xfer revision 1.1 1 First-time installation on a bare machine is not supported, because most
2 DECstations do not have any suitable load device. Some versions of
3 DECstation PROMs are buggy and will not boot via TFTP/bootp; still
4 other versions are buggy and do not boot via MOP.
5
6 The only DECstation with a floppy-disk drive is the Personal Decstation,
7 and that device is not supported as a boot device.
8
9 The recommended installation procedure is to boot a miniroot via TFTP,
10 or to use a "helper" system to write a miniroot onto a disk, move that
11 disk to the target installation system, and then boot the miniroot.
12
13 Once the miniroot is booted, a disklabel should be written.
14 At that point,
15
16 Installation is supported from several media types, including:
17 NFS partitions
18 FTP
19 Tape
20
21 The steps necessary to prepare the distribution sets
22 for installation depend on which method of installation
23 you choose. The various methods are explained below.
24
25 To prepare for installing via an NFS partition:
26
27 Place the NetBSD software you wish to install into
28 a directory on an NFS server, and make that directory
29 mountable by the machine which you will be installing
30 NetBSD on. This will probably require modifying the
31 /etc/exports file of the NFS server, and resetting
32 mountd. Both these actions will require superuser
33 privileges on the NFS server. Note the numeric IP address
34 of the NFS server. If the NFS server is not on a network
35 which is directly attached to the NetBSD machine, you must
36 also note the numeric address of the router closest to the the
37 new NetBSD machine.
38
39
40 If you are using a diskless setup to install NetBSD on
41 your machine, you can take advantage of the fact that
42 the above has already been done on your machine's server.
43 So, you can conveniently put the NetBSD filesets in your
44 machine's root filesystem on the server where the install
45 program can find them.
46
47 Once you have done this, you can proceed to the next
48 step in the installation process, preparing your
49 system for NetBSD installation.
50
51
52 To prepare for installing via FTP:
53
54 NOTE: this method of installation is recommended
55 only for those already familiar with using
56 the BSD network-manipulation commands and
57 interfaces. If you aren't, this documentation
58 should help, but is not intended to be
59 all-encompassing.
60
61 The preparations for this method of installation
62 are easy: all you have to do is make sure that
63 there's some FTP site from which you can retrieve
64 the NetBSD installation when it's time to do
65 the install. You should know the numeric IP
66 address of that site, the numeric IP address of
67 your nearest router if one is necessary
68
69 Once you have done this, you can proceed to the next
70 step in the installation process, preparing your
71 system for NetBSD installation.
72
73
74 To prepare for installing via a tape:
75
76 To install NetBSD from a tape, you need to somehow
77 get the NetBSD filesets you wish to install on
78 your system on to the appropriate kind of tape,
79 in tar format.
80
81 NOTE: the tape devices with which NetBSD/pmax is
82 beleived to work is the DEC TK-50. This is a very slow
83 device. Installation via disk or network is recommended
84 if at all possible.
85
86 If you're making the tape on a UN*X system, the easiest
87 way to do so is:
88
89 tar cvf <tape_device> <files>
90
91 where "<tape_device>" is the name of the tape device
92 that describes the tape drive you're using (possibly
93 something like /dev/nrst0, but we make no guarantees 8-).
94 Under SunOS 5.x, this would be something like /dev/rmt/0mbn.
95 Again, your mileage may vary. If you can't figure it out,
96 ask your system administrator. "<files>" are the names
97 of the "set_name.nnn" files which you want to be placed
98 on the tape.
99
100 Once you have done this, you can proceed to the next
101 step in the installation process, preparing your
102 system for NetBSD installation.
103
104
105