xfer revision 1.2 1 Installation is supported from several media types, including:
2
3 DOS floppies
4 Tape
5 Remote NFS partition
6 FTP
7
8 No matter which installation medium you choose, you'll need to have
9 two floppy disks available (either 1.2M or 1.44 will work, though
10 both should be the same type). On the first, you'll put the
11 kernel-copy image that's appropriate for your system. On the second,
12 you'll put the install or upgrade floppy image, depending on whether
13 you're installing NetBSD for the first time, or upgrading a previous
14 installation.
15
16 If you are using an Adaptec AHA-154x or Buslogic BT-54x SCSI host
17 adapter, you need the kcaha-10.fs kernel-copy image. If you're using
18 a Buslogic BT-445, BT-74x, or BT-9xx SCSI host adapter, you'll need
19 the kcbt-10.fs image. If you're using a disk controller other than
20 those mentioned above, either kernel-copy disk image will work for
21 you.
22
23 If you are using a UN*X-like system to write the floppy images to
24 disks, you should use the "dd" command to copy the file system images
25 (.fs files) directly to the raw floppy disks. It is suggested that
26 you read the dd(1) manual page or ask your system administrator to
27 determine the correct set of arguments to use; it will be slightly
28 different from system to system, and a comprehensive list of the
29 possibilities is beyond the scope of this document.
30
31 If you are using DOS to write the floppy images to disks, you should
32 use the "rawrite" utility, provided in the "i386/utilities" directory
33 of the NetBSD distribution. It will write the file system images (.fs
34 files) to disks.
35
36 Note that, when installing, the kernel-copy floppy can be write-protected
37 (i.e. read-only), but the install floppy MUST not be write-protected.
38 The install program needs to write some temporary files, and if the
39 disk is write-protected, it can't. If you're upgrading your system,
40 both the kernel-copy and upgrade floppies may be write-protected.
41
42 Obviously, the steps necessary to prepare the distribution sets for
43 installation or upgrade depend on which installation medium you
44 choose. The steps for the various media are outlined below.
45
46 To install or upgrade NetBSD using DOS floppies, you need to do the
47 following:
48
49 NOTE THAT THE NetBSD 1.0 DISTRIBUTION DOES _NOT_ SUPPORT
50 INSTALLATION VIA FLOPPY ON MACHINES WITH ONE FLOPPY DRIVE.
51 If you only have one floppy drive, it is recommended that you
52 install/upgrade the minimum sets (i.e. base10 and etc10 for
53 installation, base10 only for upgrade) via another method,
54 then load and extract the remaining sets by hand. This will
55 be fixed in a future release.
56
57 Count the number of "set_name.xx" files that make up the
58 distribution sets you want to install or upgrade. You will
59 need one fifth that number of 1.2M floppies, or one sixth that
60 number of 1.44M floppies. You should only use one size of
61 floppy for the install or upgrade procedure; you can't use
62 some 1.2M floppies and some 1.44M floppies. Additionally,
63 note that you can't boot and load the distributions from the
64 same floppy drive. In other words, if you're booting the
65 install floppies from one drive, you will be reading these
66 floppies from the _other_, so be sure to use the right type
67 of floppies!
68
69 Format all of the floppies with DOS. DO NOT make any of them
70 bootable DOS floppies, i.e. don't use "format/s" to format
71 them. (If the floppies are bootable, then the DOS system
72 files that make them bootable will take up some space, and you
73 won't be able to fit as many distribution set parts per disk.)
74 If you're using floppies that are formatted for DOS by their
75 manufacturers, they probably aren't bootable, and you can use
76 them out of the box.
77
78 Place all of the "set_name.xx" files on the DOS disks, five
79 per disk if you're using 1.2M disks, six per disk if you're
80 using 1.44M disks. How you do this is up to you; there are
81 many possibilities. You could, for instance, use a DOS
82 terminal program to download them on to the floppies, or use
83 a UN*X-like system capable of reading and writing DOS file
84 systems (either with "mtools" or a real DOS file system)
85 to place them on the disk.
86
87 Once you have the files on DOS disks, you can proceed to the
88 next step in the installation or upgrade process. If you're
89 installing NetBSD from scratch, go to the section on preparing
90 your hard disk, below. If you're upgrading an existing
91 installation, go directly to the section on upgrading.
92
93 To install or upgrade NetBSD using a tape, you need to do the
94 following:
95
96 To install NetBSD from a tape, you need to make a tape that
97 contains the distribution set files, in "tar" format. If
98 you're making the tape on a UN*X-like system, the easiest way
99 to do so is probably something like:
100
101 tar cf <tape_device> <dist_directories>
102
103 where "<tape_device>" is the name of the tape device that
104 describes the tape drive you're using (possibly /dev/rst0, or
105 something similar, but it will vary from system to system.
106 (If you can't figure it out, ask your system administrator.)
107 In the above example, "<dist_directories>" are the
108 distribution sets' directories, for the distribution sets you
109 wish to place on the tape. For instance, to put the "base10"
110 and "etc10" distributions on tape (in order to do the absolute
111 minimum installation to a new disk), you would do the
112 following:
113
114 cd .../NetBSD-1.0 # the top of the tree
115 cd i386/binary
116 tar cf <tape_device> base10 etc10
117
118 (Note that you still need to fill in "<tape_device>" in the
119 example.)
120
121 Once you have the files on the tape, you can proceed to the
122 next step in the installation or upgrade process. If you're
123 installing NetBSD from scratch, go to the section on preparing
124 your hard disk, below. If you're upgrading an existing
125 installation, go directly to the section on upgrading.
126
127 To install or upgrade NetBSD using a remote partition, mounted via
128 NFS, you must do the following:
129
130 NOTE: This method of installation is recommended only for
131 those already familiar with using BSD network
132 configuration and management commands. If you aren't,
133 this documentation should help, but is not intended to
134 be all-encompassing.
135
136 Place the NetBSD distribution sets you wish to install into a
137 directory on an NFS server, and make that directory mountable
138 by the machine on which you are installing or upgrading NetBSD.
139 This will probably require modifying the /etc/exports file on
140 of the NFS server and resetting its mount daemon (mountd).
141 (Both of these actions will probably require superuser
142 privileges on the server.)
143
144 You need to know the the numeric IP address of the NFS server,
145 and, if the server is not on a network directly connected to
146 the machine on which you're installing or upgrading NetBSD,
147 you need to know the numeric IP address of the router closest
148 to the NetBSD machine. Finally, you need to know the numeric
149 IP address of the NetBSD machine itself.
150
151 Once the NFS server is set up properly and you have the
152 information mentioned above, you can proceed to the next step
153 in the installation or upgrade process. If you're installing
154 NetBSD from scratch, go to the section on preparing your hard
155 disk, below. If you're upgrading an existing installation, go
156 directly to the section on upgrading.
157
158 To install or upgrade NetBSD by using FTP to get the installation
159 sets, you must do the following:
160
161 NOTE: This method of installation is recommended only for
162 those already familiar with using BSD network
163 configuration and management commands. If you aren't,
164 this documentation should help, but is not intended to
165 be all-encompassing.
166
167 The preparations for this installation/upgrade method are
168 easy; all you make sure that there's some FTP site from which
169 you can retrieve the NetBSD distribution when you're about to
170 install or upgrade. You need to know the numeric IP address
171 of that site, and, if it's not on a network directly connected
172 to the machine on which you're installing or upgrading NetBSD,
173 you need to know the numeric IP address of the router closest
174 to the NetBSD machine. Finally, you need to know the numeric
175 IP address of the NetBSD machine itself.
176
177 Once you have this information, you can proceed to the next
178 step in the installation or upgrade process. If you're
179 installing NetBSD from scratch, go to the section on
180 preparing your hard disk, below. If you're upgrading an
181 existing installation, go directly to the section on
182 upgrading.
183
184 If you are upgrading NetBSD, you also have the option of installing
185 NetBSD by putting the new distribution sets somewhere in your existing
186 file system, and using them from there. To do that, you must do the
187 following:
188
189 Place the distribution sets you wish to upgrade somewhere in
190 your current file system tree. At a bare minimum, you must
191 upgrade the "base" binary distribution, and so must put the
192 "base10" set somewhere in your file system. If you wish,
193 you can do the other sets, as well, but you should NOT upgrade
194 the "etc" distribution; the "etc" distribution contains system
195 configuration files that you should review and update by hand.
196
197 Once you have done this, you can proceed to the next step in
198 the upgrade process, actually upgrading your system.
199