INSTALL.ext,
where
ext
is one of
.ps, .html, .more,
or .txt.
.ps.html.moremore(1)
and
less(1)
pager utility programs. This is the format in which the on-line
man
pages are generally presented.
.txtYou are reading the HTML version.
NetBSD is a completely integrated system. In addition to its highly portable, high performance kernel, NetBSD features a complete set of user utilities, compilers for several languages, The X Window System, and numerous other tools, all accompanied by full source code.
NetBSD is a creation of the members of the Internet community. Without the unique cooperation and coordination the net makes possible, it's likely that NetBSD wouldn't exist.
NetBSD 1.4.2 is an upgrade of NetBSD 1.4.1, NetBSD 1.4 and earlier releases of NetBSD such as versions 1.3.3, 1.2 etc.
The intermediate development versions of code available on the main trunk in our CVS repository (also known as ``NetBSD-current'') from after the point where the release cycle for 1.4 was started are designated by version identifiers such as 1.4A, 1.4B, 1.4P etc. These identifiers do not designate releases, but indicate major changes in internal kernel APIs. Note that the kernel from NetBSD 1.4.2 can not be used to upgrade a system running one of those intermediate development versions. Trying to use the NetBSD1.4.2 kernel on such a system will in all probability result in problems.
Please also note that it is not possible to do a direct ``version'' comparison between any of the intermediate development versions mentioned above and 1.4.2 to determine if a given feature is present or absent in 1.4.2. The development of 1.4, 1.4.1 and 1.4.2 is done on a separate branch in the CVS repository which was created when the release cylcle for 1.4 was started, and during the release cycles for all these versions selective fixes (with minor impact on the stability of the code on the release branch) have been imported from the main development trunk. So, there are features in 1.4.2 which were not in e.g. 1.4H, but the reverse is also true.
ti(4).
rl(4).
dpt(4).
ioat(4).
mktemp(1).
amd(8)
has been updated to fix a security problem.
In addition, many, many bugs have been fixed -- more than 100 problems reported through our problem tracking system have been fixed, and many other non-reported problems have also been found and fixed. See the CHANGES-1.4.2 file for the complete list.
ipf(8)
caused a change of the kernel API. Thus, if you are using
ipf(8)
you need to upgrade both the kernel and the user-land utilities to
control that feature in order for it to work.
It is impossible to completely summarize the nearly two years of development that went into the NetBSD1.4 release. Some highlights include:
ftp(1)
client has been improved even further. See the man page for details.
wscons(4),
has been integrated into many ports.
usb(4)
for an overview.
nsswitch.conf(5)
functionality to the system to specify the search order for system databases.
syslogd(8)
now supports listening on multiple sockets, to make the
chrooting of servers easier.
As has been noted, there have also been innumerable bug fixes.
Kernel interfaces have continued to be refined, and more subsystems and device drivers are shared among the different ports. You can look for this trend to continue.
This is the third public release of
NetBSD
for the
VAX.
The
NetBSD
Foundation will help improve the quality of
NetBSD
by:
We intend to begin narrowing the time delay between releases. Our
ambition is to provide a full release every six to eight months.
We hope to support even
more
hardware in the future, and we have a
rather large number of other ideas about what can be done to improve
NetBSD.
We intend to continue our current practice of making the
NetBSD-current development source available on a daily basis. In
addition, Anonymous CVS access to the NetBSD
source tree has been added since
NetBSD
1.4.1; see
http://www.netbsd.org/Changes/#anoncvs-available
We have also added a browsable CVS repository on the web at
http://cvsweb.netbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/
We intend to integrate free, positive changes from whatever sources
submit them, providing that they are well thought-out and increase the
usability of the system.
Above all, we hope to create a stable and accessible system, and to be
responsive to the needs and desires of
NetBSD
users, because it is for
and because of them that
NetBSD
exists.
In addition to the files and directories listed above, there is one
directory per architecture, for each of the architectures for which
NetBSD1.4.2
has a binary distribution. There are also
'README.export-control' files sprinkled liberally throughout the
distribution tree, which point out that there are some portions of the
distribution (i.e. the `domestic' portion) that may be subject to
export regulations of the United States. It is your responsibility
to determine whether or not it is legal for you to export these portions
and to act accordingly. The NetBSD project maintains a web page at
http://www.NetBSD.ORG/Misc/crypto-export.html
which should contain up-to-date information on this issue.
The source distribution sets can be found in subdirectories of the
"source" subdirectory of the distribution tree. They contain the
complete sources to the system. The source distribution sets
are as follows:
Most of the above source sets are located in the
The source sets are distributed as compressed tar files. They may be
unpacked into
The split distributions may be reassembled and extracted with
cat as follows:
In each of the source distribution set directories, there is a file
named
The vax security distribution set is named
secr and can be found in the
NetBSD
maintains its own set of sources for the X Window System in order to
assure tight integration and compatibility.
These sources are based on XFree86, and tightly track XFree86 releases.
They are currently equivalent to XFree86 3.3.6.
Binary sets for the X Window system are distributed with
NetBSD.
The sets are:
The vax binary distribution sets are distributed as gzipped tar files
named with the extension
.tgz, e.g.
The instructions given for extracting the source sets work equally
well for the binary sets, but it is worth noting that if you use that
method, the files are /-relative and
therefore are extracted
below
the current directory. That
is, if you want to extract the binaries into your system, i.e.
replace the system binaries with them, you have to run the
tar xfp
command from /.
All BSDSUM
files are historic
BSD checksums for the various files
in that directory, in the format produced by the command:
cksum -o 1 file
All CKSUM files are
POSIX
checksums for the various files in that
directory, in the format produced by the command:
cksum file.
All MD5 files are
MD5
digests for the various files in that
directory, in the format produced by the command:
cksum -m file.
All SYSVSUM
files are historic AT&T System V
UNIX
checksums for the various files in that directory, in the format produced by
the command:
cksum -o -2 file.
The MD5 digest is the safest checksum, followed by the POSIX
checksum. The other two checksums are provided only to ensure
that the widest possible range of system can check the integrity
of the release files.
Hardware supported by NetBSD/vax 1.4.2 includes (but may not be limited to):
Some third-party controllers are also known to work, other do not.
The minimal configuration requires 2M of RAM and ~40MB of disk space,
but the installation really requires 6MB RAM unless you plan on
using Jedi powers.
Here is a table of recommended HD partition sizes for a full install:
The Future of NetBSD
The
NetBSD
Foundation has been incorporated as a non-profit
organization. Its purpose is to encourage, foster and promote the
free exchange of computer software, namely the
NetBSD
Operating
System. The foundation will allow for many things to be handled more
smoothly than could be done with our previous informal organization.
In particular, it provides the framework to deal with other parties
that wish to become involved in the
NetBSD
Project.
Sources of NetBSD
Please refer to
http://www.netbsd.org/Sites/net.html.
NetBSD 1.4.2 Release Contents
The root directory of the
NetBSD1.4.2
release is organized as follows:
.../NetBSD-1.4.2/
BUGSCHANGESLAST_MINUTEMIRRORSREADME.filesTODOpatches/source/
421K gzipped, 2M uncompressed
19M gzipped, 84.3M uncompressed
13.9M gzipped, 68.3M uncompressed
3M gzipped, 11.9M uncompressed
14.4M gzipped, 67.4M uncompressed
source/sets
subdirectory of the distribution tree. The secrsrc.tgz set is
contained in the
source/security
subdirectory. This set, which may only be
available to users in the United States and Canada, contains the
sources normally found in
/usr/src/domestic
- primarily Kerberos and
other cryptographic security related software. (Remember, because of
United States law, it may not be legal to distribute this set to
locations outside of the United States and Canada. Again, see
http://www.NetBSD.ORG/Misc/crypto-export.html
for updated information on this issue.)
/usr/src
with the command:
cat set_name.tgz | gunzip | (cd /; tar xpf - )
The sets/Split/
and security/Split/
subdirectories contain split
versions of the source sets for those users who need to load the
source sets from floppy or otherwise need a split distribution. The
split sets are are named "set_name.xx" where "set_name" is the
distribution set name, and "xx" is the sequence number of the file,
starting with "aa" for the first file in the distribution set, then
"ab" for the next, and so on. All of these files except the last one
of each set should be exactly 240,640 bytes long. (The last file is
just long enough to contain the remainder of the data for that
distribution set.)
cat set_name.?? | gunzip | (cd /; tar xpf - )
CKSUMS
which contains the checksums of the files in that
directory, as generated by the
cksum(1)
utility. You can use cksum to
check the integrity of the archives, if you suspect that one of the
files is corrupt and have access to a cksum binary. Checksums based on
other algorithms may also be present - see the
release(7)
man page for details.
NetBSD/vax Subdirectory Structure
The vax-specific portion of the
NetBSD1.4.2
release is found in the
vax
subdirectory of the distribution:
.../NetBSD-1.4.2/vax/
INSTALL.htmlINSTALL.psINSTALL.txtINSTALL.more.more file contains underlined text using the
more(1)
conventions for indicating italic and bold display.
binary/
sets/security/installation/Binary Distribution Sets
The
NetBSD
vax
binary distribution sets contain the binaries which
comprise the
NetBSD1.4.2
release for the vax. There are eight binary distribution
sets and the security distribution set.
The binary distribution sets can be found in the
vax/binary/sets
subdirectory
of the
NetBSD1.4.2
distribution tree, and are as follows:
10.1M gzipped, 24.8M uncompressed
/usr/include)
and the various system libraries (except the shared
libraries, which are included as part of the
base
set). This set also includes the manual pages for
all of the utilities it contains, as well as the
system call and library manual pages.
8.1M gzipped, 27.3M uncompressed
/etc
and in several other places. This set
must
be installed if you are installing the system from scratch, but should
not
be used if you are upgrading. (If you are upgrading,
it's recommended that you get a copy of this set and
carefully
upgrade your configuration files by hand.)
60K gzipped, 350K uncompressed
2.8M gzipped, 6.8M uncompressed
/netbsd.
You must
install this distribution set.
517k gzipped, 1M uncompressed
4.2M gzipped, 17.2M uncompressed
/usr/share.
2.1M gzipped, 8.1M uncompressed
groff(1),
all related programs, and their manual pages.
1.2M gzipped, 4.3M uncompressed
vax/binary/security
subdirectory of the
NetBSD1.4.2
distribution tree. It contains security-related binaries
which depend on cryptographic source code. You do not need this
distribution set to use encrypted passwords in your password file; the
base
distribution includes a crypt library which can perform
only the one-way encryption function. The security distribution
includes a version of the Kerberos IV network security system, and
a Kerberized version of
telnet(1)
program. The secr
distribution set can be found only on those sites which carry the complete
NetBSD
distribution and which can legally obtain it. Because
of United States law, it may not be legal to distribute this set
to locations outside of the United States and Canada. See
http://www.NetBSD.ORG/Misc/crypto-export.html
for updated information on this issue.
base.tgz.
NetBSD/vax System Requirements and Supported Devices
| Partition | Advised | Needed |
| root (/) | 32M | 16M |
| user (/usr) | 110M | 45M |
| swap | 2 or 3 * RAM |
Installation is supported from several media types, including:
The procedure for transferring the distribution sets onto installation media depends on the type of media. most of it is up to you, depending what you want to install, but preferred are to do the installation over network as soon as the install kernel is booted.
.../NetBSD-1.4.2/vax/installation/bootfs/boot.fs.gz
Under Ultrix the tape name is different:
gunzip boot.fs.gz
mt -f /dev/rmt0h rewind
dd if=boot.fs of=/dev/rmt0h
mt -f /dev/rmt0h rewoffl
Of course, if you have a tape unit other than unit 0 you have to use the corresponding unit number.
If you wish to install the sets from tape then stage you will need to
download the *.tgz files from
.../NetBSD-1.4.2/vax/binary/sets{50,33}
(if your disk is less than 200MB you will probably want to exclude the
X sets) and then before the 'mt ... rewoffl' run
tar cvf /dev/nrmt0 *.tgz
When you have booted the bootfs and completed the disk partitioning
you will be prompted to 'select medium' for install. At this point
you will need to press ^Z (Ctrl+Z) to suspend the install tool, then
cd /mnt
mt -f /dev/nrmt0 rewind
mt -f /dev/nrmt0 fsf
tar xvf /dev/nrmt0
fg
then select "install from local dir" and give "/mnt".
Note: If your disk is small you will need to be careful about filling
it up.
If you are using any other OS to create bootable tapes, remember that the blocksize must be 512 for the file to be bootable! Otherwise it just won't work.
.../NetBSD-1.4.2/vax/installation/bootfs/boot.fs.gz
All floppies except RX50 use a standardized format for storing data so writing the bootfs to the floppy can be done on any PC. From DOS the preferred way to do this is using RAWRITE.EXE.
If your machine has a disk and network connection, it may be convenient for you to install NetBSD over the network. This involves temporarily booting your machine over NFS, just long enough so you can initialize its disk. This method requires that you have access to an NFS server on your network so you can configure it to support diskless boot for your machine. Configuring the NFS server is normally a task for a system administrator, and is not trivial.
If you are using a NetBSD 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, consult the
documentation that came with it. (I.e. add_client(8) on SunOS.)
There is also very useful documentation at http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/network/netboot/
You also must install a MOP loader. If you are booting from another NetBSD machine, the MOP daemons are included in the distribution, otherwise you may have to install a MOP loader. A loader can be found at ftp.stacken.kth.se:/pub/OS/NetBSD/mopd Fetch the latest and read the installation instructions.
The file that should be loaded is called boot.mop and is located in
.../NetBSD-1.4.2/vax/installation/netboot/boot.mop
The kernel to load is the same kernel as the bootfs uses and can
be found in
.../NetBSD-1.4.2/vax/installation/netboot/netbsd.ram.gz
From the install program started in the kernel the rest of the system
can be installed.
There is also a very good (if somewhat out of date) FAQ for netbooting
VAXen at
http://world.std.com/~bdc/projects/vaxen/VAX-netboot-HOWTO.html
that describes netbooting of VAXen from many different OS'es.
VAX machines usually need little or no preparation before installing NetBSD, other than the usual, well advised precaution of BACKING UP ALL DATA on any attached storage devices.
If you are on a Qbus or Unibus system the disk controller(s) need be at the standard CSR addresses for DUA (772150) or DUB (760334) to be recognized by the kernel and boot programs.
If you are installing on a VAXstation you
may
require a serial console.
Installation of NetBSD/vax is now easier than ever!
For the latest news, problem reports, and discussion, join
the port-vax mainlist by mailing a line saying
subscribe port-vax
to
majordomo@netsbd.org.
Also, see
http://www.netbsd.org
for more information.
If you encounter any problems, please report them via the mailing list or the
send-pr(1)
program so that they can be fixed for the next release.
To install or upgrade NetBSD, you need to first boot the installation program and then interact with the screen-menu program sysinst. The installation program actually consists of the NetBSD kernel plus an in-memory file system of utility programs.
The usual procedure is to write the installation system to the install media, as described earlier.
Booting from install media
The built-in console monitor understands a bunch of commands, dependent of which VAX you have. To just boot from a device, type 'B' at the '>>>' prompt. Device naming in the console monitor differs a lot from the Unix counterparts. A device looks like "ddcu", where dd is the device type, c is the controller number and u is the device unit. Many console monitors also support the 'SHOW DEV' command, which shows available units to boot from.
A summary of the most common boot devices and their name:
B DUA0 - first MSCP controller, unit 0.
B MUA0 - first TMSCP tape controller, unit 0.
B DKB0 - second SCSI bus, unit 0.
B XQA0 - first Q22 bus Ethernet controller.
B ESA0 - first LANCE Ethernet controller on VAXstations.
Other devices may be appropriate for your configuration.
Then just proceed with the program sysinst. The install descriptions for sysinst that follows can be easily adopted to vax.
Using
sysinst,
installing
NetBSD
is a relatively easy process. You
still should read this document and have it in hand when doing the
installation process. This document tries to be a good guideline
for the installation and as such covers many details to be completed.
Do not let this discourage you, the install program is not hard
to use.
There is a serious bug that may make installation of
NetBSD
on
PCMCIA
machines difficult. This bug does not make
use
of
PCMCIA
difficult once a machine is installed. If you do not have
PCMCIA
on your machine (
PCMCIA
is only really used on laptop machines),
you can skip this section, and ignore the
``[PCMCIA]''
notes.
This will explain how to work around the installation problem.
What is the bug: The kernel keeps careful track of what interrupts
and i/o ports are in use during autoconfiguration. It then allows
the
PCMCIA
devices to pick unused interrupts and ports.
Unfortunately, not all devices are included in the
This problem will impact some, but not all, users of
PCMCIA.
If this bug is affecting you, watch the
[PCMCIA]
notes that will appear in this document.
The following is a walk-through of the steps you will take while
getting
NetBSD
installed on your hard disk.
sysinst
is a menu driven
installation system that allows for some freedom in doing the
installation. Sometimes, questions will be asked and in many cases
the default answer will be displayed in brackets
(``[ ]'')
after the question. If you wish to stop the installation, you may hit Control-C
at any time, but if you do, you'll have to begin the installation
process again from scratch.
First, let's describe a quick install. The other sections of
this document go into the installation procedure in more
detail, but you may find that you do not need this. If you
want detailed instructions, skip to section 3. This section
describes a basic installation, using a CD-ROM install as
an example.
Boot your machine using the boot floppy. The boot loader will
start, and will print a countdown and begin booting.
If the boot loader messages do not appear in a reasonable
amount of time, you either have a bad boot floppy or a
hardware problem. Try writing the install floppy image to
a different disk, and using that.
It will take a while to load the kernel from the floppy,
probably around a minute or so, then, the kernel boot messages
will be displayed. This may take a little while also, as
NetBSD
will be probing your system to discover which hardware devices are
installed.
The most important thing to know is that
Note that, once the system has finished booting, you need not
leave the floppy in the disk drive.
Once
NetBSD
has booted and printed all the boot messages,
you will be presented with a welcome message and a main menu.
It will also include instructions for using the menus.
If you will not use network operation during the installation,
but you do want your machine to be configured for networking once
it is installed, you should first go to the utilities menu, and select
Configure network option.
If you only want to temporarily
use networking during the installation, you can specify these
parameters later. If you are not using Domain Name Service (DNS),
you can give an empty response in reply to answers relating to
this.
To start the installation, select the menu option to install
NetBSD
from the main menu.
The first thing is to identify the disk on which you want to
install
NetBSD.
sysinst
will report a list of disks it finds
and ask you for your selection. Depending on how many disks
are found, you may get a different message. You should see
disk names like
Next, depending on whether you are using a
You will be asked if you want to use the entire disk or
only part of the disk. If you decide to use the entire disk
for
NetBSD,
it will be checked if there are already other
systems present on the disk, and you will be asked to confirm
whether you want to overwrite these.
If you want to use the entire disk for
NetBSD,
you can skip
the following section and go to
Editing the
NetBSD
disklabel.
The partition table of the
NetBSD
part of a disk is called a
disklabel.
There are 3 layouts for the
NetBSD
part of the disk that you can pick from:
Standard, Standard with X
and
Custom.
The first two use a set of default
values (that you can change) suitable for a normal
installation, possibly including X. The last option
lets you specify everything yourself.
You will be presented with the current layout of the
NetBSD
disklabel, and given a chance to change it.
For each partition, you can set the type, offset and size,
block and fragment size, and the mount point. The type
that
NetBSD
uses for normal file storage is called
4.2BSD.
A swap partition has a special type called
swap.
Some partitions in the disklabel have a fixed purpose. Partition
a is always the root partition,
b is the swap partition, and
c is the whole disk. Partitions
e-h
are available for other use. Traditionally,
d
is the partition mounted on the
You will then be asked to name your disk's disklabel. The
default response is
mydisk.
For most purposes this will be OK.
If you choose to name it something different, make sure the name
is a single word and contains no special characters. You don't
need to remember this name.
You are now at the point of no return.
Nothing has been
written to your disk yet, but if you confirm that you want to
install
NetBSD,
your hard drive will be modified. If you are
sure you want to proceed, enter
The install program will now label your disk and make the file
systems you specified. The filesystems will be initialized to
contain
NetBSD
bootstrapping binaries and configuration files.
You will see messages on your screen from the various NetBSD
disk preparation tools that are running. There should be no
errors in this section of the installation. If there are,
restart from the beginning of the installation process.
Otherwise, you can continue the installation program
after pressing the return key.
The
NetBSD
distribution consists of a number of
sets,
that come in the form of gzipped tarfiles. A few sets must be
installed for a working system, others are optional. At this
point of the installation, you will be presented with a menu
which enables you to choose from one of the following methods
of installing the sets. Some of these methods will first
load the sets on your hard disk, others will extract the sets
directly.
For all these methods, the first step is making the sets
available for extraction, and then do the actual installation.
The sets can be made available in a few different ways. The
following sections describe each of those methods. After
reading the one about the method you will be using, you
can continue to section 9
To be able to install using ftp, you first need to configure
your network setup, if you haven't already at the start of
the install procedure.
sysinst
will do this for you, asking you
to provide some data, like IP number, hostname, etc. If you
do not have name service set up for the machine that you
are installing on, you can just press return in answer
to these questions, and DNS will not be used.
You will also be asked to specify the host that you want
to transfer the sets from, the directory on that host,
and the account name and password used to log into that
host using ftp. If you did not set up DNS when answering
the questions to configure networking, you will need to
specify an IP number instead of a hostname for the ftp
server.
sysinst
will proceed to transfer all the default set files
from the remote site to your hard disk.
To be able to install using NFS, you first need to configure
your network setup, if you haven't already at the start of
the install procedure.
sysinst
will do this for you, asking you
to provide some data, like IP number, hostname, etc. If you
do not have name service set up for the machine that you
are installing on, you can just press return in answer
to these questions, and DNS will not be used.
You will also be asked to specify the host that you want
to transfer the sets from, and the directory on that host
that the files are in. This directory should be mountable
by the machine you are installing on, i.e. correctly
exported to your machine.
If you did not set up DNS when answering the questions to
configure networking, you will need to specify an IP number
instead of a hostname for the NFS server.
When installing from a CD-ROM, you will be asked to specify
the device name for your CD-ROM player
(usually
sysinst
will then check if the files are indeed available
in the specified location, and proceed to the actual
extraction of the sets.
In order to install from a local filesystem, you will
need to specify the device that the filesystem resides
on
(for example
This option assumes that you have already done some preparation
yourself. The sets should be located in a directory on a
filesystem that is already accessible.
sysinst
will ask you
for the name of this directory.
After the install sets containing the
NetBSD
distribution
have been made available, you can either extract all the
sets (a full installation), or only extract sets that
you have selected. In the latter case you will be shown the
currently selected sets, and given the opportunity to select
the sets you want. Some sets always need to be installed
(kern, base and etc)
they will not be shown in this selection menu.
Before extraction begins, you can elect to watch the files being
extracted; the name of each file that is extracted will be shown.
This can slow down the installation process considerably, especially
on machines with slow graphics consoles or serial consoles.
After all the files have been extracted, all the necessary
device node files will be created. If you have already
configured networking, you will be asked if you want to
use this configuration for normal operation. If so, these
values will be installed in the network configuration files.
Congratulations, you have successfully installed
NetBSD1.4.2.
You can now reboot the machine, and boot from harddisk.
INSTALL
kernels in order to save space. Let's say your laptop has a
soundblaster device built in. The
INSTALL
kernel has no sound support. The
PCMCIA code might allocate your soundblaster's
IRQ and I/O ports to
PCMCIA
devices, causing them not to work. This
is especially bad if one of the devices in question is your
ethernet card.
root,
and set a password for that account. You are also
advised to edit the file
/etc/rc.conf to match your system needs.
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/doc.
Further information can be found on
http://www.xfree86.org/
wd0
is NetBSD's name for your first IDE disk,
wd1
the second, etc.
sd0
is your first SCSI disk,
sd1
the second, etc.
wd0,
wd1,
sd0,
or
sd1.
wdx
or
wdx
disk,
you will either be asked for the type of disk
(wdx)
you are
using or you will be asked if you want to specify a fake geometry
for your SCSI disk
(sdx).
The types of disk are be
IDE, ST-506
or
ESDI.
If you're installing on an
ST-506
or
ESDI
drive, you'll be asked if your disk supports automatic sector forwarding.
If you are
sure
that it does, reply affirmatively. Otherwise, the install
program will automatically reserve space for bad144 tables.
/usr
directory, but this is historical practice, not a fixed value.
yes
at the prompt.
cd0),
and the directory name on the CD-ROM where the distribution files are.
wd1e)
the type of the filesystem,
and the directory on the specified filesystem where the sets are located.
sysinst
will then check if it
can indeed access the sets at that location.
Once you've got the operating system running, there are a few things you need to do in order to bring the system into a propperly configured state, with the most important ones described below.
/etc/rc.conf
If you haven't done any configuration of
/etc/rc.conf,
the system will drop you into single user mode on first reboot with the
message
/etc/rc.conf is not configured. Multiuser boot aborted.
and with the root filesystem mounted read-write. When the system
asks you to choose a shell, simply hit return to get to a
prompt. If you are asked for a terminal type, respond with
vt220
(or whatever is appropriate for your terminal type)
and hit return. At this point, you need to configure at least
one file in the
/etc directory. Change to the
/etc
directory and take a look at the
/etc/rc.conf
file. Modify it to your tastes, making sure that you set
rc_configured=YES
so that your changes will be enabled and a multi-user boot can
proceed. If your
/usr directory is on a separate partition
and you do not know how to use 'ed' or 'ex', you will have to mount your
/usr
partition to gain access to 'vi'. Do the following:
mount /usr
export TERM=vt220
If you have
/var
on a seperate partition, you need to repeat
that step for it. After that, you can edit
/etc/rc.conf
with
vi(1).
When you have finished, type
exit
at the prompt to
leave the single-user shell and continue with the multi-user boot.
Other values that need to be set in
/etc/rc.conf
for a networked environment are
hostname and possibly
defaultroute,
furthermore add an
ifconfig_int
for your interface
<int>,
along the lines of
ifconfig_de0="inet 123.45.67.89 netmask 255.255.255.0"
or, if you have
myname.my.dom in /etc/hosts:
ifconfig_de0="inet myname.my.dom netmask 255.255.255.0"
To enable proper hostname resolution, you will also want to add an
/etc/resolv.conf
file or (if you are feeling a little more adventurous) run
named(8).
See
resolv.conf(5)
or
named(8)
for more information.
Other files in
/etc
that are new to NetBSD 1.4 and may require modification or
setting up include
/etc/mailer.conf,
/etc/nsswitch.conf
and
/etc/wscons.conf.
After reboot, you can 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 an account for yourself
(see below) and protect it and the "root" account with good
passwords.
Use the
vipw(8)
command to add accounts to your system,
do not edit /etc/passwd
directly. See
adduser(8)
for more information on the process of how to add a new user to the system.
If you have installed the X window system, look at the files in
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/doc
for information.
Don't forget to add
/usr/X11R6/bin
to your path in your shell's dot file so that you have access to the X binaries.
There is a lot of software freely available for Unix-based systems, almost all of which can run on NetBSD. Modifications are usually needed to when transferring programs between different Unix-like systems, so the NetBSD packages collection incorporates any such changes necessary to make that software run on NetBSD, and makes the installation (and deinstallation) of the software packages easy. There's also the option of building a package from source, in case there's no precompiled binary available.
Precompiled binaries can be found at
ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/
Package sources for compiling packages can be obtained by
retrieving the file
ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-current/tar_files/pkgsrc.tar.gz
and extracting it into
/usr/pkgsrc.
See
/usr/pkgsrc/README
then for more information.
/etc/localtime
symlink to the appropriate file under
/usr/share/zoneinfo.
/etc/aliases
to forward root mail to the right place (run
newaliases(1)
afterwards.)
/etc/sendmail.cf
file will almost definitely need to be adjusted;
files aiding in this can be found in
/usr/share/sendmail.
See the
/etc/rc.local
to run any local daemons you use.
/etc
files are documented in section 5 of the manual; so just invoking
There is no upgrade program for NetBSD/vax; you will have to upgrade your system by hand. Here are some hints about how to do it:
tar(1),
otherwise you will run into trouble.
/usr/include/machine
Documentation is available if you first install the manual
distribution set. Traditionally, the
``man pages''
(documentation) are denoted by
``name(section)''.
Some examples of this are
intro(1),
man(1),
apropros(1),
passwd(1),
and
passwd(5).
The section numbers group the topics into several categories, but three are of primary interest: user commands are in section 1, file formats are in section 5, and administrative information is in section 8.
The man
command is used to view the documentation on a topic, and is
started by entering
man[ section]
topic.
The brackets
[]
around the
section should not be entered, but rather indicate that the section is
optional. If you don't ask for a particular section, the topic with the
lowest numbered section name will be displayed. For instance, after
logging in, enter
man passwd
to read the documentation for
passwd(1).
To view the documentation for
passwd(5)m
enter
man 5 passwd
instead.
If you are unsure of what man page you are looking for, enter apropos subject-word
where subject-word is your topic of interest; a list of possibly related man pages will be displayed.
There are various mailing lists set up to deal with comments and questions about this release. Please send comments to: netbsd-comments@NetBSD.ORG.
To report bugs, use the
send-pr(1)
command shipped with
NetBSD,
and fill in as much information about the problem as you can. Good
bug reports include lots of details. Additionally, bug reports can
be sent by mail to:
netbsd-bugs@NetBSD.ORG.
Use of
send-pr(1)
is encouraged, however, because bugs reported with it
are entered into the
NetBSD
bugs database, and thus can't slip through
the cracks.
There are also port-specific mailing lists, to discuss aspects of each port of NetBSD. Use majordomo to find their addresses. If you're interested in doing a serious amount of work on a specific port, you probably should contact the "owner" of that port (listed below).
If you'd like to help with this effort, and have an idea as to how you could be useful, send us mail or subscribe to: netbsd-help@NetBSD.ORG.
As a favor, please avoid mailing huge documents or files to these mailing lists. Instead, put the material you would have sent up for FTP somewhere, then mail the appropriate list about it, or, if you'd rather not do that, mail the list saying you'll send the data to those who want it.
Keith Bostic Ralph Campbell Mike Karels Marshall Kirk McKusick
for their ongoing work on BSD systems, support, and encouragement.
Mike Hibler Rick Macklem Jan-Simon Pendry Chris Torek
for answering lots of questions, fixing bugs, and doing the various work they've done.
Steve Allen Jason Birnschein Mason Loring Bliss Jason Brazile Mark Brinicombe David Brownlee Simon Burge Dave Burgess Ralph Campbell Brian Carlstrom James Chacon Bill Coldwell Charles Conn Tom Coulter Charles D. Cranor Christopher G. Demetriou Scott Ellis Hubert Feyrer Castor Fu Greg Gingerich William Gnadt Michael Graff Guenther Grau Ross Harvey Charles M. Hannum Michael L. Hitch Kenneth Alan Hornstein Jordan K. Hubbard Soren Jorvang Scott Kaplan Noah M. Keiserman John Kohl Chris Legrow Ted Lemon Neil J. McRae Perry E. Metzger Herb Peyerl Mike Price Dave Rand Michael Richardson Heiko W. Rupp Brad Salai Chuck Silvers Thor Lancelot Simon Bill Sommerfeld Paul Southworth Ted Spradley Kimmo Suominen Jason R. Thorpe Steve Wadlow Krister Walfridsson Jim Wise Christos Zoulas
AboveNet Communications, Inc. Advanced System Products, Inc. Avalon Computer Systems Bay Area Internet Solutions Brains Corporation, Japan Canada Connect Corporation Co-operative Research Centre for Enterprise Distributed Systems Technology Demon Internet, UK Digital Equipment Corporation Easynet, UK Free Hardware Foundation Innovation Development Enterprises of America Internet Software Consortium MS Macro System GmbH, Germany Numerical Aerospace Simulation Facility, NASA Ames Research Center Piermont Information Systems Inc. VMC Harald Frank, Germany Warped Communications, Inc.
(in alphabetical order)
| The NetBSD core group: | ||||||||
| Alistair Crooks | agc@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Jun-ichiro itojun Hagino | itojun@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Frank van der Linden | fvdl@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Luke Mewburn | lukem@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Christos Zoulas | christos@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
|
| ||||||||
| The portmasters (and their ports): | ||||||||
| Mark Brinicombe | mark@NetBSD.ORG | arm32 | ||||||
| Jeremy Cooper | jeremy@NetBSD.ORG | sun3x | ||||||
| Ross Harvey | ross@NetBSD.ORG | alpha | ||||||
| Ignatios Souvatzis | is@NetBSD.ORG | amiga | ||||||
| Jun-ichiro itojun Hagino | itojun@NetBSD.ORG | sh3 | ||||||
| Eduardo Horvath | eeh@NetBSD.ORG | sparc64 | ||||||
| Paul Kranenburg | pk@NetBSD.ORG | sparc | ||||||
| Anders Magnusson | ragge@NetBSD.ORG | vax | ||||||
| Tsubai Masanari | tsubai@NetBSD.ORG | macppc | ||||||
| Tsubai Masanari | tsubai@NetBSD.ORG | newsmips | ||||||
| Minoura Makoto | minoura@NetBSD.ORG | x68k | ||||||
| Phil Nelson | phil@NetBSD.ORG | pc532 | ||||||
| Scott Reynolds | scottr@NetBSD.ORG | mac68k | ||||||
| Darrin Jewell | dbj@NetBSD.ORG | next68k | ||||||
| Kazuki Sakamoto | sakamoto@NetBSD.ORG | bebox | ||||||
| Wolfgang Solfrank | ws@NetBSD.ORG | ofppc | ||||||
| Jonathan Stone | jonathan@NetBSD.ORG | pmax | ||||||
| Shin Takemura | takemura@NetBSD.ORG | hpcmips | ||||||
| Jason Thorpe | thorpej@NetBSD.ORG | hp300 | ||||||
| Frank van der Linden | fvdl@NetBSD.ORG | i386 | ||||||
| Leo Weppelman | leo@NetBSD.ORG | atari | ||||||
| Nathan Williams | nathanw@NetBSD.ORG | sun3 | ||||||
| Steve Woodford | scw@NetBSD.ORG | mvme68k | ||||||
|
| ||||||||
| The NetBSD 1.4.2 Release Engineering team: | ||||||||
| Chris G. Demetriou | cgd@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Havard Eidnes | he@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Ted Lemon | mellon@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Perry Metzger | perry@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Curt Sampson | cjs@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
|
| ||||||||
| Developers and other contributors: | ||||||||
| Steve Allen | wormey@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Julian Assange | proff@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Lennart Augustsson | augustss@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Christoph Badura | bad@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Robert V. Baron | rvb@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Erik Berls | cyber@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| John Birrell | jb@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Mason Loring Bliss | mason@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Manuel Bouyer | bouyer@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| John Brezak | brezak@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Allen Briggs | briggs@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Aaron Brown | abrown@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| David Brownlee | abs@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Frederick Bruckman | fredb@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Jon Buller | jonb@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Simon Burge | simonb@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Dave Burgess | burgess@cynjut.infonet.net | |||||||
| Robert Byrnes | byrnes@NetBSD.org | |||||||
| D'Arcy J.M. Cain | darcy@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Dave Carrel | carrel@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Bill Coldwell | billc@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Julian Coleman | jdc@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Chuck Cranor | chuck@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Aidan Cully | aidan@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Johan Danielsson | joda@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Matt DeBergalis | deberg@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Rob Deker | deker@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Chris G. Demetriou | cgd@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Jaromir Dolecek | jdolecek@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Andy Doran | ad@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Roland Dowdeswell | elric@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Matthias Drochner | drochner@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Jun Ebihara | jun@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Havard Eidnes | he@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Enami Tsugutomo | enami@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Bernd Ernesti | veego@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Erik Fair | fair@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Hubert Feyrer | hubertf@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Thorsten Frueauf | frueauf@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Castor Fu | castor@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Brian R. Gaeke | brg@dgate.org | |||||||
| Thomas Gerner | thomas@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Simon J. Gerraty | sjg@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Justin Gibbs | gibbs@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Adam Glass | glass@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Michael Graff | explorer@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Brian C. Grayson | bgrayson@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Brad Grantham | grantham@tenon.com | |||||||
| Matthew Green | mrg@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Juergen Hannken-Illjes | hannken@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Charles M. Hannum | mycroft@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Eric Haszlakiewicz | erh@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| HAYAKAWA Koichi | haya@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Rene Hexel | rh@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Michael L. Hitch | mhitch@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Christian E. Hopps | chopps@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Ken Hornstein | kenh@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Marc Horowitz | marc@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Dean Huxley | dean@netbsd.org | |||||||
| ITOH Yasufumi | itohy@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Matthew Jacob | mjacob@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Lonhyn T. Jasinskyj | lonhyn@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Chris Jones | cjones@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Soren Jorvang | soren@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Antti Kantee | pooka@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Lawrence Kesteloot | kesteloo@cs.unc.edu | |||||||
| Thomas Klausner | wiz@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Klaus Klein | kleink@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| John Kohl | jtk@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Kevin Lahey | kml@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Johnny C. Lam | jlam@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Martin J. Laubach | mjl@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Ted Lemon | mellon@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Joel Lindholm | joel@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Mike Long | mikel@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Warner Losh | imp@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Brett Lymn | blymn@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Paul Mackerras | paulus@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Dan McMahill | dmcmahill@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Neil J. McRae | neil@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Perry Metzger | perry@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| der Mouse | mouse@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Joseph Myers | jsm@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Ken Nakata | kenn@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Bob Nestor | rnestor@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Tohru Nishimura | nisimura@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Masaru Oki | oki@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Greg Oster | oster@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Herb Peyerl | hpeyerl@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Matthias Pfaller | matthias@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Dante Profeta | dante@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Chris Provenzano | proven@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Waldi Ravens | waldi@moacs.indiv.nl.net | |||||||
| Darren Reed | darrenr@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Michael Richardson | mcr@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Tim Rightnour | garbled@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Gordon Ross | gwr@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Heiko W. Rupp | hwr@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| SAITOH Masanobu | msaitoh@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Curt Sampson | cjs@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Wilfredo Sanchez | wsanchez@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Ty Sarna | tsarna@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| SATO Kazumi | sato@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Matthias Scheler | tron@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Karl Schilke (rAT) | rat@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Konrad Schroder | perseant@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Tim Shepard | shep@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Takao Shinohara | shin@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Chuck Silvers | chs@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Thor Lancelot Simon | tls@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Noriyuki Soda | soda@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Bill Sommerfeld | sommerfeld@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Bill Studenmund | wrstuden@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Kevin Sullivan | sullivan@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Kimmo Suominen | kim@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Matt Thomas | matt@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Christoph Toshok | toshok@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Izumi Tsutsui | tsutsui@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| UCHIYAMA Yasushi | uch@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Todd Vierling | tv@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Aymeric Vincent | aymeric@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Paul Vixie | vixie@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Krister Walfridsson | kristerw@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Lex Wennmacher | wennmach@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Assar Westerlund | assar@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Rob Windsor | windsor@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Dan Winship | danw@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Jim Wise | jwise@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
| Colin Wood | ender@NetBSD.ORG | |||||||
This product includes software developed by the University of
California, Berkeley and its contributors.
This product includes software developed by the Computer
Systems Engineering Group at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.
This product includes software developed by the NetBSD
Foundation, Inc. and its contributors.
This product includes software developed by Adam Glass
and Charles Hannum.
This product includes software developed by Adam Glass.
This product includes software developed by Berkeley Software
Design, Inc.
This product includes software developed by Charles D. Cranor
and Washington University.
This product includes software developed by Charles D. Cranor.
This product includes software developed by Charles Hannum,
by the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College
and Garrett A. Wollman, by William F. Jolitz, and by the
University of California, Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory,
and its contributors.
This product includes software developed by Charles Hannum.
This product includes software developed by Charles M. Hannum.
This product includes software developed by Chris Provenzano.
This product includes software developed by Christian E. Hopps.
This product includes software developed by Christopher G. Demetriou
for the NetBSD Project.
This product includes software developed by Christopher G. Demetriou.
This product includes software developed by Christos Zoulas.
This product includes software developed by David Jones and Gordon Ross.
This product includes software developed by Dean Huxley.
This product includes software developed by Eric S. Hvozda.
This product includes software developed by Ezra Story.
This product includes software developed by Gordon Ross.
This product includes software developed by Gordon W. Ross
and Leo Weppelman.
This product includes software developed by Gordon W. Ross.
This product includes software developed by Herb Peyerl.
This product includes software developed by Ian W. Dall.
This product includes software developed by Ignatios Souvatzis
for the NetBSD Project.
This product includes software developed by Jason R. Thorpe
for And Communications, http://www.and.com/.
This product includes software developed by Joachim Koenig-Baltes.
This product includes software developed by Jochen Pohl
for The NetBSD Project.
This product includes software developed by John Polstra.
This product includes software developed by Jonathan Stone
and Jason R. Thorpe for the NetBSD Project.
This product includes software developed by Jonathan Stone
for the NetBSD Project.
This product includes software developed by Jonathan Stone.
This product includes software developed by Julian Highfield.
This product includes software developed by Kenneth Stailey.
This product includes software developed by Leo Weppelman.
This product includes software developed by Lloyd Parkes.
This product includes software developed by Mark Brinicombe.
This product includes software developed by Markus Wild.
This product includes software developed by Martin Husemann
and Wolfgang Solfrank.
This product includes software developed by Mats O Jansson
and Charles D. Cranor.
This product includes software developed by Mats O Jansson.
This product includes software developed by Matthias Pfaller.
This product includes software developed by Paul Kranenburg.
This product includes software developed by Paul Mackerras.
This product includes software developed by Peter Galbavy.
This product includes software developed by Philip A. Nelson.
This product includes software developed by Rodney W. Grimes.
This product includes software developed by Scott Bartram.
This product includes software developed by SigmaSoft, Th. Lockert.
This product includes software developed by Terrence R. Lambert.
This product includes software developed by Theo de Raadt
and John Brezak.
This product includes software developed by Theo de Raadt.
This product includes software developed by TooLs GmbH.
This product includes software developed by Winning Strategies, Inc.
This product includes software developed by the Center for
Software Science at the University of Utah.
This product includes software developed by the University of Calgary
Department of Computer Science and its contributors.
This product includes software developed by the University of Vermont
and State Agricultural College and Garrett A. Wollman.
This product includes software developed for the FreeBSD project.
This product includes software developed for the Internet
Software Consortium by Ted Lemon.
This product includes software developed for the NetBSD Project
by Frank van der Linden.
This product includes software developed for the NetBSD Project
by Jason R. Thorpe.
This product includes software developed for the NetBSD Project
by John M. Vinopal.
This product includes software developed for the NetBSD Project
by Matthias Drochner.
This product includes software developed for the NetBSD Project
by Matthieu Herrb.
This product includes software developed for the NetBSD Project
by Perry E. Metzger.
This product includes software developed for the NetBSD Project
by Piermont Information Systems Inc.
This product includes software developed for the NetBSD Project
by Ted Lemon.
This product includes software developed by LAN Media Corporation
and its contributors.
This product includes software developed by Michael Graff for
the NetBSD Project.
This product includes software developed by Niklas Hallqvist,
C Stone and Job de Haas.
This product includes software developed at Ludd,
University of Lule}, Sweden.
This product includes software developed by Gordon W. Ross.
This product includes software developed by Ben Harris.
This product includes software developed by Adam Glass,
David Jones, and Gordon Ross.