Installing OpenBSD is a relatively complex process, but if you have this document in hand it shouldn't be too much trouble. There are several ways to install OpenBSD onto a disk. The easiest way in terms of preliminary setup is to use the OpenBSD simpleroot that can be booted off your local disk. Alternatively, if your Decstation is hooked up in a network you can find a server and arrange for a diskless setup which is a convenient way to install on a machine whose disk does not currently hold a usable operating system (see the section `Installing using a diskless setup' below). Installing using the OpenBSD simpleroot. The miniroot is a self-contained OpenBSD filesystem holding a complete OpenBSD/pmax rootfilesystem plus all utilities necessary to install OpenBSD on a local disk. It is distributed as a plain file designed to be transferred to a raw disk partition from which it can be booted using the appropriate PROM command. Loading the simpleroot onto your raw partition is simple. On OpenBSD as well as SunOS you use a command like: # dd if=simpleroot21.fs of=/dev/rsd0c bs=20b conv=sync Especially on OpenBSD/pmax you'll have to use /dev/rrz0c or something like that instead of /dev/rsd0c. Keep in mind that this will overwrite the contents of that disk! After transferring the simpleroot to disk, bring the system down by: # halt Then boot the miniroot by typing the appropriate command at the PROM: >> boot rz(0,0,0)/bsd # for Decstation 2100/3100 or >> boot 5/rz0a/bsd # for Decstation 5000's If you've loaded the simpleroot onto some other disk than `rz0' adapt the boot specifier accordingly. This will cause the kernel contained in the simpleroot to be booted. After the initial probe messages you'll asked to choose a shell with sh as default. Simply type Return here and you are in single user mode. XXX more to come here Installing using a diskless setup. First, you must setup a diskless client configuration on a server. If you are using a OpenBSD system as the boot-server, have a look at the diskless(8) manual page for guidelines on how to proceed with this. If the server runs another operating system, you'll have to consult documentation that came with it (on SunOS systems, add_client(8) is a good start). XXX more to come here As noted above in the section `Preparing your System for OpenBSD Installation', you have several options when choosing a location to store the installation filesets. However, the easiest way is to put the *.tar.gz files you want to install into the root directory for your client on the server. Next, unpack `base.tar.gz' and `etc.tar.gz' on the server in the root directory for your machine. If you elect to use a separately NFS-mounted filesystem for `/usr' with your diskless setup, make sure the "./usr" base files in base.tar.gz end up in the correct location. One way to do this is to temporarily use a loopback mount on the server, re-routing /usr to your server's exported OpenBSD "/usr" directory. Also put the kernel and the install/upgrade scripts into the root directory. A few configuration files need to be edited: /etc/hosts Add the IP addresses of both server and client. /etc/myname This files contains the client's hostname; use the same name as in /etc/hosts. /etc/fstab Enter the entries for the remotely mounted filesystems. For example: server:/export/root/client / nfs rw 0 0 server:/export/exec/sun4.OpenBSD /usr nfs rw 0 0 Now you must populate the the `/dev' directory for your client. If you server runs SunOS 4.x, you can simply change your working directory to `/dev' and run the MAKEDEV script: `sh MAKEDEV all'. On SunOS 5.x systems, MAKEDEV can also be used, but there'll be error messages about unknown user and groups. These errors are inconsequential for the purpose of installing OpenBSD. However, you may want to correct them if you plan to the diskless setup regularly. In that case, you may re-run MAKEDEV on your OpenBSD machine once it has booted. XXX more to come here This will boot the OpenBSD kernel in single-user mode. If you use a diskless setup with a separately NFS-mounted /usr filesystem, mount /usr by hand now: OpenBSD# mount /usr XXX more to come here Here follows an example of what you'll see while in the dislabel editor. Do not touch any of the parameters except for the `label: ' entry and the actual partition size information at the bottom (the lines starting with `a:', `b:', ...). The size and offset fields are given in sector units. Partitions on which you intend to have a mountable filesystem, should be given fstype `4.2BSD'. Remember, the `c' partition should describe the whole disk. The `(Cyl. x - y)' info that appears after the hash (`#') character is treated as a comment and need not be filled in when altering partitions. Special note: the line containing `8 partitions:' is best left alone, even if you define less then eight partitions. If this line displays a different number and the program complains about it (after you leave the editor), then try setting it to `8 partitions:'. OpenBSD# disklabel rz0 # /dev/rrz0c: type: SCSI disk: SCSI disk label: Hold Your Breath flags: bytes/sector: 512 sectors/track: 64 tracks/cylinder: 7 sectors/cylinder: 448 cylinders: 1429 rpm: 3600 interleave: 1 trackskew: 0 cylinderskew: 0 headswitch: 0 # milliseconds track-to-track seek: 0 # milliseconds drivedata: 0 8 partitions: # size offset fstype [fsize bsize cpg] a: 50176 0 4.2BSD 0 0 0 # (Cyl. 0 - 111) b: 64512 50176 swap # (Cyl. 112 - 255) c: 640192 0 unknown # (Cyl. 0 - 1428) d: 525504 114688 4.2BSD 0 0 0 # (Cyl. 256 - 1428) else, start the installation script: OpenBSD# sh install.sh These scripts will do most of the work of transferring the system from the tar files onto your disk. You will frequently be asked for confirmation before the script proceeds with each phase of the installation process. Occasionally, you'll have to provide a piece of information such as the name of the disk you want to install on or IP addresses and domain names you want to assign. If your system has more than one disk, you may want to look at the output of the dmesg(8) command to see how your disks have been identified by the kernel. The installation script goes through the following phases: - determination of the disk to install OpenBSD on - checking of the partition information on the disk - creating and mounting the OpenBSD filesystems - setup of IP configuration - extraction of the distribution tar files - installation of boot programs Now try a reboot. (If needed, swap your scsi id's first). Initially I'd suggest you "boot" (Decstation 2100/3100) or "boot/rz0a/bsd", then try multiuser after that. if you boot single-user the OpenBSD incantation to make the root filesystem writable is OpenBSD# mount -u /dev/sd0a / XXX more to come about setting defaults on the prom prompt Congratulations, you have successfully installed OpenBSD 2.1. When you reboot into OpenBSD, you should log in as "root" at the login prompt. There is no initial password, but if you're using the machine in a networked environment, you should create yourself an account and protect it and the "root" account with good passwords. Some of the files in the OpenBSD 2.1 distribution might need to be tailored for your site. In particular, the /etc/sendmail.cf file will almost definitely need to be adjusted, and other files in /etc will probably need to be modified. If you are unfamiliar with UN*X-like system administration, it's recommended that you buy a book that discusses it.