xfer revision 1.1
1First-time installation on a bare machine is not supported, because most 2DECstations do not have any suitable load device. Some versions of 3DECstation PROMs are buggy and will not boot via TFTP/bootp; still 4other versions are buggy and do not boot via MOP. 5 6The only DECstation with a floppy-disk drive is the Personal Decstation, 7and that device is not supported as a boot device. 8 9The recommended installation procedure is to boot a miniroot via TFTP, 10or to use a "helper" system to write a miniroot onto a disk, move that 11disk to the target installation system, and then boot the miniroot. 12 13Once the miniroot is booted, a disklabel should be written. 14At that point, 15 16Installation is supported from several media types, including: 17 NFS partitions 18 FTP 19 Tape 20 21The steps necessary to prepare the distribution sets 22for installation depend on which method of installation 23you choose. The various methods are explained below. 24 25To 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 52To 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 74To 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