*BSD News Article 30268


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From: windsor@cbs.ksu.ksu.edu (Rob Windsor)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: Re: [NetBSD-current] How to install it?
Date: 8 May 1994 16:03:39 -0500
Organization: Kansas State University
Lines: 72
Message-ID: <2qjk3b$ac7@cbs.ksu.ksu.edu>
References: <199405021438.LAA02481@rubi.fee.unicamp.br> <MIKE.LONG.94May2201828@cthulhu.analog.com>
Reply-To: windsor@ksu.ksu.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: cbs.ksu.ksu.edu

I'm fairly new at sysadmin'ng unix, and I just recently installed current.
I'll outline the steps that I did to do it (and what's different from
what I was told to do if you don't have my exact configuration).  I haven't
obtained permission to reveal my source of advice (and won't until then due
to his e-mail load), so I can't do that at the moment.

A little into to my setup:
   I have wd0a as /, wd0e as a 20M /blah, wd0f as /usr, and wd1a as
   /usr/local.  I'm running ESDI drives on a ISA system, so I used the
   'netbsd-aha' kernel image.

0> Always step 0, back up your existing system.  I just installed NetBSD,
   so it wouldn't have broken my heart to reinstall if this went bad.  But,
   I did keep a backup of /etc/* since I worked a bit on disktab and the
   accounts.

1> (as mentioned in previous posting) grab the binary snapshot files off of
   ftp.iastate.edu, as well as a kernel image.

2> While you're there, you should probably get the kernel source tar file.
   /pub/netbsd/NetBSD-current/src/tar_files/src/sys.tar.gz

3> Have your NetBSD 0.9 kernel-copy ('kc-aha-09') and install floppies
   (inst[1|2]-09) handy.  I copied (-R) inst2 to /blah.  An alternative
   is to put inst2 onto a 5-1/4" (you need to mount both flops at once).

4> Boot your machine up off of the hd and dump the tar.gz files onto
   a spare partition where there's room.  (/usr/local for me.)  Also,
   if your account or root has a shell other than /bin/csh or /bin/sh,
   you should update .profile and chsh to change it back to one of the
   two.

5> While in, mount your first install floppy and make two more mount points
   (mkdir -p) on it.  /mnt2 and /mnt3 for me.  Unmount the flop.

6> Reboot the machine, this time off of the kernel-copy floppy (and insert
   the first install floppy when asked).  When asked to continue, press
   <return> (default is [n]).

7> fsck, and then mount your / onto /mnt and /usr onto /mnt/usr.  Mount
   /blah (or the 5-1/4" flop) onto /mnt2, and /usr/local onto /mnt3.  Add
   /mnt2/bin and /mnt2/usr/bin to the path.

8> To untar, cd /mnt and then start 'tar -zxvf /mnt3/<tar file>'.  You will
   probably get some complaints on 'file exists' when the tar file tries to
   create soft-links.  I cleaned the directory out entirely before I
   untarred the files to avoid those.  Also, don't blindly untar etc.tar.gz
   since this will hose your existing disktab, fstab, passwd, etc.  I put
   them into /mnt/etc/new and copied it by hand.  This is probably the most
   tedious of the entire process, but refreshing when done.

9> Move /mnt/netbsd to something else.  I used /mnt/netbsd-0.9.  Copy the
   kernel image from /mnt3 to /mnt.

10> Reboot.  If there is a umount command available, you should try to
    unmount what you can (I didn't).

If things went well, you should have NetBSD-current up and running.

As I said earlier, I'm rather new at this sysadmin stuff, so I'm still
figuring out how to get things to compile and such.  I just kept notes on
what I did to install current and posted them since my transition was
successful.

No guarantees on answers, but I'll take any questions.  :>

-- Rob
-- 
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Internet: windsor@ksu.ksu.edu      Life: Rob@K-State.Manhattan.Kansas.USA.Earth

"Life's a journey, not a destination."  -- Aerosmith (1993), 'Amazing'