xfer revision 1.3
1 $NetBSD: xfer,v 1.3 1998/01/09 18:47:18 perry Exp $ 2 3First-time installation on a bare machine is not supported, because most 4DECstations do not have any suitable load device. Some versions of 5DECstation PROMs are buggy and will not boot via TFTP/bootp; still 6other versions are buggy and do not boot via MOP. 7 8The only DECstation with a floppy-disk drive is the Personal Decstation, 9and that device is not supported as a boot device. 10 11The recommended installation procedure is to boot a miniroot via TFTP, 12or to use a "helper" system to write a miniroot onto a disk, move that 13disk to the target installation system, and then boot the miniroot. 14 15Once the miniroot is booted, a disklabel should be written. 16At that point, 17 18Installation is supported from several media types, including: 19 NFS partitions 20 FTP 21 Tape 22 23The steps necessary to prepare the distribution sets 24for installation depend on which method of installation 25you choose. The various methods are explained below. 26 27To prepare for installing via an NFS partition: 28 29 Place the NetBSD software you wish to install into 30 a directory on an NFS server, and make that directory 31 mountable by the machine which you will be installing 32 NetBSD on. This will probably require modifying the 33 /etc/exports file of the NFS server, and resetting 34 mountd. Both these actions will require superuser 35 privileges on the NFS server. Note the numeric IP address 36 of the NFS server. If the NFS server is not on a network 37 which is directly attached to the NetBSD machine, you must 38 also note the numeric address of the router closest to the the 39 new NetBSD machine. 40 41 42 If you are using a diskless setup to install NetBSD on 43 your machine, you can take advantage of the fact that 44 the above has already been done on your machine's server. 45 So, you can conveniently put the NetBSD filesets in your 46 machine's root filesystem on the server where the install 47 program can find them. 48 49 Once you have done this, you can proceed to the next 50 step in the installation process, preparing your 51 system for NetBSD installation. 52 53 54To prepare for installing via FTP: 55 56 NOTE: this method of installation is recommended 57 only for those already familiar with using 58 the BSD network-manipulation commands and 59 interfaces. If you aren't, this documentation 60 should help, but is not intended to be 61 all-encompassing. 62 63 The preparations for this method of installation 64 are easy: all you have to do is make sure that 65 there's some FTP site from which you can retrieve 66 the NetBSD installation when it's time to do 67 the install. You should know the numeric IP 68 address of that site, the numeric IP address of 69 your nearest router if one is necessary 70 71 Once you have done this, you can proceed to the next 72 step in the installation process, preparing your 73 system for NetBSD installation. 74 75 76To prepare for installing via a tape: 77 78 To install NetBSD from a tape, you need to somehow 79 get the NetBSD filesets you wish to install on 80 your system on to the appropriate kind of tape, 81 in tar format. 82 83 NOTE: the tape devices with which NetBSD/pmax is 84 believed to work is the DEC TK-50. This is a very slow 85 device. Installation via disk or network is recommended 86 if at all possible. 87 88 If you're making the tape on a UN*X system, the easiest 89 way to do so is: 90 91 tar cvf <tape_device> <files> 92 93 where "<tape_device>" is the name of the tape device 94 that describes the tape drive you're using (possibly 95 something like /dev/nrst0, but we make no guarantees 8-). 96 Under SunOS 5.x, this would be something like /dev/rmt/0mbn. 97 Again, your mileage may vary. If you can't figure it out, 98 ask your system administrator. "<files>" are the names 99 of the "set_name.nnn" files which you want to be placed 100 on the tape. 101 102 Once you have done this, you can proceed to the next 103 step in the installation process, preparing your 104 system for NetBSD installation. 105 106 107