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1 .\" $NetBSD: prep,v 1.15 2006/10/12 12:46:18 pavel Exp $
2 .
3 No matter which installation method you use, there is some planning
4 and preparation that is required beforehand. First and foremost,
5 before beginning the installation process, make sure you have a
6 reliable backup of any data on your hard disk that you wish to keep.
7 .Em "Mistakes in partitioning your hard disk may lead to data loss."
8 .Pp
9 .Nx*M
10 uses the same disk mapping scheme as Mac OS: the Apple Disk Partition Map.
11 This permits both systems to reside on the same disk, but introduces some
12 installation problems unique to the Macintosh. There are very few, if any,
13 reliable ways to reduce the size of an existing Mac OS disk partition, so
14 partitioning a disk that currently contains Mac OS will almost always
15 require a backup and reload step under Mac OS.
16 .Pp
17 If you are using the
18 .Ic sysinst
19 method of installation you will be able to
20 do most, if not all, of your disk partitioning during the install
21 process. Partitioning the disk with
22 .Ic sysinst
23 will destroy any partition
24 that is resized, deleted, converted, or designated for use by NetBSD.
25 All space not planned to be used for Mac OS HFS partitions may be used
26 by NetBSD and can be sub-divided by the
27 .Ic sysinst
28 process. This space
29 may be defined within one or more existing disk partitions of any type,
30 including HFS partitions that are no longer needed for Mac OS. However
31 it is best if this space is physically contiguous on the disk as
32 .Ic sysinst
33 is not capable of merging non-contiguous disk partitions. If you are
34 using the
35 .Ic sysinst
36 method and have sufficient disk space in one or more
37 disk partitions you should skip forward to the section labeled
38 .Sx Installing\ the\ NetBSD\ System\ (Sysinst\ Method)
39 in this document.
40 .Pp
41 If you are using the Traditional method of installation you must use a
42 disk partitioning utility to designate the different partitions you
43 will want in your final
44 .Nx
45 configuration. It is not necessary to create
46 .Nx
47 (or AU/X) type partitions at this stage; the Mkfs utility
48 can convert a partition of any type to one usable for
49 .Nx .
50 .Pp
51 If disk partitioning is required because you've selected the Traditional
52 method of installation, or because disk space needs to be freed up for
53 use for the
54 .Ic sysinst
55 method of installation, follow the directions in the remainder of this section.
56 .Pp
57 Find your favorite disk partitioning utility. Any formatter capable of
58 partitioning a SCSI disk should work. Some of the ones that have been
59 tried and seem to work are:
60 .Pp
61 .(bullet -compact -offset indent
62 Apple HD SC Setup
63 .It
64 Hard Disk ToolKit from FWB
65 .It
66 SCSI Director Lite
67 .It
68 Disk Manager Mac from OnTrack
69 .It
70 Silverlining from LaCie
71 .It
72 APS Disk Tools
73 .bullet)
74 .Pp
75 Apple's HD SC Setup is probably the easiest to use and the most commonly
76 available. Instructions for patching HD SC Setup so that it will recognize
77 non-Apple drives is available at:
78 .Pp
79 .Lk http://www.euronet.nl/users/ernstoud/patch.html
80 .Pp
81 First, you need to choose a drive on which to install
82 .Nx .
83 Try to pick a
84 drive with a low SCSI target number (or "SCSI ID"), especially if you are
85 likely to add or
86 remove drives to your SCSI chain in the future.
87 .(Note
88 Be certain you have a reliable backup of any data that you may want to keep.
89 Repartitioning your hard drive is an excellent way to destroy important data.
90 .Note)
91 .Pp
92 Second, decide how you want to set up your partitions. At minimum, you
93 need a partition to hold the
94 .Nx
95 installation (the root partition \(em
96 .Pa / )
97 and a
98 partition to serve as swap space. You may choose to use more than one partition
99 to hold the installation. This allows you to separate the more vital
100 portions of the file system (such as the kernel and the
101 .Pa /etc
102 directory) from the more volatile parts of the file system.
103 Typical setups place the
104 .Pa /usr
105 directory on a separate partition from the root partition
106 .Pq Pa / .
107 Generally,
108 .Pa /
109 can be fairly small while the
110 .Pa /usr
111 partition should be fairly large.
112 If you plan to use this machine as a server, you may also want a separate
113 .Pa /var
114 partition.
115 .Pp
116 Once you have decided how to lay out your partitions, you need to calculate
117 how much space to allocate to each partition. A minimal install of
118 .Nx
119 (i.e.
120 .Pa base.tgz , etc.tgz, No and either
121 .Pa kern-GENERIC.tgz No or
122 .Pa kern-GENERICSBC.tgz )
123 requires about 100MB.
124 A general rule of thumb for sizing the swap partition is to allocate
125 twice as much swap space as you have real memory.
126 Having your swap + real memory total at least 20 MB is also a good idea.
127 Systems that will be heavily used or that are low on real memory should
128 have more swap space allocated. Systems that will be only lightly used
129 or have a very large amount of real memory can get away with less.
130 .Pp
131 Keep in mind that
132 .Nx
133 currently requires
134 .Tn Mac OS
135 in order to boot, so it is likely that you will
136 want to keep at least a minimal install of
137 .Tn Mac OS
138 around on an HFS
139 partition for this purpose. The size of this partition may vary depending
140 on the size requirements for the version of
141 .Tn Mac OS
142 you are using. Of
143 course, if you have
144 .Tn Mac OS
145 on another hard drive or can boot from a floppy,
146 feel free to dedicate the entire drive to
147 .Nx .
148 .Pp
149 Next, use your favorite partitioning utility to make partitions of the
150 necessary sizes. You can use any type of partition, but partitions of type
151 .Li "Apple_Free"
152 might save you some confusion in the future.
153 .Pp
154 You are now set to install
155 .Nx
156 on your hard drive.