www\&.jwz\&.org/blog/2016/10/they\(hylive\(hyand\(hythe\(hysecret\(hyhistory\(hyof\(hythe\(hymozilla\(hylogo/
.NE
.PP
This poor guy:
\fIAnselm Kiefer\fP\c
.NS
https://en\&.wikipedia\&.org/wiki/Anselm_Kiefer
.NE
.FS
.PP
.BP "img/wreckastow.eps"
.FE
.SH 2 "New Features"
.PP
The following list is probably not exhaustive:
.LS
.LI
\f(CW/shr\fP, global mountpoint device \f(CWshr(3)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/3/shr
.NE
.LI
\f(CW/mnt\fP is provided by \f(CWmntgen(4)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/4/mntgen
.NE
.LI
\f(CW#A\fP, audio drivers for sb16, intel hd audio and ac97 (both playback
and recording supported!) \f(CWaudio(3)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/3/audio
.NE
.LI
New BIOS based boot loader \f(CW9boot(8)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/8/9boot
.NE
featuring a console and support for FAT/ISO/PXE and being small (<8K)
.LI
New EFI based boot loader
\f(CWefi\fP\c
.NS
http://git\&.9front\&.org/plan9front/plan9front/HEAD/sys/src/boot/efi/f\&.html
.NE
.LI
Made kernel compliant to multiboot specification so it can be booted
by qemu or grub directly\&.
.LI
Interruptable kernel qlocks (\f(CWeqlock\fP)
.LI
Deferred clunks (\f(CWcloseproc\fP) for cached mounts
.LI
New \f(CWrc\fP based \f(CWboot(8)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/8/boot
.NE
allows
breaking into a shell at any time
.LI
Default file system is an improved \f(CWcwfs(4)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/4/cwfs
.NE
(cwfs64x)
.LI "New screen fonts: "
\f(CWdejavu\fP, \f(CWgermgoth\fP, \f(CWvga\fP
.LI
No central \f(CWreplica\fP; source updates are done with
\f(CWgit (1)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/1/git
.NE
(Mercurial)
.LI
Keyboard events with \f(CW/dev/kbd\fP\&.
Read: \f(CWkbdfs (8)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/8/kbdfs
.NE
and
\f(CWrio (4)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/4/rio
.NE
.LI
\f(CW/lib/rob\fP\c
.NS
http://git\&.9front\&.org/plan9front/plan9front/HEAD/lib/rob/f\&.html
.NE
and other new corpuses, suitable as fodder for
\f(CWfortune(1)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/1/fortune
.NE
and other rhetorical programs
.LI
New \f(CWlisten(8)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/8/listen
.NE
\f(CW\(hyp maxprocs\fP option\&.
.LI
Always available network
\f(CWaan(8)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/8/aan
.NE
support in
\f(CWcpu(1)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/1/cpu
.NE
and
\f(CWrcpu(1)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/1/rcpu
.NE
.LI
MSI (message signalled interrupts), avoids problems with broken MP
tables\&. Read: \f(CWicanhasmsi(8)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/8/icanhasmsi
.NE
.LI
Legacy free ACPI support (aml interpreter \f(CWlibaml\fP, mp interrupt
routing, \f(CWscram\fP)
.LI
Added \f(CWrio(1)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/1/rio
.NE
\f(CW\(hyb\fP option (black
window backgrounds) and \f(CWlook\fP menu option
.LI
USB CD\(hyROM boot/install
.LI
USB drive boot\c
.NS "I"
fqa4\&.html#4\&.2\&.2
.NE
.LI
Improved USB mouse support
.LI
Support for USB ptp cameras
.LI
Stable\(hyacross\(hymachines USB device names
.LI
VGA initialization done by interpreting the VESA BIOS with
\f(CWrealemu(8)\fP,\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/8/realemu
.NE
working VESA screen blanking\&.
.LI
\f(CW/dev/kbd\fP and clipboard charset support for
\f(CWvnc(1)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/1/vnc
.NE
.LI
New \f(CWwebfs(4)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/4/webfs
.NE
with HTTP1\&.1 and
Keep\(hyAlive support\&.
.LI
Qemu/KVM virtio block device and ethernet drivers\&. Read:
\fIFQA 4\&.5\&.1\&.3 \(hy Virtio\fP\c
.NS
fqa4\&.html#4\&.5\&.1\&.3
.NE
.LI
Mouse wheel and chording support in \f(CWsam(1)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/1/sam
.NE
.LI
Elliptic curve cryptography \f(CWec(2)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/2/ec
.NE
.LI
Working interrupt key (Del) in console
.LI
WiFi support with wpa/wpa2
.LI
SSE support
.LI
System\(hywide support for internationalized domain names
.LI
Unicode support in \f(CWvt(1)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/1/vt
.NE
.LI
\f(CWpc64\fP,\c
.NS
http://git\&.9front\&.org/plan9front/plan9front/HEAD/sys/src/9/pc64/f\&.html
.NE
kernel for amd64
.LI
Numerous ciphers added and improvements made to
\f(CWlibsec\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/2/pushtls
.NE
.LI
New dpi9k authentication protocol
.LE
.SH 3 "New Programs"
.LS
.LI
\f(CW\(dq\fP and \f(CW\(dq\(dq\fP (print, repeat previous command)
.LI
\f(CWalarm(1)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/1/alarm
.NE
\(em timeouts in \f(CWrc\fP scripts
.LI
\f(CWatari(1)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/1/atari
.NE
\(em 2600 emulator
.LI
\f(CWaudio(1)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/1/audio
.NE
\(em \f(CWmp3\fP, \f(CWogg\fP, \f(CWflac\fP, \f(CWµlaw\fP, \f(CWwav\fP
.LI
\f(CWblit(1)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/1/blit
.NE
\(em Blit terminal emulator
.LI
\f(CWbullshit(1)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/1/bullshit
.NE
\(em print out a stream of bullshit
.LI
\f(CWcifsd(8)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/8/cifsd
.NE
\(em CIFS/SMB server
.LI
\f(CWcryptsetup (8)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/8/cryptsetup
.NE
\(em prepare an
AES\(hyencrypted partition to be used with the \f(CWfs(3)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/3/fs
.NE
device
.LI
\f(CWderp(1)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/1/derp
.NE
\(em find changes between directories
.LI
\f(CWdtracy(1)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/1/dtracy
.NE
\(em dynamic tracing language (like dtrace)
.LE
.LS
.LI
\f(CWfeminize(1)\fP\c
.NS
http://git\&.9front\&.org/plan9front/plan9front/HEAD/rc/bin/feminize/f\&.html
.NE
\(em replace sexist remarks
.LI
\f(CWfplot(1)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/1/fplot
.NE
.LI
New games:
\f(CWdoom\fP,\c
.NS
http://git\&.9front\&.org/plan9front/plan9front/HEAD/sys/src/games/doom/f\&.html
.NE
\f(CWglendy\fP,\c
.NS
http://git\&.9front\&.org/plan9front/plan9front/HEAD/sys/src/games/glendy\&.c/f\&.html
.NE
\f(CWlinden\fP,\c
.NS
http://git\&.9front\&.org/plan9front/plan9front/HEAD/sys/src/games/linden\&.c/f\&.html
.NE
\f(CWmandel\fP,\c
.NS
http://git\&.9front\&.org/plan9front/plan9front/HEAD/sys/src/games/mandel\&.c/f\&.html
.NE
\f(CWmines\fP,\c
.NS
http://git\&.9front\&.org/plan9front/plan9front/HEAD/sys/src/games/mines/f\&.html
.NE
\f(CWmole\fP,\c
.NS
http://git\&.9front\&.org/plan9front/plan9front/HEAD/sys/src/games/mole\&.c/f\&.html
.NE
\f(CWpacket\fP,\c
.NS
http://git\&.9front\&.org/plan9front/plan9front/HEAD/sys/src/games/packet\&.c/f\&.html
.NE
\f(CWv8e\fP\c
.NS
http://git\&.9front\&.org/plan9front/plan9front/HEAD/sys/src/games/v8e/f\&.html
.NE
.LI
\f(CWgit(1)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/1/git
.NE
\(em native git client
.LI
\f(CWhget(1)\fP\c
.NS
http://man\&.9front\&.org/1/hget
.NE
\(em rewritten in \f(CWrc\fP, now
uses \f(CWwebfs\fP
.LE
.bp