this is obsolete doc -- see http://doc.nethence.com/ instead

NetBSD installation from the command line (without sysinst) 

Get to the prompt 

Boot with your prefered NetBSD install media (e.g. CDrom), choose language, keyboard and exit sysinst, 

language : english

keyboard : your keyboard layout

^C

Note. if you ever wish to return to sysinst, no need to (re)execute it. Simply exit the shell. 

DOS partitions 

On i386 or amd64, you need to configure the MBR and DOS kind of partition table. 

Initialize the MBR and make an empty DOS partition table, 

fdisk -i sd0

y

y

Create the first partition using the whole disk (offset: sector 63), make the first partition 'active' and check, 

fdisk -u -0 sd0

fdisk -a -0 sd0

fdisk sd0

Note. empty boot menu disables it (press enter) 

BSD partitions 

On all hardware plateforms, create a disk label, 

disklabel -i sd0

E (long) or P (short)

a

4.2BSD

...

b

swap

...

verify, write the label and quit, 

E (long) or P (short)

W

Q

Note. there's also 'E' to print more details 

Installation 

On i386 or amd64, enable swap straight away, 

swapctl -a /dev/sd0b

swapctl -l

On all hardware plateforms, make an FFS file system and mount the root partition, 

newfs /dev/rsd0a

cd /

mount /dev/sd0a mnt/

Mount the install media, 

mkdir /cdrom

mount_cd9660 /dev/cd0a /cdrom

note. mount_cd9660 prefers absolute path destination, which is not the case for mount_ffs 

or mount the NFS share, 

mount -t nfs 10.1.1.254:/var/data/netbsd61sparc mnt2

And proceed with the installation, 

cd /mnt2/

tar xvzphfe kern-GENERIC.tgz -C /mnt/

#tar xvzphfe kern-GENERIC.MP.tgz -C /mnt/

tar xvzphfe modules.tgz -C /mnt/

for set in base comp etc games man misc tests text; do tar xzphfe $set.tgz -C /mnt/; done

unset set

Note. on sparc, kern-GENERIC.MP works for both, single and multi-cpu. 

Install the boot loader, on sparc, 

cp /usr/mdec/boot /mnt/

installboot -v /dev/rsd0a /usr/mdec/bootxx /boot

note. no timeout option available on sparc. 

note. third argument needed. 

on i386 or amd64, 

cp /usr/mdec/boot /mnt/

dumpfs -s /dev/rwd0a | grep ^format

  installboot -v -o timeout=3 /dev/rwd0a /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffsv1 

Generate the device files, 

chroot /mnt/

cd dev/

./MAKEDEV all

Further configure the system (using vi in the chrooted environment), 

cd /etc/

ln -sf ../usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Paris localtime

vi rc.conf

#wscons=yes

sshd=yes

cd /etc/ssh/

cp sshd_config sshd_config.dist

vi sshd_config

Eventually fix the wscons keyboard layout, 

cd /etc/

cp wscons.conf wscons.conf.dist

vi wscons.conf

change e.g., 

encoding fr

Don't forget to setup the fstab (using vi in the chrooted environment), 

cd /etc/

cat > fstab <<EOF9

/dev/sd0a  /  ffs  rw,log  1 1

/dev/sd0b  none  swap  sw  0 0

EOF9

Note. add /kern if you want kernfs 

Exit the chroot, finish up and reboot, 

exit

umount /mnt

umount /mnt2

reboot

References 

Appendix B. Installing without sysinst 

http://www.nibel.net/nbsdeng/ap-inst.html 

fdisk -- MS-DOS partition maintenance program 

http://netbsd.gw.com/cgi-bin/man-cgi?fdisk++NetBSD-current 

disklabel -- read and write disk pack label 

http://netbsd.gw.com/cgi-bin/man-cgi?disklabel++NetBSD-current