path: root/distrib/notes/sparc/xfer

Installation is supported from several media types, including:

	FFS partitions
	Tape
	Remote NFS partition
	CD-ROM
	FTP
	HTTP

Not all methods are supported on all Sparc Systems and some of them
work only with the new single-floppy installation or the miniroot
installation, not with the older multi-floppy installation.


If you have the OpenBSD CD-ROM distribution (and a CD-ROM drive), you
may be able boot from it.  Not all sparc systems support booting from
CD-ROM and the current boot images is only known to work on Sun4c
architecture workstations such as the IPC, SS1 or SS2.  If you can boot
from the CD-ROM, you are home free and can proceed to the installation
steps.  If not, you will need to do some setup work to prepare a bootable
image, either floppies, a hard drive, or a compatible net boot server.

In addition to the bootable image, you also need to consider how to
access the binary distribution sets to actually install the system.  If
you have the OpenBSD CD-ROM distribution you can either access the
CD-ROM directly from the bootable image or remotely mounted on another
system via NFS.

Although you can access the distribution sets directly from the CD-ROM or
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 arragements
a user has, the intent is to provide some way that will be practical.


Creating a bootable floppy disk using DOS/Windows:

	First you need to get access to the OpenBSD Bootable floppy
	images.  If you can access the CD-ROM distribution under DOS
	the bootable disks are in the 2.1/sparc directory, otherwise
	you you will have to download them from one of the OpenBSD
	ftp or http mirror sites, using ftp or a web-viewer.  In either
	case, take care to do "binary" transfers, since these are
	images files and any DOS cr/lf translations or control/z EOF
	interpretations will result in corrupted transfers.
	
	You will also need to go to the "tools" directory and grab a
	copy of the rawrite.exe utility and it's documentation.  This
	program is needed to correctly copy the bootable filesystem
	image to the floppy, since it's an image of a unix partition
	containing a ffs filesystem, not a MSDOS format diskette.

	Once you have installed rawrite.exe, just run it and specify the
	name of the bootable image, such as "floppy.fs" and the name of
	the floppy drive, such as "a:".  Be sure to use good quality HD
	(1.44MB) floppies, formatted on the system you're using.  The
	image copy and boot process is not especially tolerant of read
	errors. 

	Note that, when installing, the boot floppy can be write-protected
	(i.e.  read-only).


Creating a bootable floppy disk using SunOS or other Un*x-like system:

	First, you will need obtain a local copy of the bootable filesystem
	image as described above.  If possible use cksum or md5 to verify
	the checksums of the images vs. the values in the CKSUM or MD5
	files on the mirror site.

	Next, use the dd(1) utility to copy the file to the floppy drive.
	Under SunOS, the comand would be:

		dd if=floppy21.fs of=/dev/rfdc0 bs=36b

	If you are using someting other than SunOS, you may have to adapt
	this to conform to local naming conventions for the floppy and
	options suitable for copying to a "raw" floppy image.  The key
	issue is that the device name used for the floppy *must* be one
	that refers to the whole 2880 block image, not a partition or
	compatibility mode, and the copy command needs to be compatible
	with the requirement that writes to a raw device must be in
	multiples of 512-byte blocks.  The variations are endless and
	beyond the scope of this document.

	If you're doing this on the system you intend to be the floppy on,
	copying the floppy back to a file and doing a compare or checksum
	is a good way to verify that the floppy is readable and free of
	read/write errors.



Creating a bootable hard disk using SunOS or other Un*x-like system:

	If you don't have a floppy drive you can copy the single floppy
	installation image "floppy.fs" or the mini-root "miniroot.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 "uncompatible systems".

	This requires that you be running SunOS, Solaris, OpenBSD or NetBSD
	which have a compatible view of SunOS disk labels and paritions.

	Use the dd(1) utility to copy the file to the floppy drive.
	Under SunOS, the comand would be:

		dd if=floppy21.fs of=/dev/rsd0b bs=36b
				- or -
		dd if=miniroot21.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/parition names may vary,
	depending on the OS involved.

	If you are preparing the hard drive on an incompatible system or
	don't care about the hard disk contents, you can also install the
	bootable image starting at the beginning of the disk. This lets
	you prepare a bootable hard-drive even if don't have a working
	operating system on your Sparc, but it important to understand
	that the bootable image installed this way includes a "disk label"
	which can wipe out any pre-existing disklabels or paritioning for
	the drive.

	The floppy image is used only for booting, and can be placed in
	a partition that will be overwritten during the install process,
	since it actaully runs of of a ram-disk image in the kernel.  In
	contrast the miniroot is a normal unix root filesystem and you
	must place in a parition that will not be overwritten until you've
	completed the installation process.

	To copy the floppy image to the whole disk, overwriting labels:

		dd if=floppy21.fs of=/dev/rsdXc bs=36b

	Two notes - X should be replaced by the unit number of the target
	disk, which is most likely *not* the disk/paritition that's your
	current root partition.  Again names may vary depending on the
	OS involved.  Second, after doing this, the disklable will be one
	that would be appropiate for a floppy, i.e. one parition of 2880
	block, and you'll probably want to change that later on.

	If you're starting with a virgin disk and trying to do this under
	SunOS, use format(8) and newfs(8) to set up the paritions and
	mark the intended parition as an normal partiton type.  If you're
	using OpenBSD, perhaps on another architecture, OpenBSD will
	create a "fictitious label" that will let you access the whole
	disk.

	To copy the flopy image to the hard disk, preserving SunOS,
	Solaris NetBSD or OpenBSD labels:

		dd if=floppy21.fs of=/dev/rsdXc bs=1b skip=1 seek=1

	You need to be sure that your version of dd(1) supports the
	skip and seek operands, otherwise you can try a technique like:

		dd if=/dev/rsdXc of=/tmp/label bs=1b count=1
		dd if=floppy21.fs of=/dev/rsdXc bs=36b
		dd if=/tmp/label of=/dev/rsdXc bs=1b count=1

	In either case, you've created a situation where the disklabel
	and the filesystem information don't agree about the paritition
	size and geometry, however the results will be usable.


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 share.tar.gz distibution
	set or see the copy on the OpenBSD web page.  You will also
	need to reference the relevant man pages or adminstrators 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 new single floppy 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, in "tar" format.  If
	you're making the tape on a UN*X-like system, the easiest way
	to do so is probably something like:

		tar cf <tape_device> <dist_directories>

	where "<tape_device>" is the name of the tape device that
	describes the tape drive you're using (possibly /dev/rst0, or
	something similar, but it will vary from system to system.
	(If you can't figure it out, ask your system administrator.)
	In the above example, "<dist_directories>" are the
	distribution sets' directories, for the distribution sets you
	wish to place on the tape.  For instance, to put the "base21"
	and "etc21" distributions on tape (in order to do the absolute
	minimum installation to a new disk), you would do the
	following:

		cd .../2.1		# the top of the tree
		cd sparc
		tar cf <tape_device> base21 etc21

	(Note that you still need to fill in "<tape_device>" in the
	example.)

	Once you have the files on the tape, 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.


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 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
	"base21" 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.