1Installing NetBSD is a relatively complex process, but if you have 2this document in hand it shouldn't be too much trouble. 3 4There are several ways to install NetBSD onto a disk. The easiest way 5in terms of preliminary setup is to use the NetBSD miniroot that can 6be booted off your local disk's swap partition. Alternatively, if your 7Sparcstation is hooked up in a network you can find a server and arrange 8for a diskless setup which is a convenient way to install on a machine 9whose disk does not currently hold a usable operating system (see the 10section `Installing NetBSD by using a diskless setup' below). 11 12 13Installing NetBSD by using the NetBSD miniroot. 14 15The miniroot is a self-contained NetBSD filesystem holding all utilities 16necessary to install NetBSD on a local disk. It is distributed as a plain 17file designed to be transferred to a raw disk partition from which it can 18be booted using the appropriate PROM command. Usually, the miniroot will 19be loaded into the swap partition of a disk. If needed, you can use any 20other unused partition, but remember that the partition will then not 21available during the installation process. 22 23Loading the miniroot onto your raw partition is simple. On NetBSD as well 24as SunOS you use a command like: 25 26 # dd if=miniroot-_VER.fs of=/dev/rsd0b bs=20b conv=sync 27 28(here `/dev/rsd0b' is assumed to be your swap partition). There's a 29potential problem here if /dev/rsd0b is actually in use as a swap 30partition by your currently running system. If you don't have another 31disk or partition to spare, you can usually get away with running this 32command anyway after first booting into single-user mode to ensure a 33quiet system. 34 35After transferring the miniroot to disk, bring the system down by: 36 37 # halt 38 39Then boot the miniroot by typing the appropriate command at the PROM: 40 41 > b sd(,,1)netbsd -s # for sun4 monitors 42 ok boot sd(,,1)netbsd -s # for version 1 OpenBOOT ROMs 43 ok boot disk:b netbsd -s # for version 2 OpenBOOT ROMs 44 45If you've loaded the miniroot onto some other disk than `sd0' adapt 46the boot specifier accordingly, e.g.: 47 48 ok boot disk1:b netbsd -s 49 50to boot from SCSI disk target 1 from a version 2 OpenBOOT ROM. 51If you have to use the old-style `sd(c,u,p)' syntax to boot from a 52SCSI disk, you can calculate the parameters as follows: 53 54 `c' - specifies the controller number 55 `u' - the hexadecimal number obtained from evaluating 56 the expression `(8 * TARGET) + LUN' 57 `p' - the partition number from which to boot (0=`a', 1=`b', etc). 58 59 60The monitor boot command will cause the NetBSD kernel contained in the 61miniroot image to be booted. After the initial probe messages you'll be 62asked to start the install or upgrade procedure. Proceed to the section 63`Running the installation scripts' below. 64 65 66Installing NetBSD by using a diskless setup. 67 68First, you must setup a diskless client configuration on a server. If 69you are using a NetBSD system as the boot-server, have a look at the 70diskless(8) manual page for guidelines on how to proceed with this. 71If the server runs another operating system, you'll have to consult 72documentation that came with it (on SunOS systems, add_client(8) is a 73good start). 74 75Your Sparcstation expects to be able to download a second stage bootstrap 76program via TFTP after having acquired its IP address through RevARP when 77instructed to boot "over the net". It will look for a filename composed of 78the machine's IP address followed by the machine's architecture, separated 79by a period. For example, a sun4c machine which has been assigned IP 80address 130.115.144.11, will make an TFTP request for `8273900B.SUN4C'. 81Normally, this file is a symbolic link to an appropriate second-stage 82boot program, which should be located in a place where the TFTP daemon 83can find it (remember, many TFTP daemons run in a chroot'ed environment). 84You can find the boot program in `/usr/mdec/boot.net' in the NetBSD/sparc 85distribution. 86 87[ Note that the only difference between `/usr/mdec/boot.net' and 88 `/usr/mdec/boot' is in the a.out header, which has been magically 89 transformed in a way that makes it usable on all versions of 90 Sparc PROMs. 91] 92 93 94After the boot program has been loaded into memory and given control by 95the PROM, it starts locating the machine's remote root directory through 96the BOOTPARAM protocol. First a BOOTPARAM WHOAMI request is broadcast 97on the local net. The answer to this request (if it comes in) contains 98the client's name. This name is used in next step, a BOOTPARAM GETFILE 99request -- sent to the server that responded to the WHOAMI request -- 100requesting the name and address of the machine that will serve the client's 101root directory, as well as the path of the client's root on that server. 102 103Finally, this information (if it comes in) is used to issue a REMOTE MOUNT 104request to the client's root filesystem server, asking for an NFS file 105handle corresponding to the root filesystem. If successful, the boot 106program starts reading from the remote root filesystem in search of the 107kernel which is then read into memory. 108 109 110As noted above in the section `Preparing your System for NetBSD Installation', 111you have several options when choosing a location to store the installation 112filesets. However, the easiest way is to put the *.tar.gz files you want 113to install into the root directory for your client on the server. 114 115Next, unpack `base.tar.gz' and `etc.tar.gz' on the server in the root 116directory for your machine. If you elect to use a separately NFS-mounted 117filesystem for `/usr' with your diskless setup, make sure the "./usr" base 118files in base.tar.gz end up in the correct location. One way to do this is 119to temporarily use a loopback mount on the server, re-routing <root>/usr to 120your server's exported NetBSD "/usr" directory. Also put the kernel and the 121install/upgrade scripts into the root directory. 122 123A few configuration files need to be edited: 124 125 <root>/etc/hosts 126 Add the IP addresses of both server and client. 127 128 <root>/etc/myname 129 This files contains the client's hostname; use the same 130 name as in <root>/etc/hosts. 131 132 <root>/etc/fstab 133 Enter the entries for the remotely mounted filesystems. 134 For example: 135 server:/export/root/client / nfs rw 0 0 136 server:/export/exec/sun4.netbsd /usr nfs rw 0 0 137 138Now you must populate the the `/dev' directory for your client. If you server 139runs SunOS 4.x, you can simply change your working directory to `<root>/dev' 140and run the MAKEDEV script: `sh MAKEDEV all'. 141 142On SunOS 5.x systems, MAKEDEV can also be used, but there'll be error 143messages about unknown user and groups. These errors are inconsequential 144for the purpose of installing NetBSD. However, you may want to correct them 145if you plan to use the diskless setup regularly. In that case, you may re-run 146MAKEDEV on your NetBSD machine once it has booted. 147 148Boot your workstation from the server by entering the appropriate `boot' 149command at the monitor prompt. Depending on the PROM version in your machine, 150this command takes one of the following forms: 151 152 > b le()netbsd -s # for sun4 monitors 153 ok boot le()netbsd -s # for version 1 OpenBOOT ROMs 154 ok boot net netbsd -s # for version 2 OpenBOOT ROMs 155 156This will boot the NetBSD kernel in single-user mode. 157 158[[ 159NOTE: the latter two examples assume you operate the OpenBOOT ROM in 160"new command mode". If your machine comes up and gives you a `>' prompt 161instead of `ok', type: 162 163 >n # enter native OpenBOOT mode 164 ok setenv sunmon-compat? false # make it permanent 165 ok 166]] 167 168If you use a diskless setup with a separately NFS-mounted /usr filesystem, 169mount /usr by hand now: 170 171netbsd# mount /usr 172 173At this point, it's worth checking the disk label and partition sizes on 174the disk you want to install NetBSD onto. NetBSD understands SunOS-style 175disklabels, so if your disk was previously used by SunOS there will be 176a usable label on it. Use `disklabel -e <disk>' (where <disk> is the 177device name assigned by the NetBSD kernel, e.g. `sd0') to view and 178modify the partition sizes. See the section `Preparing your System for 179NetBSD Installation' above for suggestions about disk partition sizes. 180 181If you are installing on a SCSI disk that does *not* have a SunOS or 182NetBSD label on it, you may still be able to use disklabel(8) but you'll 183have to create all partitions from scratch. If your disk is listed in 184`/etc/disktab', you may use the entry (which in most cases only defines 185a `c' partition to describe the whole disk) to put an initial label on 186the disk. Then proceed with `disklabel -e <disk>' to create a partition 187layout that suits your needs. 188 189NOTE: Because of the built-in compatibility with SunOS-style labels, 190ALWAYS MAKE SURE ALL YOUR PARTITIONS START AND END ON CYLINDER BOUNDARIES. 191 192 193Here follows an example of what you'll see while in the dislabel editor. 194Do not touch any of the parameters except for the `label: ' entry and 195the actual partition size information at the bottom (the lines starting 196with `a:', `b:', ...). 197 198The size and offset fields are given in sector units. Be sure to make 199these numbers multiples of the of the number of sectors per cylinder: 200the kernel might be picky about these things, but aside from this you'll 201have the least chance of wasting disk space. 202Partitions on which you intend to have a mountable filesystem, should 203be given fstype `4.2BSD'. Remember, the `c' partition should describe 204the whole disk. 205The `(Cyl. x - y)' info that appears after the hash (`#') character is 206treated as a comment and need not be filled in when altering partitions. 207 208Special note: the line containing `8 partitions:' is best left alone, 209even if you define less then eight partitions. If this line displays 210a different number and the program complains about it (after you leave 211the editor), then try setting it to `8 partitions:'. 212 213 214<BEGIN SAMPLE DISKLABEL SCREEN> 215netbsd# disklabel sd2 216 # /dev/rsd2c: 217type: SCSI 218disk: SCSI disk 219label: Hold Your Breath 220flags: 221bytes/sector: 512 222sectors/track: 64 223tracks/cylinder: 7 224sectors/cylinder: 448 225cylinders: 1429 226rpm: 3600 227interleave: 1 228trackskew: 0 229cylinderskew: 0 230headswitch: 0 # milliseconds 231track-to-track seek: 0 # milliseconds 232drivedata: 0 233 2348 partitions: 235# size offset fstype [fsize bsize cpg] 236 a: 50176 0 4.2BSD 0 0 0 # (Cyl. 0 - 111) 237 b: 64512 50176 swap # (Cyl. 112 - 255) 238 c: 640192 0 unknown # (Cyl. 0 - 1428) 239 d: 525504 114688 4.2BSD 0 0 0 # (Cyl. 256 - 1428) 240<END SAMPLE DISKLABEL SCREEN> 241 242 243If you are upgrading a NetBSD installation, start the upgrade script: 244 245netbsd# sh upgrade.sh 246 247else, start the installation script: 248 249netbsd# sh install.sh 250 251 252Running the installation scripts. 253 254The installation scripts will do most of the work of transferring the 255system from the distribution sets onto your disk. You will frequently be 256asked for confirmation before the script proceeds with each phase of the 257installation process. 258 259Occasionally, you'll have to provide a piece of information such as the 260name of the disk you want to install on or IP addresses and domain names 261you want to assign. If your system has more than one disk, you may want 262to look at the output of the dmesg(8) command to see how your disks 263have been identified by the kernel. 264 265The installation script goes through the following phases: 266 267 - determination of the disk to install NetBSD on 268 - checking of the partition information on the disk 269 - creating and mounting the NetBSD filesystems 270 - setup of IP configuration 271 - extraction of the distribution tar files 272 - installation of boot programs 273 274 275Now try a reboot. Initially I'd suggest you "boot sd()netbsd -bs", then 276try multiuser after that. If you boot single-user the NetBSD incantation 277to make the root filesystem writable is 278 279 netbsd# mount -u /dev/sd0a / 280 281The Sun monitor might have been setup to instruct the boot program to load 282a file called "vmunix". On OpenBOOT ROM systems you can change it to load 283"netbsd" instead using the following commands: 284 285On version 1 OpenBOOT ROMs: 286 >n 287 ok setenv boot-from sd(0,0,0)netbsd 288 ok 289 290On version 2 OpenBOOT ROMs: 291 ok setenv boot-file netbsd 292 ok setenv boot-device /sbus/esp/sd@0,0 293 294 295Congratulations, you have successfully installed NetBSD _VER. When you 296reboot into NetBSD, you should log in as "root" at the login prompt. 297There is no initial password, but if you're using the machine in a 298networked environment, you should create yourself an account and 299protect it and the "root" account with good passwords. 300 301Some of the files in the NetBSD _VER distribution might need to be 302tailored for your site. In particular, the /etc/sendmail.cf file will 303almost definitely need to be adjusted, and other files in /etc will 304probably need to be modified. If you are unfamiliar with UN*X-like 305system administration, it's recommended that you buy a book that 306discusses it. 307 308