xref: /openbsd/distrib/notes/sparc64/xfer (revision 3cab2bb3)
1dnl	$OpenBSD: xfer,v 1.35 2020/05/17 17:04:28 deraadt Exp $
2Installation is supported from several media types, including:
3
4	CD-ROM (NOT supported if booting from floppy)
5	FFS partitions
6	HTTP
7
8If you created an OpenBSD CD-ROM (and have a CD-ROM drive), you may be
9able to boot from it, or from the supplied bootable CD-ROM mini image. If you
10can boot from the CD-ROM, you are home free and can proceed to the
11installation steps.  If not, you will need to do some setup work to prepare
12a bootable image, either a floppy, hard drive, or compatible net boot
13server.
14
15In addition to the bootable image, you also need to consider how to
16access the binary distribution sets to actually install the system.
17
18Although you can access the distribution sets directly from one of the
19OpenBSD mirrors over the internet, you may wish to transfer the sets to
20a local HTTP server, or copy them to a partition on the target system's
21disk.
22
23OpenBSDXferCDROM
24
25OpenBSDXferFloppyFromDOS
26
27OpenBSDXferFloppyFromUNIX
28
29Creating a bootable hard disk using SunOS, Solaris or other Unix-like system:
30
31	If you don't have a floppy drive you can copy the miniroot
32	"miniroot{:--:}OSrev.img" onto the hard disk you intend to boot on.
33	Traditionally, the way to do this is to use dd(1) to place the
34	bootable filesystem image in the "swap" partition of the disk
35	(while running in single user mode), and then booting from that
36	partition.
37
38	Using the "b" partition allows you to boot without overwriting
39	any useful parts of the disk; you can also use another partition,
40	but don't use the "a" or "c" partition without understanding the
41	disk label issues described below under "incompatible systems".
42
43	This requires that you be running SunOS, Solaris, OpenBSD, or NetBSD,
44	which have a compatible view of SunOS disk labels and partitions.
45
46	Use the dd(1) utility to copy the file to the hard drive.
47	The command would likely be, under SunOS:
48 		dd if=miniroot{:--:}OSrev.img of=/dev/rsd0b bs=64b
49	and under Solaris:
50 		dd if=miniroot{:--:}OSrev.img of=/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s1 bs=64b
51
52	The blocksize is arbitrary as long as it's a multiple of 512-bytes
53	and within the maximum supported by the driver, i.e. bs=126b may
54	not work for all cases.  Again, device/partition names may vary,
55	depending on the OS involved.
56
57	If you are preparing the hard drive on an incompatible system or
58	don't care about the hard disk contents, you can also install the
59	bootable image starting at the beginning of the disk. This lets
60	you prepare a bootable hard-drive even if don't have a working
61	operating system on your machine, but it is important to understand
62	that the bootable image installed this way includes a "disk label"
63	which can wipe out any pre-existing disklabels or partitioning for
64	the drive.
65
66Creating a network bootable setup using SunOS or other Unix-like system:
67
68	The details of setting up a network bootable environment vary
69	considerably, depending on the network's host.  Extract the
70	OpenBSD diskless(8) man page from the man{:--:}OSrev.tgz distribution
71	set or see the copy on the OpenBSD web page.  You will also
72	need to reference the relevant man pages or administrators guide
73	for the host system.
74
75	Basically, you will need to set up reverse-arp (rarpd) and boot
76	parameter (rpc.bootparamd) information and make the OpenBSD
77	bootblock, kernel/miniroot partition, and a swap file available
78	as required by the netboot setup.
79
80
81OpenBSDXferPrelude
82
83OpenBSDXferFFS
84