NetBSD/distrib/notes/i386/xfer
he 2c5c44b893 Describe multi-floppy boot.
Describe possible PCMCIA workaround via DDB now that DDB is in INSTALL.
1999-02-01 16:16:09 +00:00

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.\" $NetBSD: xfer,v 1.16 1999/02/01 16:16:09 he Exp $
.\"(
.Pp
Installation is supported from several media types, including:
.Pp
.\"(
.Bl -bullet -compact
.It
FTP
.It
.No Remote Tn NFS No partition
.It
DOS floppies
.El
.\")
.Pp
No matter which installation medium you choose, you'll need to have a
floppy disk (either 1.2M or 1.44M will work). You'll put the boot
floppy image ("boot1.fs" and "boot2.fs" for 1.44M floppies,
"boot-tiny.fs" for 1.2M floppies) onto this disk, which contains
software to install or upgrade your
.Nx
system. Note that the "boot-tiny.fs" image is tailored for "small"
machines, this install image does not have drivers for PCI, PCMCIA,
EISA or SCSI (i.e. ISA-only), but can be used on machines with only
4MB of RAM.
.Pp
If you are using a UN*X-like system to write the floppy images to
disks, you should use the
.Xr dd
command to copy the file system image(s)
(.fs file) directly to the raw floppy disk. It is suggested that you
read the
.Xr dd 1
manual page or ask your system administrator to determine the correct
set of arguments to use; it will be slightly different from system to
system, and a comprehensive list of the possibilities is beyond the
scope of this document.
.Pp
If you are using
.Tn DOS
to write the floppy image(s) to floppy disk, you should use the
.Li rawrite
utility, provided in the
.Pa i386/utilities
directory of the
.Nx
distribution. It will write a file system image (.fs file) to a floppy
disk.
.Pp
Note that, when installing or upgrading, the floppy can be
write-protected if you wish. These systems mount ramdisks as their
root file systems once booted, and will not need to write to the
floppy itself at any time -- indeed, once booted, the floppy may be
removed from the disk drive.
.Pp
Obviously, the steps necessary to prepare the distribution sets for
installation or upgrade depend on which installation medium you
choose. The steps for the various media are outlined below.
.Pp
To install or upgrade
.Nx
using
.Tn DOS
floppies, you need to do the following:
.
.\"(
.Bl -bullet
.It
Count the number of
.Ar set_name.xx
files that make up the
distribution sets you want to install or upgrade. You will
need one fifth that number of 1.2M floppies, or one sixth that
number of 1.44M floppies. You should only use one size of
floppy for the install or upgrade procedure; you can't use
some 1.2M floppies and some 1.44M floppies.
.It
Format all of the floppies with
.Tn DOS .
.Em \&Do not
make any of them bootable
.Tn DOS
floppies, i.e. don't use
.Li format/s
to format them. (If the floppies are bootable, then the
.Tn DOS
system
files that make them bootable will take up some space, and you
won't be able to fit as many distribution set parts per disk.)
If you're using floppies that are formatted for
.Tn DOS
by their
manufacturers, they probably aren't bootable, and you can use
them out of the box.
.It
Place all of the
.Ar set_name.xx No files on the
.Tn DOS
disks, five per disk if you're using 1.2M disks, six per disk if you're
using 1.44M disks. How you do this is up to you; there are
many possibilities. You could, for instance, use a DOS
terminal program to download them on to the floppies, or use
a UN*X-like system capable of reading and writing
.Tn DOS
file systems (either with "mtools" or a real
.Tn DOS
file system) to place them on the disk.
.Pp
Once you have the files on
.Tn DOS
disks, you can start the actual installation or upgrade process.
.El
.\")
.
.Pp
To install or upgrade
.Nx
using NFS, you must do the following:
.
.\"(
.Bl -bullet
.It
Place the
.Nx
distribution sets you wish to install into a
directory on an
.Tn NFS
server, and make that directory mountable
by the machine on which you are installing or upgrading
.Nx .
This will probably require modifying the
.Pa /etc/exports
file on the
.Tn NFS
server and resetting its mount daemon (mountd).
(Both of these actions will probably require superuser
privileges on the server.)
.It
You need to know the the numeric IP address of the
.Tn NFS
server,
and, if the server is not on a network directly connected to
the machine on which you're installing or upgrading
.Nx ,
you need to know the numeric IP address of the router closest
to the
.Nx
machine. Finally, you need to know the numeric
IP address of the
.Nx
machine itself. The install
program will ask you to provide this information to be able
to access the sets.
.Pp
Once the
.Tn NFS
server is set up properly and you have the
information mentioned above, you can start the actual
installation or upgrade process.
.El
.\")
.
.Pp
To install or upgrade
.Nx
by using FTP to get the installation
sets, you must do the following:
.
.\"(
.Bl -bullet
.It
The preparations for this installation/upgrade method are
easy; all you make sure that there's some FTP site from which
you can retrieve the
.Nx
distribution when you're about to
install or upgrade. You need to know the numeric IP address
of that site, and, if it's not on a network directly connected
to the machine on which you're installing or upgrading
.Nx ,
you need to know the numeric IP address of the router closest
to the
.Nx
machine. Finally, you need to know the numeric
IP address of the
.Nx
machine itself. The install program
will ask you to provide this information to be able to access
the sets via ftp.
.Pp
Once you have this information, you can proceed to the actual
installation or upgrade.
.El
.\")
.
.Pp
If you are upgrading
.Nx ,
you also have the option of installing
.Nx
by putting the new distribution sets somewhere in your existing
file system, and using them from there. To do that, you must do the
following:
.
.\"(
.Bl -bullet
.It
Place the distribution sets you wish to upgrade somewhere in
your current file system tree. Please note that the
.Pa /dev
on the floppy used for upgrades only knows about wd0, wd1, sd0, sd1
and sd2. If you have more than two IDE drives or more than
three SCSI drives, you should take care not to place the sets
on the high numbered drives.
.It
At a bare minimum, you must upgrade the
.Sy base
and
.Sy kern
binary distribution, and so must put the
.Sy base
and
.Sy kern
sets somewhere in your file system. If you wish,
you can do the other sets, as well, but you should NOT upgrade
the
.Sy etc
distribution; it contains systems
configuration files that you should review and update by hand.
.Pp
Once you have done this, you can proceed to the next step in
the upgrade process, actually upgrading your system.
.El
.\")
.\")