diff --git a/distrib/notes/pmax/prep b/distrib/notes/pmax/prep index 847107d47cfa..b19c2ea91b11 100644 --- a/distrib/notes/pmax/prep +++ b/distrib/notes/pmax/prep @@ -1,32 +1,86 @@ -Before you start you should familiarize yourself with the boot PROM -of your machine. The older Decstation 2100 and 3100 cannot select -a kernel from the command line. You need to set the bootpath -environment variable to point to the disk and kernel you intend to boot. +Currently NetBSD/pmax supports three different installation methods. +From most convenient to least convenient, they are: -You should also examine the guide on the NetBSD/pmax web site, which -has more complete and more up-to-date instructions than are given in -the install document. + 1. Booting as a diskless workstation via Ethernet, + followed by initialization of the local disk and + installing onto the local disk over NFS. - NOTE that the instructions on old versions of the web site - are incorrect. The installation miniroot image for both NetBSD 1.1 - and 1.2 include the 8Kbytes reserved for bootblocks and disklabel. - The dd commands to write the miniroot to a freshly-labeleld - disk should have an 'skip=16' added to them, if the 'skip=16' - option is already present. + 2. Copying a bootable diskimage onto the beginning of a disk + and installing onto that disk + 3. installation using a helper machine to set up a bootable + NetBSD/pmax root filesystem, and moving the disk + to the target. + +Before you start, you must choose an installation method. If you have +an Ethernet connection to an NFS server that can provide even ~30M for +a diskless-root filesystem, then insatllation via the net is best. +Next best, if your DECstation is already running Ultrix and has two +disk drives (or one, if you live dangerously), is to copy a diskimage +onto one drive. Finally, you can install by using a second machine as +a helper to prepare a bootable NetBSD/pmax disk. + +If your target is going to run diskless, then installation proceeds as for +method 1. + +You should examine the guide on the NetBSD/pmax web site, which has +more complete and more up-to-date instructions and tips than are given in +this document. + +You should familiarize yourself with the console PROM environment +and the hardware configuration. The PROMs on the older Decstation +2100 and 3100 one syntax. The PROMs on the TurboChannel machines +use a completely different syntax. Be sure you know how to print +the configuration of your machine, and how boot from disk or +network, as appropriate. + +On the 2100/3100, that's + boot -f rz(0,N,0)netbsd (boot from rzN) + boot -f tftp() (boot diskless via TFTP) + boot -f tftp() (boot via MOP from an Ultrix server) + +On the 5000/200, the equivalent is + boot 5/rzN/netbsd + boot 6/tftp + boot 6/mop + +and on other 5000 series machines, + boot 3/rzN/netbsd + boot 3/tftp + boot 3/mop + +You will also need to know the total size (in sectors) and the +approximate geometry of the disks you are installing onto, so that +you can label your disks for the BSD fast filesystem (FFS). The +system comes with sample disk labels for DEC-supplied SCSI drives. +For third-party drives you will need to get head/sector/cylinder +information. For newer ZBR drives you can safely make this +information up. -If you're installing NetBSD/pmax for the first time it's a very good idea -to look at the partition sizes of disk you intend installing NetBSD on. -Changing the size of partitions after you've installed is difficult. -If you do not have a spare bootable disk, it may be simpler to re-install -NetBSD again from scratch. +If you're installing NetBSD/pmax for the first time it's a very good +idea to pre-plan partition sizes for the disks on which you're +installing NetBSD. Changing the size of partitions after you've +installed is difficult. If you do not have a spare bootable disk, it +may be simpler to re-install NetBSD again from scratch. -Asumming a classic partition scheme with root (`/') and /usr filesystems, -a comfortable size for the NetBSD root filesystem partition is about 20MB; -a good initial size for the swap partition is twice the amount of physical -memory in your machine (though, unlike Ultrix, there are no restrictions on -the size of the swap partition that would render part of your memory -unusable). A full binary installation, without X11 or other additional -software, takes about 130MB in `/usr'. This will be substantially reduced in -the next release with support fo dynamically-linked shared libraries. +If you install by copying a disk image, and you want to change the size +of the root partition from the default 32Mbytes, you will need a second +`scratch' disk. You should copy the diskimage onto the `scratch' disk, +boot the scratch disk, and use it to create a tailored root filesystem. +This is because you cannot change the size of an active partition (i.e., +the root filesysem you booted). The standard trick to get around this is +to put a cut-down miniroot into the swap partition, boot the miniroot, +and use that system to change the root filesystem size. DECstation +PROMs don't reliably support booting off partitions other than the 'a' +partition, which is why you need two disks to tailor the root filesystem +size. + +Assuming a classic partition scheme with separate root (`/') and /usr +filesystems, a comfortable size for the NetBSD root filesystem partition +is about 32M. A good initial size for the swap partition is twice the +amount of physical memory in your machine (though, unlike Ultrix, there +are no restrictions on the size of the swap partition that would render +part of your memory unusable). The default swap size is 64Mbytes, which +is adequate for doing a full system build. A full binary installation, +with X11R6.3, takes about 130MB in `/usr'. diff --git a/distrib/notes/pmax/whatis b/distrib/notes/pmax/whatis index d58b152008ab..92931ebdfcc9 100644 --- a/distrib/notes/pmax/whatis +++ b/distrib/notes/pmax/whatis @@ -1,9 +1,36 @@ -NetBSD 1.2 is the second public release of NetBSD for the DECstation -and DECsystem family of computers. This release includes kernel -support for ELF shared libraries, much of which is due to work by Per -Fogelstrom (pefo@OpenBSD.ORG). Note that NetBSD/1.2 pmax still ships -with statically-linked user binaries. Ultrix emulation for tty-aware -applications is improved over NetBSD 1.1. Many NetBSD/pmax bugs have -been fixed, including annoying bugs in the 4.4bsd-Lite/pmax SCSI -drivers. +This is the third public release of NetBSD for the DECstation and +DECsystem family of computers. +This release includes support for either mips1 (r2000, r3000) and +mips3 (r4000, r4400, r4600) CPUs. mips1 and mips3 support can be +configured into a single kernel. NetBSD 1.3 can be installed onto +DECstation 5000/50, 5000/150, 5000/260, or 5900 models, as well as all +previously-supported hardware. + +Though stable NetBSD/pmax snapshots with shared-library support have +been available for over a year, this is the first full NetBSD/pmax +release to ship with ELF shared libraries. Much of the user-space +support for this is due to work by Per Fogelstrom (pefo@OpenBSD.ORG) +and ported to NetBSD by Manuel Bouyer. + +Ultrix emulation for Internet applications is improved over NetBSD +1.2. The Ultrix `ifconfig' command and multicast applications now +work in Ultrix compatibility mode. A ecoff-format NetBSD kernel in an +Ultrix root filesysstem should boot multi-user, though this is not +recommended as an installation method. + +A bug in mips interrupt handling from 4.4BSD, which could cause +`remrunque' panics under heavy load in both NetBSD prior to 1.2E and +OpenBSD, is fixed in this release. + +There are yet more enhancements for the 4.4bsd-Lite/pmax SCSI drivers, +which now correctly probes newer, faster, SCSI-2 disks, and handles +large transfers (up to 64K) on 3100s. Intermediate copies of disk I/O +on IOASIC-based machines are eliminated, yielding a modest improvement +on old disks like the rz25, and a bigger improvement on faster disks. + +Kernel performance tuning includes lower system call overhead, a +faster bcopy() routine, faster IP checksumming code, and other +imrprovemnts. These combine to show a dramatic (e.g., 1.5x-2.5x) +improvement on microbenchmarks like the lmbench suite, and a modest +improvement on larger benchmarks like kernel builds.