xref: /openbsd-src/distrib/notes/sparc64/xfer (revision 4675fc66a864566d1639c35678d029ce2c447edd)

dnl	$OpenBSD: xfer,v 1.35 2020/05/17 17:04:28 deraadt Exp $
Installation is supported from several media types, including:

	CD-ROM (NOT supported if booting from floppy)
	FFS partitions
	HTTP

If you created an OpenBSD CD-ROM (and have a CD-ROM drive), you may be
able to boot from it, or from the supplied bootable CD-ROM mini image. If you
can boot from the CD-ROM, you are home free and can proceed to the
installation steps.  If not, you will need to do some setup work to prepare
a bootable image, either a floppy, hard drive, or compatible net boot
server.

In addition to the bootable image, you also need to consider how to
access the binary distribution sets to actually install the system.

Although you can access the distribution sets directly from one of the
OpenBSD mirrors over the internet, you may wish to transfer the sets to
a local HTTP server, or copy them to a partition on the target system's
disk.

OpenBSDXferCDROM

OpenBSDXferFloppyFromDOS

OpenBSDXferFloppyFromUNIX

Creating a bootable hard disk using SunOS, Solaris or other Unix-like system:

	If you don't have a floppy drive you can copy the miniroot
	"miniroot{:--:}OSrev.img" onto the hard disk you intend to boot on.
	Traditionally, the way to do this is to use dd(1) to place the
	bootable filesystem image in the "swap" partition of the disk
	(while running in single user mode), and then booting from that
	partition.

	Using the "b" partition allows you to boot without overwriting
	any useful parts of the disk; you can also use another partition,
	but don't use the "a" or "c" partition without understanding the
	disk label issues described below under "incompatible systems".

	This requires that you be running SunOS, Solaris, OpenBSD, or NetBSD,
	which have a compatible view of SunOS disk labels and partitions.

	Use the dd(1) utility to copy the file to the hard drive.
	The command would likely be, under SunOS:
 		dd if=miniroot{:--:}OSrev.img of=/dev/rsd0b bs=64b
	and under Solaris:
 		dd if=miniroot{:--:}OSrev.img of=/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s1 bs=64b

	The blocksize is arbitrary as long as it's a multiple of 512-bytes
	and within the maximum supported by the driver, i.e. bs=126b may
	not work for all cases.  Again, device/partition names may vary,
	depending on the OS involved.

	If you are preparing the hard drive on an incompatible system or
	don't care about the hard disk contents, you can also install the
	bootable image starting at the beginning of the disk. This lets
	you prepare a bootable hard-drive even if don't have a working
	operating system on your machine, but it is important to understand
	that the bootable image installed this way includes a "disk label"
	which can wipe out any pre-existing disklabels or partitioning for
	the drive.

Creating a network bootable setup using SunOS or other Unix-like system:

	The details of setting up a network bootable environment vary
	considerably, depending on the network's host.  Extract the
	OpenBSD diskless(8) man page from the man{:--:}OSrev.tgz distribution
	set or see the copy on the OpenBSD web page.  You will also
	need to reference the relevant man pages or administrators guide
	for the host system.

	Basically, you will need to set up reverse-arp (rarpd) and boot
	parameter (rpc.bootparamd) information and make the OpenBSD
	bootblock, kernel/miniroot partition, and a swap file available
	as required by the netboot setup.


OpenBSDXferPrelude

OpenBSDXferFFS