README.files revision 1.11 
1$NetBSD: README.files,v 1.11 1999/03/25 19:58:37 ross Exp $
2
3	   Tape, CD, Disk, and Netboot Images
4	   ----- --- ----- --- ------- ------
5
6This release or snapshot contains three installation image types,
7the first, for floppies, is split into a multiple volume set.
8
9	installation/floppy/disk1of2
10	installation/floppy/disk2of2
11
12	installation/diskimage/cdhdtape
13
14	installation/instkernel/netbsd.gz
15
16All three boot images load the same installation kernel into memory
17and then make no further use of the source media. The general idea
18is to load a kernel with a pre-initialized memory filesystem of
19utilities and an installation program.
20
21The floppy image set uses two floppies to load the install kernel.
22The cdhdtape image can be written to a CD, hard drive, or tape and
23then booted from the SRM console. The kernel image can be netbooted
24or loaded off the root directory of an existing installation.
25
26Note:	The netboot loader can load the netbsd.gz file directly; it
27	is not necessary to ungzip this kernel first.
28
29This release or snapshot also contains a GENERIC kernel in a bootable
30filesystem image. This is intended for use when the SRM console cannot
31read the root device. This can happen for IDE attached roots, or
32on diskless systems where SRM bugs prevent netbooting. See:
33
34	misc/GENERIC.fs
35
36To copy the boot images to a magnetic disk under unix, the dd(1)
37command can be used:
38
39Floppy:
40	dd if=disk1of2 of=/dev/rfd0a bs=18k
41	(change floppies)
42	dd if=disk2of2 of=/dev/rfd0a bs=18k
43
44You can write the image to a hard drive too:
45
46	dd bs=18k if=cdhdtape of=/dev/rsd1c
47	dd bs=18k if=cdhdtape of=/dev/rsd1d (NetBSD/i386)
48
49For a tape, it is important to use a block size of 512, so:
50
51	dd bs=512 if=cdhdtape of=/dev/erst0	(NetBSD)
52	dd bs=512 if=cdhdtape of=/dev/rmt0h	(Digital Unix)
53
54Note that the bits on the installation media are only used when
55initially loaded. They can be written to a hard drive, loaded, and
56then overwritten during the installation with no conflict, or
57alternatively, the boot CD or tape can be removed and replaced with
58one containing the installation sets.
59
60The install notes from this directory subtree are present on the
61installation file system.
62