xfer revision 1.2.2.1 1 Installation is supported from several media types, including:
2 * Tape
3 * NFS
4 * CD-ROM
5 * FTP
6
7 Note that installing on a "bare" machine requires some bootable
8 device; either a tape drive or Sun-compatible NFS server.
9
10 The procedure for transferring the distribution sets onto
11 installation media depends on the type of media. Instructions
12 for each type of media are given below.
13
14 In order to create installation media, you will need all the
15 files in this directory:
16 .../NetBSD-_VER/sun3/
17
18 * Creating boot/install tapes:
19
20 Installing from tape is the simplest method of all.
21 This method uses two tapes; one called the "boot"
22 tape, and another called the "install" tape.
23
24 The boot tape is created as follows:
25
26 cd .../NetBSD-_VER/sun3/installation/tapeimage
27 sh MakeBootTape /dev/nrst0
28
29 The install tape is created as follows:
30
31 cd .../NetBSD-_VER/sun3/installation/tapeimage
32 sh MakeInstallTape /dev/nrst0
33
34 If the tapes do not work as expected, you may need to explicitly
35 set the EOF mark at the end of each tape segment. It may also be
36 necessary to use the `conv=osync' argument to dd(1). Note that
37 this argument is incompatible with the `bs=' argument. Consult
38 the tape-related manual pages on the system where the tapes are
39 created for more details.
40
41 * Boot/Install from NFS server:
42
43 If your machine has a disk and network connection, but no tape drive,
44 it may be convenient for you to install NetBSD over the network. This
45 involves temporarily booting your machine over NFS, just long enough
46 so you can initialize its disk. This method requires that you have
47 access to an NFS server on your network so you can configure it to
48 support diskless boot for your machine. Configuring the NFS server
49 is normally a task for a system administrator, and is not trivial.
50
51 If you are using a NetBSD system as the boot-server, have a look at
52 the diskless(8) manual page for guidelines on how to proceed with
53 this. If the server runs another operating system, consult the
54 documentation that came with it (i.e. add_client(8) on SunOS).
55
56 Your Sun3 expects to be able to download a second stage bootstrap
57 program via TFTP after having acquired its IP address through RARP
58 when instructed to boot "over the net". It will look for a filename
59 derived from the machine's IP address expressed in hexadecimal. For
60 example, a sun3 which has been assigned IP address 130.115.144.11
61 will make an TFTP request for `8273900B'. Normally, this file is a
62 symbolic link to the NetBSD/sun3 "netboot" program, which should be
63 located in a place where the TFTP daemon can find it (remember, many
64 TFTP daemons run in a chroot'ed environment). The netboot program
65 may be found in the install directory of this distribution.
66
67 The netboot program will query a bootparamd server to find the
68 NFS server address and path name for its root, and then load a
69 kernel from that location. The server should have a copy of the
70 netbsd-rd kernel in the root area for your client (no other files
71 are needed in the client root) and /etc/bootparams on the server
72 should have an entry for your client and its root directory.
73 The client will need access to the miniroot image, which can be
74 provided using NFS or remote shell. If using NFS, miniroot.gz
75 must be expanded on the server, because there is no gzip program
76 in the RAMDISK image. The unzipped miniroot takes 8MB of space.
77
78 If you will be installing NetBSD on several clients, it may be useful
79 to know that you can use a single NFS root for all the clients as long
80 as they only use the netbsd-rd kernel. There will be no conflict
81 between clients because the RAM-disk kernel will not use the NFS root.
82 No swap file is needed; the RAM-disk kernel does not use that either.
83
84 * Install/Upgrade from CD-ROM:
85
86 This method requires that you boot from another device (i.e. tape
87 or network, as described above). You may need to make a boot tape
88 on another machine using the files provided on the CD-ROM. Once
89 you have booted netbsd-rd (the RAM-disk kernel) and loaded the
90 miniroot, you can load any of the distribution sets directly from
91 the CD-ROM. The "install" program in the miniroot automates the
92 work required to mount the CD-ROM and extract the files.
93
94 * Install/Upgrade via FTP:
95
96 This method requires that you boot from another device (i.e. tape
97 or network, as described above). You may need to make a boot tape
98 on another machine using the files in .../install (which you get
99 via FTP). Once you have booted netbsd-rd (the RAM-disk kernel)
100 and loaded the miniroot, you can load any of the distribution sets
101 over the net using FTP. The "install" program in the miniroot
102 automates the work required to configure the network interface and
103 transfer the files.
104
105 The preparations for this installation/upgrade method are easy; all
106 you make sure that there's some FTP site from which you can retrieve
107 the NetBSD distribution when you're about to install or upgrade. You
108 need to know the numeric IP address of that site, and, if it's not on
109 a network directly connected to the machine on which you're installing
110 or upgrading NetBSD, you need to know the numeric IP address of the
111 router closest to the NetBSD machine. Finally, you need to know the
112 numeric IP address of the NetBSD machine itself.
113