How Do I Make (Or Otherwise Obtain) An Akaros Installation CD?

[Jay F. Shachter]

Esteemed Colleagues:

According to the akaros.org (or, equivalently, akaros.cs.berkeley.edu
-- they map to the same IP address) website, this is the "developers
mailing list", and if that is so, then neither I nor my question
belongs here, because I am not an Akaros developer, nor is my question
a question about Akaros development.

However, the website does not mention any other Akaros mailing list,
so, for lack of any more appropriate place to bring my question, I
have brought it here.

I have recently retired the computer on which I do my serious work,
and replaced it with a larger and faster one. The old, retired,
computer can now be put to fun and interesting uses. I do serious
work only on operating systems that support ZFS, but I am no longer
using my old computer for serious work, so I can use it for OpenBSD,
and for various interesting non-Unix operating systems like Haiku and
SkyOS. I also had the desire to install Plan 9 on it, and have
reserved 12 Gigabytes on (hd1,9) for that purpose, but I could not
boot my computer from the installation CD (PBSR...EI, go figure).
I'd also like to run Icaros (no relationship, as far as I know, to
Akaros) but the Icaros website warns all readers that the installation
procedure is unreliable and that attempting to install Icaros can
destroy all data on your disk, so I have backed away from that
project.

Anyway, returning to Plan 9, the general consensus, even among the
former developers of Plan 9, seems to be that Plan 9 is dead, that it
is never, for example, going to have a web browser, and that no one
has any business using it. I then sought a worthy successor to Plan
9, not wanting to waste the mnemonic usefulness of installing a
Plan-9-like operating system on (hd1,9), and stumbled across Akaros
just a few days ago, I had never heard of it before.

The Akaros website, in the "Getting Started" tab, tells me that the
thing to do is to download the git repo, and follow the
GETTING_STARTED document in its root directory.

I have made no attempt to do this. In my long and considerable
experience, no precedure that involves downloading a git repo ever
ends well. Is there not an already-built .iso file, for the amd64
architecture, from which I can create a bootable CD, one which will
lead to a functioning installation procedure, subsequent to which,
booting from (hd1,9) will predictably load in the Akaros operating
system, which will then proceed to direct my computer's behavior with
cunning and vigor? That is normally how these things are done, and it
usually ends well, unlike any act which involves downloading a git
repository.

Thank you in advance for any and all replies. And, by the way, if you
can give me safe instructions for installing Icaros on (hd1,10), that
would be good too.


Jay F. Shachter
6424 N Whipple St
Chicago IL 60645-4111
(1-773)7613784 landline
(1-410)9964737 GoogleVoice
j...@m5.chicago.il.us
http://m5.chicago.il.us

"Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur"

[Barret Rhoden]

On 2015-11-02 at 22:21 "Jay F. Shachter" <j...@m5.chicago.il.us> wrote:
> Is there not an already-built .iso file, for the amd64
> architecture, from which I can create a bootable CD, one which will
> lead to a functioning installation procedure, subsequent to which,
> booting from (hd1,9) will predictably load in the Akaros operating
> system, which will then proceed to direct my computer's behavior with
> cunning and vigor?

Nope, sorry. We're not user-friendly enough where that sort of set up
makes sense. If you did manage to get an iso that ran Akaros but
didn't have the source (or at least a toolchain installation), there is
very little you could practically do with it.

Barret

[Jay F. Shachter]

Centuries ago, Nostradamus predicted that Barret Rhoden would write on Wed Nov 4 12:55:54 2015:

I believe you, and therefore shall not seek to install Akaros on
(hd1,9) of my newly-liberated computer. But since this is a mailing
list replete with lovers of operating systems, would anyone within
earshot like to recommend something else for me to install there?
Someone off-list informed me of HarveyOS, but from what I can
determine, HarveyOS is also not ready to be installed and used. It
doesn't have to be a Plan9 derivative, if there aren't any yet that
are worth using, although it would sadden me if I could not find any
derivative of Plan9 to install. I already know about Haiku and SkyOS,
and, as I mentioned in my previous e-mail, have already installed them
on my computer. And I already know about Icaros, which, as I
mentioned in my previous e-mail, I have not installed, because I fear
the installation procedure, inasmuch as it basically tells you that if
you try to install Icaros you may end up trashing your entire disk
(but I have reserved (hd1,10) for it if I am ever able safely to
install it). What else is there? ReactOS cannot be installed on my
computer, I tried already and the installation procedure crashed, and
anyway ReactOS appears to have very little there. The Amoeba website
appears not to have been modified since April 1998, so I think it can
be fairly assumed that there is very little there, either.

Your suggestions are welcome, and, as always, thank you in advance for
any and all replies.