1 .\" $NetBSD: xfer,v 1.3 2002/06/30 12:57:29 lukem Exp $
3 Installation is supported from several media types, including:
4 .(bullet -compact -offset indent
16 machine requires some bootable device; either a tape drive or
17 .Tn Sun Ns No -compatible
21 The procedure for transferring the distribution sets onto
22 installation media depends on the type of media.
23 Instructions for each type of media are given below.
25 In order to create installation media, you will need all the
26 files in the directory
28 .Dl Pa \&.../NetBSD-\*V/\*M/
30 .Ss2 Creating boot/install tapes
32 Installing from tape is the simplest method of all.
33 This method uses two tapes; one called the
35 tape, and another called the
38 The boot tape is created as follows:
40 .Dl # Ic "cd .../NetBSD-\*V/\*M/installation/tapeimage"
41 .Dl # Ic "sh MakeBootTape /dev/nrst0"
43 The install tape is created as follows:
45 .Dl # Ic "cd .../NetBSD-\*V/\*M/installation/tapeimage"
46 .Dl # Ic "sh MakeInstallTape /dev/nrst0"
48 If the tapes do not work as expected, you may need to explicitly
49 set the EOF mark at the end of each tape segment.
50 It may also be necessary to use the
55 this argument is incompatible with the
58 Consult the tape-related manual pages on the system where the tapes are
59 created for more details.
61 .Ss2 Boot/Install from NFS server
63 If your machine has a disk and network connection, but no tape drive,
64 it may be convenient for you to install
67 This involves temporarily booting your machine over NFS, just long enough
68 so you can initialize its disk.
69 This method requires that you have access to an NFS server on your network
70 so you can configure it to support diskless boot for your machine.
71 Configuring the NFS server
72 is normally a task for a system administrator, and is not trivial.
76 system as the boot-server, have a look at
79 manual page for guidelines on how to proceed with this.
80 If the server runs another operating system, consult the
81 documentation that came with it (i.e.
86 When instructed to boot over the network, your \*M expects to be
87 able to download first and second stage bootstrap programs via
89 the Network Disk protocol.
92 program will attempt to serve a second-stage bootstrap file using
93 a name derived from the machine's recently acquired IP
94 address and an extension which corresponds to the
96 (It may be handy to have a hexadecimal
97 calculator for this next step.)
98 The filename prefix is created by converting the machine's assigned
99 IP address into hexadecimal, most-significant octet first,
100 using uppercase characters for the non-decimal (A-F) digits.
101 The filename suffix used by all sun2 machines is
104 For example, a \*M which has been assigned IP address 130.115.144.11
105 will be served a second-stage bootstrap file named
108 is a symbolic link to the
111 program, which should
112 be located in a place where the
117 program may be found in the
118 .Pa installation/netboot
119 directory of this distribution.
121 The netboot program will query a bootparamd server to find the
122 NFS server address and path name for its root, and then load a
123 kernel from that location.
124 The server should have a copy of the
126 kernel in the root area for your client, hard-linked
131 (no other files are needed in the client root) and
134 should have an entry for your client and its root directory.
135 The client will need access to the miniroot image, which can be
136 provided using NFS or remote shell.
138 If you will be installing
140 on several clients, it may be useful
141 to know that you can use a single NFS root for all the clients as long
145 There will be no conflict
146 between clients because the RAM-disk kernel will not use the NFS root.
147 No swap file is needed; the RAM-disk kernel does not use that either.
149 .Ss2 Install/Upgrade from CD-ROM
151 This method requires that you boot from another device (i.e. tape
152 or network, as described above). You may need to make a boot tape
153 on another machine using the files provided on the CD-ROM. Once
154 you have booted netbsd-rd (the RAM-disk kernel) and loaded the
155 miniroot, you can load any of the distribution sets directly from the CD-ROM.
158 program in the miniroot automates the
159 work required to mount the CD-ROM and extract the files.
161 .Ss2 Install/Upgrade via FTP
163 This method requires that you boot from another device (i.e. tape
164 or network, as described above). You may need to make a boot tape
165 on another machine using the files in
166 .Pa installation/tapeimage
169 (which you get via FTP).
172 (the RAM-disk kernel)
173 and loaded the miniroot, you can load any of the distribution sets
174 over the net using FTP.
177 program in the miniroot
178 automates the work required to configure the network interface and
181 The preparations for this installation/upgrade method are easy; all
182 you make sure that there's some FTP site from which you can retrieve
185 distribution when you're about to install or upgrade.
186 You need to know the numeric IP address of that site, and, if it's not on
187 a network directly connected to the machine on which you're installing
190 you need to know the numeric IP address of the
191 router closest to the
194 Finally, you need to know the numeric IP address of the