A quick guide for setting up 9front on a Hetzner Cloud VPS.

Enable the rescue system in the Rescue tab, copy the generated SSH password for root, and reboot the server. The VNC console forces the German keyboard layout in the rescue system, so connect to it via SSH to use your own.

Once you're in, it's a matter of:

$ wget https://9front.org/iso/9front-11321.amd64.iso.gz
$ gzip -d 9front-11321.amd64.iso.gz
$ dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=4M
$ dd if=9front-11321.amd64.iso of=/dev/sda bs=4M
$ reboot

Check the console, you should be booting into 9front. If it's your lucky day and the VNC is not fussy, you will be able to use the mouse normally by checking the GUI Mode option; if the mouse doesn't get detected, boot with no monitor and proceed with the setup from the text console, or set up a temporary cpu service listener to connect to the machine remotely:

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

If you're connecting via drawterm, bind the storage device with bind -a '#S' /dev before doing inst/start.

Leave the EFI system partition (ESP) as is, so SeaBIOS can detect it.

The following disk devices were found.

sd00 - QEMU QEMU HARDDISK 2.5+
   empty                  0 465         (465 cylinders, 465.00 MB)
 * p1                   465 466         (1 cylinders, 1.00 MB) ESP
   empty                466 19532       (19066 cylinders, 18.61 GB)

Disk to partition (sd00)[sd00]: sd00

This is disk/fdisk: use it to create a Plan 9 partition.
If there is enough room, a Plan 9 partition will be
suggested: you can probably just type 'w' and then 'q'.

cylinder = 1048576 bytes
   empty                  0 465         (465 cylinders, 465.00 MB)
 * p1                   465 466         (1 cylinders, 1.00 MB) ESP
   empty                466 19532       (19066 cylinders, 18.61 GB) PLAN9
>>> w
>>> q

Don't use ESP as 9fat:

Use esp as 9fat? (no, yes)[no]: 

Please choose a method for configuring your ethernet connection.

    manual - specify IP address, network mask, gateway IP address
    automatic - use DHCP and SLAAC to automatically configure

Configuration method (manual, automatic)[automatic]: manual
ip address [no default]: <your IPv4 address>
network mask [no default]: 255.255.255.255
gateway address [no default]: 172.31.1.1
dns server [172.31.1.1]: 185.12.64.1

After the installation you may add an additional DNS address as well as the IPv6 config to your /lib/ndb/local:

sys=<sysname> ether=<physical address>
	ip=<IPv4 address>
	ipmask=255.255.255.255
	ipgw=172.31.1.1
	dns=185.12.64.1
	dns=185.12.64.2

sys=<sysname> ether=<physical address>
	ip=<IPv6 address>
	ipmask=ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:4000::
	ipgw=fe80::1

Don't install the Plan 9 MBR. We will use the existing ESP from the 9front image.

If you use the Windows NT/2000/XP master boot record
or a master boot record from a Unix clone (e.g., LILO or
FreeBSD bootmgr), it is probably safe to continue using
that boot record rather than install the Plan 9 boot record.

Install the Plan 9 master boot record (yes, no)[no default]: no
Mark the Plan 9 partition active (yes, no)[no default]: yes