contents revision 1.15
1	$NetBSD: contents,v 1.15 1998/01/09 18:46:27 perry Exp $	
2
3The i386-specific portion of the NetBSD _VER release is found in the
4"i386" subdirectory of the distribution.  That subdirectory is laid
5out as follows:
6
7.../NetBSD-_VER/i386/
8	INSTALL			Installation notes; this file.
9
10	binary/
11		sets/		i386 binary distribution sets;
12				see below.
13
14			Split/	Split i386 binary distribution
15				sets; see below.
16
17		security/	i386 security distribution;
18				see below;
19	installation/
20
21		floppy/		i386 boot and installation
22				floppies; see below.
23
24
25		misc/		Miscellaneous i386
26				installation utilities; see
27				installation section, below.
28
29There are two i386 floppy images, named "boot.fs" and "boot-small.fs",
30in the "i386/installation/floppy" subdirectory of the NetBSD _VER
31distribution. These are 1.44M and 1.2M floppy disk images
32(respectively). These floppies are bootable, and are used both for
33installations and for upgrades.  They are described in more detail
34below.  There are also gzipped version of these floppies (named with
35".fs.gz") available.
36
37Bootable installation/upgrade floppies:
38
39	These disks are bootable, and contains the software necessary
40	to prepare your hard drive for NetBSD and install the NetBSD
41	distribution, or to upgrading an already installed 
42        system from a previous version of NetBSD.
43
44        Unlike previous NetBSD releases, there are no separate "kernel
45        copy" floppies or "upgrade" floppies. Instead, the install
46        floppy contains only a special compressed kernel with a built
47        in ramdisk image of the installation/upgrade file
48        system. There is also no longer any need to use a different
49        boot floppy for Adaptec and Buslogic based systems.
50
51	The only difference between the "boot.fs" and "boot-small.fs"
52	floppies is that the 1.2M "boot-small.fs" image does not
53	contain support for PCMCIA or PCI devices so that it can be
54	fit on a 1.2M floppy suitable for use on older systems.
55
56        Because the kernel on the installation disks is not suitable
57        for use beyond initial installation and configuration, a
58        "generic" kernel has been placed in a distribution set named
59        "kern". This kernel is intended to run your system while
60        you build a custom kernel. It is strongly encouraged that you
61        build a custom kernel for your installation rather than use
62        the prebuilt generic kernel on a long term basis.
63
64        Please note that because of space considerations the kernels
65        booted from the installation floppies do not contain drivers
66        that are not needed during installation -- in particular, no
67        drivers needed to run the X Window System are available in
68        these kernels.
69
70The NetBSD/i386 binary distribution sets contain the binaries which
71comprise the NetBSD _VER release for the i386.  There are eight binary
72distribution sets and the "security" distribution set.  The binary
73distribution sets can be found in the "i386/binary/sets" subdirectory
74of the NetBSD _VER distribution tree, and are as follows:
75
76
77	base	The NetBSD/i386 _VER base binary distribution.  You
78		MUST install this distribution set.  It contains the
79		base NetBSD utilities that are necessary for the
80		system to run and be minimally functional.  It
81		includes shared library support, and excludes
82		everything described below.
83		[ 9.7M gzipped, 25.0M uncompressed ]
84
85	comp	The NetBSD/i386 Compiler tools.  All of the tools
86		relating to C, C++, and FORTRAN (yes, there are two!).
87		This set includes the system include files
88		(/usr/include), the linker, the compiler tool chain,
89		and the various system libraries (except the shared
90		libraries, which are included as part of the base
91		set).  This set also includes the manual pages for all
92		of the utilities it contains, as well as the system
93		call and library manual pages.
94		[ 7.1M gzipped, 24.1M uncompressed ]
95
96	etc	This distribution set contains the system
97		configuration files that reside in /etc and in several
98		other places.  This set MUST be installed if you are
99		installing the system from scratch, but should NOT be
100		used if you are upgrading.  (If you are upgrading,
101		it's recommended that you get a copy of this set and
102		CAREFULLY upgrade your configuration files by hand.)
103		[ 53K gzipped, 328K uncompressed ]
104
105	games	This set includes the games and their manual pages.
106		[ 3.0M gzipped, 7.3M uncompressed ]
107
108	kern	This set contains a NetBSD/i386 _VER GENERIC kernel,
109		named "/netbsd". You MUST install this distribution
110		set.
111		[ 1.1M gzipped, 2.2M uncompressed ]
112
113	man	This set includes all of the manual pages for the
114		binaries and other software contained in the base set.
115		Note that it does not include any of the manual pages
116		that are included in the other sets.
117		[ 2.5M gzipped, 10.6M uncompressed ]
118
119	misc	This set includes the system dictionaries (which are
120		rather large), the typesettable document set, and
121		man pages for other architectures which happen to be
122		installed from the source tree by default.
123		[ 2.2M gzipped, 8.3M uncompressed ]
124
125	text	This set includes NetBSD's text processing tools,
126		including groff, all related programs, and their
127		manual pages.
128		[ 1.0M gzipped, 3.7M uncompressed ]
129
130
131IMPORTANT: In previous versions of NetBSD, the kernel from the install
132floppy was copied onto the hard drive in a special step. In the new
133install system, the kernel on the floppy is unsuited to being copied
134onto the hard drive. Instead, a new set, "kern", has been added which
135contains a generic kernel to be unloaded onto the drive. It must be
136extracted in order to have a minimally functioning system.
137
138The i386 security distribution set is named "secr" and can be found in
139the "i386/binary/security" subdirectory of the NetBSD _VER
140distribution tree.  It contains security related binaries which depend
141on cryptographic source code. You do not need this distribution set to
142use encrypted passwords in your password file; the "base" distribution
143includes a crypt library which can perform only the decryption
144function.  The security distribution includes a version of the
145Kerberos IV network security system, and a Kerberized version of the
146"telnet" program.  The "secr" distribution set can be found only on
147those sites which carry the complete NetBSD distribution and which can
148legally obtain it.  (Remember, because of United States law, it may
149not be legal to distribute this set to locations outside of the United
150States and Canada.)
151	[ 798K gzipped, 2.4M uncompressed ]
152
153Since NetBSD 1.3, binary sets for the X Window system are also
154distributed with NetBSD. The binaries are based on X11R6.3,
155and XFree86 3.3.1 in the case of NetBSD/i386. You can not yet
156install them using the new automated install system. However,
157they are gzipped tarfiles, just like the other sets, so you
158can always simply extract them once you have your NetBSD
159system installed and running. The sets are:
160
161	xbase	The basic files needed for a complete X
162		client environment. This does not include
163		the X servers.
164		[ 2.5M gzipped, 7.7M uncompressed ]
165
166	xcomp	The extra libraries and include files needed
167		to compile X source code.
168		[ 1.7M gzipped, 7.3M uncompressed ]
169
170	xcontrib	Programs that were contributed to X.
171
172		[ 183k gzipped, 600k uncompressed ]
173
174	xfont	Fonts needed by X.
175		[ 5.8M gzipped, 7M uncompressed ]
176
177	xserver	All XFree86 X servers. Because all of them are
178		included, this set is large. However, you will
179		only need one of the servers provided in this
180		set (typically XF86_SVGA).
181		[ 12M gzipped, 29M uncompressed ]
182
183The i386 binary distribution sets are distributed as gzipped tar files
184named with the extension ".tgz", e.g. "base.tgz". They are also
185available in split form -- catted together, the members of a split set
186form a gzipped tar file.  Each i386 binary distribution set also has
187its own checksum files, just as the source distribution sets do.
188
189The instructions given for extracting the source sets work equally
190well for the binary sets, but it is worth noting that if you use that
191method, the files are extracted "below" the current directory.  That
192is, if you want to extract the binaries "into" your system, i.e.
193replace the system binaries with them, you have to run the "tar xpf"
194from /.  Also note that if you upgrade or install this way, those
195programs that you are using at the time will NOT be replaced unless
196you run "tar" with the "--unlink" option.  If you follow the normal
197installation or upgrade procedures, this will be taken care of for
198you.
199