contents revision 1.1 1 The alpha-specific portion of the NetBSD _VER release is found in the
2 "alpha" subdirectory of the distribution. That subdirectory is laid
3 out as follows:
4
5 .../NetBSD-_VER/alpha/
6 INSTALL Installation notes; this file.
7
8 binary/
9 sets/ alpha binary distribution sets;
10 see below.
11
12 security/ alpha security distribution;
13 see below.
14
15 kernel/ alpha kernels; see below.
16
17 toolchain/ alpha toolchain; see below.
18
19 installation/
20
21 floppy/ alpha boot and installation
22 floppies; see below.
23
24 source/
25
26 toolchain/ Toolchain source code; see below.
27
28 Bootable installation/upgrade floppies:
29
30 There is a bootable floppy disk image available which contains
31 the software necessary to prepare your hard drive for NetBSD
32 and install the NetBSD distribution, or to upgrading an already
33 installed system from a previous version of NetBSD.
34
35 Because the kernel on the installation disks is not suitable
36 for use beyond initial installation and configuration, a
37 "generic" kernel has been placed in a distribution set named
38 "kern". This kernel is intended to run your system while you
39 build a custom kernel. It is strongly encouraged that you
40 build a custom kernel for your installation rather than use
41 the prebuilt generic kernel on a long term basis.
42
43 Please note that because of space considerations the kernels
44 booted from the installation floppies do not contain drivers
45 that are not needed during installation -- in particular, no
46 drivers needed to run the X Window System are available in
47 these kernels.
48
49 The alpha toolchain:
50
51 The toolchain (compiler, assembler, linker, etc.) for the
52 alpha port is not yet integrated into the main NetBSD source
53 tree, so the binaries for it are still distributed separately.
54 A tar file with the toolchain can be found under
55 binaries/toolchain, and the source can be found under
56 source/toolchain.
57
58 The toolchain installs under usr/local; to install it,
59 just cd to the root directory and type
60
61 tar -x -z --unlink -f /path/to/toolchain.tar.gz
62
63 Note that the "official" toolchain we use with 1.3 is actually
64 the snapshot build of it from 97.11.05; this is based on the
65 sources tagged WORKING-alpha in the NetBSD source tree.
66
67 The NetBSD/alpha binary distribution sets contain the binaries which
68 comprise the NetBSD _VER release for the alpha. There are eight binary
69 distribution sets and the "security" distribution set. The binary
70 distribution sets can be found in the "alpha/binary/sets" subdirectory
71 of the NetBSD _VER distribution tree, and are as follows:
72
73
74 base The NetBSD/alpha _VER base binary distribution. You
75 MUST install this distribution set. It contains the
76 base NetBSD utilities that are necessary for the
77 system to run and be minimally functional. It
78 includes shared library support, and excludes
79 everything described below.
80 [ 13M gzipped, 41M uncompressed ]
81
82 comp Things needed for compiling programs, other than the
83 actual compiler programs themselves. (These are in
84 the toolchain snapshot file described above.) This
85 set includes the system include files (/usr/include)
86 and the various system libraries (except the shared
87 libraries, which are included as part of the base
88 set). This set also includes the manual pages for
89 all of the utilities it contains, as well as the system
90 call and library manual pages.
91 [ 6M gzipped, 31M uncompressed ]
92
93 etc This distribution set contains the system
94 configuration files that reside in /etc and in several
95 other places. This set MUST be installed if you are
96 installing the system from scratch, but should NOT be
97 used if you are upgrading. (If you are upgrading,
98 it's recommended that you get a copy of this set and
99 CAREFULLY upgrade your configuration files by hand.)
100 [ 50K gzipped, 320K uncompressed ]
101
102 games This set includes the games and their manual pages.
103 [ 3M gzipped, 8M uncompressed ]
104
105 kern This set contains a NetBSD/alpha _VER GENERIC kernel,
106 named "/netbsd". You MUST install this distribution
107 set.
108 [ 1M gzipped, 2M uncompressed ]
109
110 man This set includes all of the manual pages for the
111 binaries and other software contained in the base set.
112 Note that it does not include any of the manual pages
113 that are included in the other sets.
114 [ 2.5M gzipped, 10M uncompressed ]
115
116 misc This set includes the system dictionaries (which are
117 rather large), the typesettable document set, and
118 man pages for other architectures which happen to be
119 installed from the source tree by default.
120 [ 2M gzipped, 9M uncompressed ]
121
122 text This set includes NetBSD's text processing tools,
123 including groff, all related programs, and their
124 manual pages.
125 [ 1M gzipped, 4M uncompressed ]
126
127
128 The alpha security distribution set is named "secr" and can be found in
129 the "alpha/binary/security" subdirectory of the NetBSD _VER
130 distribution tree. It contains security related binaries which depend
131 on cryptographic source code. You do not need this distribution set to
132 use encrypted passwords in your password file; the "base" distribution
133 includes a crypt library which can perform only the decryption
134 function. The security distribution includes a version of the
135 Kerberos IV network security system, and a Kerberized version of the
136 "telnet" program. The "secr" distribution set can be found only on
137 those sites which carry the complete NetBSD distribution and which can
138 legally obtain it. (Remember, because of United States law, it may
139 not be legal to distribute this set to locations outside of the United
140 States and Canada.)
141 [ 1M gzipped, 3M uncompressed ]
142
143 The instructions given for extracting the source sets work equally
144 well for the binary sets, but it is worth noting that if you use that
145 method, the files are extracted "below" the current directory. That
146 is, if you want to extract the binaries "into" your system, i.e.
147 replace the system binaries with them, you have to run the "tar xfp"
148 from /. Also note that if you upgrade or install this way, those
149 programs that you are using at the time will NOT be replaced unless
150 you run "tar" with the "--unlink" option. If you follow the normal
151 installation or upgrade procedures, this will be taken care of for
152 you.
153