Short instructions for NetBSD/pmax 1.3.1. Last update: 1998-03-20 Reminder: Always back up files before installing or upgrading. If installing from source, always install and boot a new kernel before installing a new userland! Upgrade or install via diskless boot. ------------------------------------ The preferred path is to upgrade or install by diskless-booting a minimal system via NFS, and using that to upgrade or install. The file installation/netboot/diskimage.tar.gz contains a suitable set of files. (it is a tar copy of the contents of a root filesystem diskimage) . You will need to find an NFS server, unpack the tarfile, and setup BOOTP/dhcp service for your pmax. Complete instructions are in the installation notes or the pmax web page. Since the system install utility, sysinst, requires a read/write root, netbooting is only feasible if your NFS server exports the diskless root read-write. If this is not possible, you should install via diskimage. Install via diskimage. ---------------------- If netbooting with a _writable_ NFS root is not possible, the recommended installation is to unpack and copy a diskimage onto the raw partition of a disk. The diskimage file is in installation/diskimage/diskimage.gz is shipped compressed and is around 8020 kBytes; it uncompresses to exactly 32Mbytes. To install the diskimage onto disk rzX on a NetBSD/pmax system, do: disklabel -W /dev/rrzXc gunzip -c diskimage.gz | dd of=/dev/rrzX2c bs=10240 Most other NetBSD ports are similar, but use rsdXc instead of rrzXc. On NetBSD/i386, the `raw disk partition' is the 'd' parttion, so do: disklabel -W /dev/rsdXd gunzip -c diskimage.gz | dd of=/dev/rsdXd bs=10240 On NetBSD, be sure to use disklabel -W to enable writing to the label area of the disk. If you forget this and/or use the `block' device, the dd command will silently fail. On MS-DOS, use an unzip utlility, then use rawrite. Then boot using, e.g, >> boot -f rz(0,X,0)netbsd # 3100 >> boot 5/rzX/netbsd # 5000/200 >> boot 3/rzX/netbsd # other machines (NOTE: replace the X with the unit number of your disk: boot 3/rz2/netbsd to boot drive 2 on a 5000/xxx.) then continue from ``Once you've booted the diskimage''. Upgrade via diskimage. ---------------------- If you cannot netboot, the recommended path is to upgrade by booting a diskimage from your swap partition. Pmaxes cannot boot out out of anything but the 'a' partition. However, you *can* boot an upgrade kernel off your 'a' partition and tell that kernel to use your 'b' partition as its root. The steps to do this (after you've fetched the diskimage) with a current root of rzX are: 1) boot single-user from your current root, rzX. Be *sure* not to start swapping: >> boot -f rz(0,X,0)netbsd -s # 3100 >> boot 5/rzX/netbsd -s # 5000/200 >> boot 3/rzX/netbsd -s # others (NOTE: replace the X with the unit number of your disk: boot 3/rz2/netbsd to boot drive 2 on a 5000/xxx.) 2) When you get a single-user prompt, remount the root filesystem read-write. (You wil need to update the kernel soon.) # mount / Then mount the filesystem with the diskimage, and uncompress and dd the diskimage into swap (b) partition. You will also need /usr mounted to run gunzip: # mount /usr # gunzip -c diskimage.gz | dd bs=10240 of=/dev/rrzXb 3) Mount swap (b) partition readonly on /mnt: # mount -r -t ffs /dev/rzXb /mnt 4) Copy the kernel from the B partition to your root: cp -p /mnt/netbsd /netbsd-1.3 (this is important; you want the kernel in / and swap to be a release kernel, or the release binaries will not work.) 5) halt: # halt 6) Reboot with an argument of "n", telling the kernel to ask what device to use as root: >> boot -f rz(0,X,0)netbsd-1.3 n # 3100 >> boot 5/rzX/netbsd-1.3 n # 5000/200 >> boot 3/rzX/netbsd-1.3 n # others (NOTE: the n after the kernel name is a literal "n", not the disk unit number or partition. It is an argument telling the kernel to ask for a root device. NOTE: replace the X with the unit number of your disk: boot 3/rz2/netbsd to boot drive 2 on a 5000/xxx.) 7) The "n" argument tells the kernel to prompt you for the root device, dump device, and root fileysystem type. Enter when the kernel asks for Root device: Tell it rzXb, where X is the same disk unit as in step 6. Here's an example, again assuming drive 2 as in step 6: KN03-AA V5.2b (PC: 0x80051f1c, SP: 0xffffdeb0) >> boot 3/rz2/netbsd n boot device: rz2 root device (default rz2a): <<< enter `rz2b' >>> dump device (default rz2b): <<< enter `none' >>> file system (default generic): <<< enter `ffs' >>> root on rz2b then continue from the ``Once you've booted the diskimage''. Installing from Ultrix ---------------------- The Ultrix bootloader can boot ECOFF-format NetBSD kernels. So the technique of dd'ing a disk image into swap, copying a kernel to the root, and then booting via the "n" argument should work with Ultrix too. Since Ultrix cannot mount 4.4BSD format FFS filesystems, just dd the diskimage into your swap partition, copy a netbsd.ecoff kernel from the FTP site, and proceed from step #5 of the `Upgrade via diskimage' above. You should do this from single-user mode, to ensure that swapping is not enabled when you copy the diskimage into the swap partition. Again, be sure to specify the partition where you dd'ed the NetBSD diskimage as your root device in step #7! Once you've booted the diskimage --------------------------- Once you'e booted a diskimage and pointed the kernel at the approriate devices to use for root, and dump, NetBSD kernel will prompt you for a single-user shell; Enter pathname of shell or RETURN for sh: At this point, press the RETURN key. then when you get a standalone root prompt, set your terminal type TERM=pmax; export TERM; for a framebuffer console, or TERM=vt100; export TERM if using a serial console with a vt100-compatible terminal. Next, you need to ensure that the root filesystem is writable so that sysinst can create temporary files, temporary disklabels, etc. If you booted via NFS, the diskless root should already be writable. If you booted from disk, type mount /dev/rzXY where X is the disk unit you booted from, and Y is either a or b, (e.g., use /dev/rz2a for drive 2 with diskimage in the 'a' partition, and rz2b for diskimage in swap.) Then, start sysinst. For a normal release, you can just type sysinst For an older sysinst version, or a beta release, you could try starting sysinst as sysinst -r 1.3 Then, choose 'install' or 'upgrade'. To reinstall a clean system you can also do a `reinstall'. (Note that the last option will overwrite any existing /etc files.) When you've finished the install/upgrade, be sure to edit /etc/rc.conf and set "rc_configured" to YES when you are done. If you're doing an upgrade, merge your old etc from /etc.old into /etc. You're then ready to reboot!