#	$NetBSD: LAST_MINUTE,v 1.36 1999/05/13 06:28:06 simonb Exp $

This file contains important information on the NetBSD 1.4 release
that did not make it into the main documentation.

[all platforms]

	The directory .../NetBSD-1.4/patches/ contains patches against 
	the 1.4 sources for various bugs discovered after the formal
	release. Some of these patches may be of critical importance!
	Please read the file .../NetBSD-1.4/patches/README to learn
	about what patches are available. 

[port-i386]

	At the last minute, we were able to shrink down the i386 boot
	media so that everything fits in one floppy (named boot.fs)
	instead of requiring boot1.fs and boot2.fs. Most users can
	simply boot the boot.fs diskette image instead of booting the
	two floppies in sequence.

	boot1.fs and boot2.fs have been renamed boot-unstr1.fs and
	boot-unstr2.fs -- they are still available because the kernel
	on boot.fs has its symbol table stripped out to make it fit in
	one floppy. Some laptop users need an install kernel with a
	symbol table so that they can set autoconfiguration variables
	with the debugger in order to get an install over PCMCIA
	network cards to work.

[all platforms]

	It has been noted that the union file system, which is
	included in GENERIC, is highly buggy. If you include it in
	your kernel, ordinary users can likely panic your machine. If
	you run a multi-user installation, it is recommended that you
	take this file system out of your kernel. An upcoming patch
	release should fix this problem.

[all platforms which use sysinst]

	On platforms that use sysinst, installing from an ftp server
	works only when you specify a relative directory name (such as
	"pub/NetBSD").  If you try to use an absolute directory name
	(such as "/pub/NetBSD"), then the initial "/" in the absolute
	directory name is ignored, and it is treated like a relative
	directory name.  This will not present a problem for people
	who install using anonymous ftp from official NetBSD mirrors,
	because on official mirrors the absolute and relative directory
	names both mean the same thing.  However, this is likely to
	present a problem for people who install using non-anonymous ftp
	from unofficial sites.  People who encounter this problem should
	be able to work around it by using a relative directory name
	(such as "../../../pub/NetBSD").

[mac68k]

	Distribution kernels were generated with a slightly modified
	GENERIC configuration file based on reliability testing that
	continued up to the eleventh hour. To duplicate the distribution
	kernel with a stock source tree, you must first uncomment the line
	containing "options ADB_DEBUG" in the GENERIC kernel configuration
	file. No known security risks are associated with this option,
	whether enabled or disabled.

[credits]

	Christian E. Hopps <chopps@netbsd.org> was inadvertently left
	out of the developers list in the install documentation.

[port-pmax]

	Using sysinst to install from a diskless NFS install doesn't
	work due to a problem copying the diskless root filesystem to
	the new disk.

	One workaround is to install by hand and not to use sysinst.
	An alternative workaround is to proceed with the root-on-NFS
	installation until local disks are labelled and newfs'ed, then
	abort, install the latest bootblocks and the normal ramdisk
	install kernel to the local disk, halt, and then reboot the
	ramdisk install kernel from disk, much as for the `install from
	Ultrix' option.  A third workaround is to copy the diskimage
	to the NFS client root directory, boot the NFS install kernel,
	immediately quit from sysinst and copy the diskimage to the
	start of the disk:

	   disklabel -W /dev/rrzXc
	   gunzip -c /diskimage.gz | dd of=/dev/rrzXc bs=8k

	(where X is the SCSI id of the target disk you wish to install
	NetBSD on), halt and then continue from the `install from a
	diskimage' section of the installation notes.

	If the same bug occurs on other platforms, a possible  workaround
	is to create a local, in-RAM temporary filesystem before
	staring sysinst:

	   ln /sbin/newfs /sbin/mount_mfs     # ignore if mount_mfs exists
	   mount_mfs -s 1024 swap /tmp        # creeat swap-backed MFS /tmp

	Since the pmax root-on-NFS install kernel does not include
	MFS, this is not an option on pmaxes.

[port-pmax]

	For machines which can only install via a network boot and have
	buggy PROMs that don't allow booting normal size kernels, there
	is an experimental network loader that contains a compressed
	kernel available in installation/misc/smallnet.ecoff.gz.  Use
	this kernel instead of nfsnetbsd.ecoff.gz.  Please report any
	successes or failures to the port-pmax@netbsd.org mailling list.