9vx 9vx is a port of the plan 9 operating system to freebsd, linux, and os x, using the vx32 sandboxing library to run "user" programs. 9vx runs as an ordinary user program, but behaves like a separate vm running plan 9. it makes host resources like the file system, network stack, graphics windows, and audio devices available as file systems. 9vx requires no host kernel modifications or special privileges, and it runs unmodified plan9 386 binaries. (thus, 9vx is like hosted inferno, except that it runs native 386 plan 9 binaries instead of dis files.) 9vx-0.12.tar.bz2 is a binary distribution containing a minimal plan 9 tree and binaries for freebsd, linux, and os x. download, unpack, and then cd 9vx-0.12 ./9vx.Linux -u glenda (or 9vx.FreeBSD or 9vx.OSX). 9vx-0.12 fixes a few OS X bugs and adds a #S device. compared to 9vx-0.10, only the 9vx binaries are different. you can download just the updated binaries if you already have 9vx-0.10 or 9vx-0.11: FreeBSD Linux OS X sources and implementation details can be found at the vx32 home page. there is also a mercurial repository. 9vx is only lightly tested. there are certain to be bugs, especially in the freebsd and os x versions, which have been used far less than the linux one. there's no reason 9vx couldn't run on windows xp. if you're interested, think about porting it! please report bugs to rsc@swtch.com or discuss on 9fans. enjoy! russ cox rsc@swtch.com june 2008