xref: /src/distrib/notes/sun3/install

	$NetBSD: install,v 1.4 1998/01/09 18:47:34 perry Exp $	

Installing NetBSD is a relatively complex process, but if you have
this document in hand it should not be too difficult.

There are several ways to install NetBSD onto your disk.  If your
machine has a tape drive the easiest way is "Installing from tape"
(details below).  If your machine is on a network with a suitable
NFS server, then "Installing from NFS" is the next best method.
Otherwise, if you have another Sun machine running SunOS you can
initialize the disk on that machine and then move the disk.
(Installing from SunOS is not recommended.)


* Installing from tape:

Create the NetBSD/sun3 _VER boot tape as described in the section
entitled "Preparing a boot tape" and boot the tape.  At the PROM
monitor prompt, use one of the commands:
	>b st()
	>b st(0,8,0)
The first example will use the tape on SCSI target 4, where the
second will use SCSI target 5.  The '>' is the monitor prompt.

After the tape loads, you should see many lines of configuration
messages, and then the following "welcome" screen:

	Welcome to the NetBSD/sun3 RAMDISK root!

This environment is designed to do only three things:
1:  Partititon your disk (use the command:  edlabel /dev/rsd0c)
2:  Copy a miniroot image into the swap partition  (/dev/rsd0b)
3:  Reboot (using the swap partition, i.e. /dev/sd?b).

Copying the miniroot can be done several ways, allowing
the source of the miniroot image to be on any of these:
    boot tape,  NFS server, TFTP server, rsh server

The easiest is loading from tape, which is done as follows:
	mt -f /dev/nrst0 rewind
	mt -f /dev/nrst0 fsf 2
	dd bs=32k if=/dev/nrst0 of=/dev/rsd0b
(For help with other methods, please see the install notes.)

To reboot using the swap partition, first use "halt",
then at the PROM monitor prompt use a command like:
	b sd(,,1) -s

To view this message again, type:  cat /.welcome

[ End of "welcome" screen. ]

Copy the miniroot as described in the welcome message, and
reboot from that just installed miniroot.  See the section
entitled "Booting the miniroot" for details.


* Installing from NFS:

Before you can install from NFS, you must have already configured
your NFS server to support your machine as a diskless client.
Instructions for configuring the server are found in the section
entitled "Getting the NetBSD System onto Useful Media" above.

First, at the Sun PROM monitor prompt, enter a boot command
using the network interface as the boot device.  On desktop
machines this is "le", and "ie" on the others.  Examples:

	>b le() -s
	>b ie() -s

After the boot program loads the RAMDISK kernel, you should
see the welcome screen as shown in the "tape boot" section
above.  You must configure the network interface before you
can use any network resources.  For example the command:

	ssh> ifconfig le0 inet 192.233.20.198 up

will bring up the network interface with that address.  The next
step is to copy the miniroot from your server.  This can be done
using either NFS or remote shell.  (In the examples that follow,
the server has IP address 192.233.20.195)  You may then need to
add a default route if the server is on a different subnet:

	ssh> route add default 192.233.20.255  1

You can look at the route table using:

	ssh> route show

Now mount the NFS filesystem containing the miniroot image:

	ssh> mount -r 192.233.20.195:/server/path /mnt

The procedure is simpler if you have space for an expanded
(not compressed) copy of the miniroot image.  In that case:

	ssh> dd if=/mnt/miniroot of=/dev/rsd0b bs=8k

Otherwise, you will need to use "zcat" to expand the miniroot
image while copying.  This is tricky because the "ssh" program
(small shell) does not handle sh(1) pipeline syntax.  Instead,
you first run the reader in the background with its input set
to /dev/pipe and then run the other program in the foreground
with its output to /dev/pipe.  The result looks like this:

	ssh> run -bg dd if=/dev/pipe of=/dev/rsd0b obs=8k
	ssh> run -o /dev/pipe zcat /mnt/install/miniroot.gz

To load the miniroot using rsh to the server, you would use a
pair of commands similar to the above.  Here is another example:

	ssh> run -b dd if=/dev/pipe of=/dev/rsd0b obs=8k
	ssh> run -o /dev/pipe rsh 192.233.20.195 zcat miniroot.gz


* Booting the miniroot:

If the miniroot was installed on partition 'b' of the disk with
SCSI target ID=0 then the PROM boot command would be:
	>b sd(0,0,1) -s
With SCSI target ID=2, the the PROM is:
	>b sd(0,10,1) -s

The numbers in parentheses above are:
	controller (usually zero)
	unit number (SCSI ID * 8, in hexadecimal)
	partition number

Miniroot install program:
------------------------

The miniroot's install program is very simple to use.  It will guide
you through the entire process, and is well automated.  Additional
improvements are planned for future releases.

The miniroot's install program will:

	* Allow you to place disklabels on additional disks.
	  The disk we are installing on should already have
	  been partitioned using the RAMDISK kernel.

	* Create filesystems on target partitions.

	* Allow you to set up your system's network configuration.
	  Remember to specify host names without the domain name
	  appended to the end.  For example use `foo' instead of
	  `foo.bar.org'.  If, during the process of configuring
	  the network interfaces, you make a mistake, you will
	  be able to re-configure that interface by simply selecting
	  it for configuration again.

	* Mount target filesystems.  You will be given the opportunity
	  to manually edit the resulting /etc/fstab.

	* Extract binary sets from the media of your choice.

	* Copy configuration information gathered during the
	  installation process to your root filesystem.

	* Make device nodes in your root filesystem.

	* Copy a new kernel onto your root partition.

	* Install a new boot block.

	* Check your filesystems for integrity.

First-time installation on a system through a method other than the
installation program is possible, but strongly discouraged.