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Enter 9front

There are dozens of articles out there explaining how to get a “functional desktop” running on 9front, though “functional” is a strong word, since the system already works out of the box. Everything we do afterward is just lipstick or personal tweaks to make life easier.

Many of the tutorials on the internet are outdated. As an example some still teach you how to install Git manually but it is already included by default.

What follows are just minor adjustments I like to make on some of my 9front installations. I say “some” because I’ve set up this system more times than I can count, often for servers rather than desktops.

Warning: This article contains heresies.

For Unix Refugees

If you’re used to Unix-like systems, your first instinct might be to create a new user. Strictly speaking, this isn’t necessary—but if you insist on committing such blasphemy, here’s how:

Pay attention to your filesystem type:

  • For CWFS: 
    con -C /src/cwfs.cmd
  • For HJFS: 
    con -C /srv/hjfs.cmd

Then, summon your new user:

newuser username  
newuser sys +username 
newuser upas +username

And if you really want to sin by impersonating root (like our beloved glenda):

newuser adm +username

Silencing Boot Prompts

9front asks you questions at boot. Let’s automate that.

  1. Mount the boot partition: 
    9fs 9fat
  2. Edit plan9.ini: 
    acme /n/9fat/plan9.ini
  3. Find the line containing bootargs and replace it with nobootprompt to skip partition questions.
  4. To auto-login as your new user, add: 
    user=yourusername

Reboot and you’ll face a gloriously empty environment because your user lacks config files. Fix this with:

/sys/lib/newuser

Fixing the Missing Status Bar

Noticed your desktop lacks the system status widget?

cp /usr/glenda/bin/rc/riostart /usr/youruser/bin/rc/riostart

Then edit your profile (/usr/youruser/lib/profile) and tweak the rio line to:

rio -s -i riostart

(The -s enables auto-scrolling, a personal preference.)

Now What?

What’s your goal? Learning? Programming? Hacking? Showing off your obscure OS to friends? I don’t care. But here are tips: