xref: /src/distrib/notes/mac68k/prep

	$NetBSD: prep,v 1.6 1998/01/09 18:46:42 perry Exp $	

Find your favorite disk partitioning utility.  Any formatter capable of
partitioning a SCSI disk should work.  Some of the ones that have been
tried and seem to work are:

	Apple HD SC Setup
	Hard Disk ToolKit from FWB
	SCSI Director Lite
	Disk Manager Mac from OnTrack
	Silverlining from LaCie
	APS Disk Tools

Apple's HD SC Setup is probably the easiest to use and the most commonly
available.  Instructions for patching HD SC Setup so that it will recognize
non-Apple drives is available at:

	http://www.euronet.nl/users/ernstoud/patch.html

First, you need to choose a drive on which to install NetBSD. Try to pick a
drive with a low SCSI ID number, especially if you are likely to add or
remove drives to your SCSI chain in the future.

NOTE:  BE SURE YOU HAVE A RELIABLE BACKUP OF ANY DATA WHICH YOU MAY WANT TO
KEEP.  REPARTITIONING YOUR HARD DRIVE IS AN EXCELLENT WAY TO DESTROY
IMPORTANT DATA. 

Second, decide how you want to set up your partitions.  At minimum, you
need a partition to hold the NetBSD installation (the root partition) and a
partition to serve as swap.  You may choose to use more than one partition
to hold the installation.  This allows you to separate the more vital
portions of the filesystem (such as the kernel and the /etc directory) from
the more volatile parts of the filesystem.  Typical setups place the /usr
directory on a separate partition from the root partition.  Generally, the
root partition can be fairly small while the /usr partition should be
fairly large.  If you plan to use this machine as a server, you may also
want a separate /var partition. 

Once you have decided how to lay out your partitions, you need to calculate
how much space to allocate to each partition.  A minimal install of NetBSD
(i.e. netbsd.tgz, base.tgz, and etc.tgz) should fit in a 30M partition.
For a full installation, you should allocate at least 80M.  A general rule
of thumb for sizing the swap partition is to allocate twice as much swap
space as you have real memory.  Having your swap + real memory total at
least 20M is also a good idea.  Systems that will be heavily used or that
are low on real memory should have more swap space allocated.  Systems that
will be only lightly used or have a very large amount of real memory can
get away with less.
 
Next, use your favorite partitioning utility to make partitions of the
necessary sizes.  You can use any type of partition, but partitions of type
"Apple_Free" might save you some confusion in the future.

You are now set to install NetBSD on your hard drive.