OpenBSDInstallPrelude

There are several ways to install OpenBSD onto a disk. The easiest way
in terms of preliminary setup is to use the OpenBSD ramdisk kernel that
can be booted off your local MSDOS disk or from the CD-ROM.


Installing using the OpenBSD ramdisk kernel.

The ramdisk kernel is a self-contained OpenBSD filesystem including all
utilities necessary to install OpenBSD on a local disk, embedded in a
GENERIC kernel image. It is distributed as a plain ECOFF executable file
designed to be loaded into the system by the ARC firmware.

Loading the ramdisk kernel into your system is done with the appropriate
BIOS Run command on Your system. Usually this is done by typing in the
following string at the "Run a program" prompt:

	scsi()disk()rdisk()partition(1)\bsd.rd

to boot from an existing MSDOS FAT partition to which the ramdisk kernel
have been copied. Or from the CD-ROM:

	CD:\OSREV\arc\bsd.rd

Exact input to describe the device path varies. Consult your ARC-Bios manual
for more information about the particular system.

This will cause the ramdisk kernel 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.


Start the installation script:

	# install


The script 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.

The installation script goes through the following phases:

	- determination of the disk to install OpenBSD on
	- checking of the MBR partition information on the disk
	- checking of the OpenBSD partition information on the disk
	- creating and mounting the OpenBSD filesystems
	- setup of IP configuration
	- extraction of the distribution tar files
	- installation of kernel and the bootable kernel

The installation program will guide you through the installation. There is
one area of complexity that you should be very careful about and that is
how to install the required MBR (Msdos Boot Record) and MSDOS FAT partition.

OpenBSD will coexist with other operating systems with help from the MSDOS
partition table. Because the ARC Bios only knows how to boot from a FAT
formatted disk there must always exist a small or big (depending on your
needs) MSDOS FAT partition on the disk. Install will initialize the install
target disk with a proper MBR and an empty 5Mb MSDOS partition it that is
desired. Or it will keep the current MBR and partitioning. In the later case
you will need to fill in the MBR with a usable OpenBSD partition.


Now try a reboot (enter the command "reboot" at the prompt). This will take
you back to the ARC Bios. You will now need to set up a boot selection to
boot OpenBSD. How to do this varies from system to system and should be
described in your systems manual. The process to set up the parameters is
almost exactly the same as for Win/NT apart from the name of the OSLOADER
which should be set to 'bsd'. You may also set the OSLOADOPTIONS parameter
to any of the following characters:

	n = Ask for root device Name.	N = Don't as for root device Name.
	a = Autoboot to Multiuser mode.	A = Boot to single user mode.

So to boot the system to multiuser mode set:

	OSLOADOPTIONS=Na

OpenBSDFTPInstall

OpenBSDHTTPInstall

OpenBSDTAPEInstall

OpenBSDCDROMInstall

OpenBSDNFSInstall

OpenBSDDISKInstall({:-"wdN" or -:},,{:- or MS-DOS-:})

OpenBSDCommonFS

OpenBSDCommonURL

OpenBSDCongratulations