Installation is supported from several media types, including: FFS partitions Tape Remote NFS partition CD-ROM (with PROM versions >= 3.0) FTP HTTP However, you can only boot the installation procedure from disk, tape or network. This requires some setup work to prepare a bootable image, either a tape, or a compatible net boot server. Although you can access the distribution sets directly from one of the FTP mirrors over the internet, you may wish to transfer the sets to a local FTP or NFS server, or copy them to a partition on the target system's disk or onto a SCSI tape. The variety of options listed may seem confusing, but situations vary widely in terms of what peripherals and what sort of network arrangements a user has, the intent is to provide some way that will be practical. Creating a bootable hard disk using SunOS or other Un*x-like system: You can copy the miniroot image "miniroot{:--:}OSrev.fs" onto the hard disk you intend to boot on. Traditionally, the way to do this is to use dd(1) to place the bootable filesystem image in the "swap" partition of the disk (while running in single user mode), and then booting from that partition. Using the "b" partition allows you to boot without overwriting any useful parts of the disk, you can also use another partition, but don't used the "a" or "c" partition without understanding the disklabel issues described below under "incompatible systems". This requires that you be running SunOS, Solaris, OpenBSD or NetBSD which have a compatible view of SunOS disk labels and partitions. Use the dd(1) utility to copy the file to the hard drive. Under SunOS, the command would be: dd if=miniroot{:--:}OSrev.fs of=/dev/rsd0b bs=36b The blocksize is arbitrary as long as it's a multiple of 512-bytes and within the maximum supported by the driver, i.e. bs=126b may not work for all cases. Again, device/partition names may vary, depending on the OS involved. Creating a network bootable setup using SunOS or other Un*x-like system: The details of setting up a network bootable environment vary considerably, depending on the networks host. Extract the OpenBSD diskless(8) man page from the man{:--:}OSrev.tgz distribution set or see the copy on the OpenBSD web page. You will also need to reference the relevant man pages or administrators guide for the host system. Basically, you will need to set up reverse-arp (rarpd) and boot parameter (bootpd) information and make the OpenBSD bootblock, kernel/miniroot partition, and a swap file available as required by the netboot setup. The steps necessary to prepare the distribution sets for installation depend on which method of installation you choose. Some methods require a bit of setup first that is explained below. The installation allows installing OpenBSD directly from FTP mirror sites over the internet, however you must consider the speed and reliability of your internet connection for this option. It may save much time and frustration to use ftp get/reget to transfer the distribution sets to a local server or disk and perform the installation from there, rather than directly on the internet. To install or upgrade OpenBSD using a tape, you need to do the following: To install OpenBSD from a tape, you need to make a tape that contains the distribution set files, each in "tar" format or in "gzipped tar format". First you will need to transfer the distribution sets to your local system, using ftp. Then you need to make a tape containing the files. If you're making the tape on a UN*X-like system, the easiest way to do so is make a shell script along the following lines, call it "/tmp/maketape". #! /bin/sh tape=/dev/nrst0 mt -f ${tape} rewind if test $# -lt 1 then for file in tapeboot bsd.rd do dd if=${file} of=${tape} obs=8k conv=sync done fi for file in base etc comp game man misc do dd if=${file}OSrev.tgz of=${tape} obs=8k conv=sync done tar cf ${tape} bsd mt -f ${tape} offline # end of script And then: cd .../OSREV/sun3 sh -x /tmp/maketape Note that this script creates a bootable tape. If you only want to fetch the OpenBSD files from tape, but want to boot from another device, you can save time and space creating the tape this way: cd .../OSREV/sun3 sh -x /tmp/maketape noboot If you're using a system other than OpenBSD or SunOS, the tape name and other requirements may change. To install OpenBSD using a remote partition, mounted via NFS, you must do the following: NOTE: This method of installation is recommended only for those already familiar with using BSD network configuration and management commands. If you aren't, this documentation should help, but is not intended to be all-encompassing. Place the OpenBSD distribution sets you wish to install into a directory on an NFS server, and make that directory mountable by the machine on which you are installing or upgrading OpenBSD. This will probably require modifying the /etc/exports file on of the NFS server and resetting its mount daemon (mountd). (Both of these actions will probably require superuser privileges on the server.) You need to know the numeric IP address of the NFS server, and, if the server is not on a network directly connected to the machine on which you're installing or upgrading OpenBSD, you need to know the numeric IP address of the router closest to the OpenBSD machine. Finally, you need to know the numeric IP address of the OpenBSD machine itself. Once the NFS server is set up properly and you have the information mentioned above, you can proceed to the next step in the installation or upgrade process. If you're installing OpenBSD from scratch, go to the section on preparing your hard disk, below. If you're upgrading an existing installation, go directly to the section on upgrading. If you are upgrading OpenBSD, you also have the option of installing OpenBSD 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: Place the distribution sets you wish to upgrade somewhere in your current file system tree. At a bare minimum, you must upgrade the "base" binary distribution, and so must put the "base{:--:}OSrev" set somewhere in your file system. If you wish, you can do the other sets, as well, but you should NOT upgrade the "etc" distribution; the "etc" distribution contains system configuration files that you should review and update by hand. Once you have done this, you can proceed to the next step in the upgrade process, actually upgrading your system.