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3.5 Installing NetBSD 1.6.1

This Chapter focuses on installing NetBSD 1.6.1 and multi-booting the system so that it can coexist successfully with the already existing Windows operating system on the computer. Like the Windows, FreeBSD and OpenBSD installations, it too focuses on a CD-ROM based installation. Experts may proceed as usual without help, as for the newbies out there, make sure you check out the documentation available on the NetBSD Homepage at http://www.netbsd.org. These and other documentation available on the NetBSD 1.6.1 CD-ROM provides exhaustive and extensive coverage of all aspects related to NetBSD. Make sure you grab as much information as you can from this site before proceeding with this guide.

Note: I hereby assume the reader executing this Chapter possesses a sound understanding and knowledge of BSD-style hard disk partitioning and labeling schemes, device naming conventions and so on before proceeding any further. If in case you have no idea at all of what I am talking about or in general of NetBSD, I strongly suggest you to go back to the Chapter covering FreeBSD.

A few significant points to remember: NetBSD labels hard disks similar to OpenBSD  with /dev/wd0 for the first hard disk, /dev/wd1 for the second hard disk and so on. NetBSD disklabel allows up to 16 partitions. It can detect and represent all primary partitions that exist on the hard disk. NetBSD disklabel though sees all partitions within an extended partition but it does not list the extended partition container. Readers must note that NetBSD reserves the c: partition which represents the entire hard disk, i: through p: are reserved for partitions belonging to other operating systems other than NetBSD (for example Windows or Linux partitions), with a:, b: and d: - h: available for NetBSD specific partitions.

Summary of Installation Steps

For a complete step-by-step coverage of NetBSD installation, please consult the documentation available on the NetBSD Project web-site. As in the previous Chapter, here also, I would be mentioning only the significant steps for the installation. Use these steps to install NetBSD on your computer and configure it for "multiple-booting":

  1. Right now, we have a computer running Microsoft Windows OS. On my PC, it is Windows 98 (SE). I put a bootable NetBSD 1.6.1 CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive and reboot the system.
  2. The computer boots, reads the CD-ROM, displays the usual hardware probing messages on the screen and presents you with an installation program. Readers must note: There are several ways to install NetBSD onto a disk. The easiest way, should your computer support it, is to boot off the CD-ROM. Otherwise, you can boot from a 3.5" 1.44MB floppy disk. You should now be ready to install NetBSD. 
  3. The blue-colored NetBSD 1.6.1 Installation Tool is called sysinst. At the very beginning, you receive a "Welcome to sysinst" screen. Select the option "Install NetBSD to hard disk" and press enter.
  4. This presents you a confirmation screen, select "Yes" and press enter.
  5. Your hard disk is detected and NetBSD labels it correspondingly. On my PC, my first IDE HDD gets labeled as wd0. Hit enter to continue.
  6. Next appears the "Disk Geometry" screen where your hard disk drive geometry is matched with the BIOS geometry. If sysinst was unable to uniquely match the disk you chose with a disk known to the BIOS, then you have to set the disk geometry by hand. In my case, the disk matches the following BIOS disk:

    7. BIOS# cylinders heads sectors
    0 1023 255 63

  7. Thus I select, "This is the correct geometry" and press enter. Next comes the screen where you have to make the choice that you would like to multi-boot your system and not dangerously-dedicate your system. Select "Use only part of the disk" instead of "Use the entire disk" and press enter.
  8. Proceed to choose the "size unit to use". I chose "Megabytes" as my size specifier.
  9. Proceed with the installation as usual till you reach the NetBSD fdisk where you can view the DOS Partition table on your computer. I have a computer system which was running Windows 98 (SE), NetBSD 1.6 and FreeBSD 4.8-RELEASE. The DOS partition table was as follows:

    10. Total disksize 19541 MB.
    Start(MB) Size(MB) End(MB) Kind
    0: 0 9774 9774 Windows FAT32, LBA
    1: 9773 3001 12775 NetBSD
    2: 12774 6766 19540 old NetBSD/FreeBSD/386BSD
    3: unused

  10. Edit partitions 1 and 2 by making "Kind" as "unused", then selecting "Partition OK" and pressing enter.
  11. Then select unused partition 1, then "Kind", then "NetBSD" and finally "Start and size". Mention the "Start:" value as "-0" and "size:" to the value you would like to set. I chose about 4000 MB. Make sure you select "Set active" and press enter and "Partition OK" finally.
  12. The new DOS Partition table on my PC looks like this:

    13. Total disksize 19541 MB.
    Start(MB) Size(MB) End(MB) Kind
    0: 0 9774 9774 Windows FAT32, LBA
    1: 9773 4001 13774 NetBSD
    2: unused
    3: unused

  13. Select "Exit" and press enter.
  14. The next screen tells you that you have more than one operating system installed on your computer. When asked to install a bootselector, answer "Yes".
  15. This brings you to the "Bootselection menu items" screen. Here, you can change the simple menu entries for matching partition entries that are displayed when the system boots. Also, you can specify the timeout (in seconds) and the default action to be taken (if no selection is made in the bootmenu). By default, the Boot menu timeout is set to 10 seconds, which I change to 100 seconds. The default boot menu action is set to "Boot off partition 0".
  16. Then edit menu entries 0 and 1, to label "Windows" and "NetBSD" respectively. Then exit.
  17. Next appears the NetBSD Disklabel screen. Here you are expected to set up your NetBSD disklabel. Four options are mentioned: Standard, Standard with X, Custom and Use existing.
  18. I choose the installation type: "Standard with X" which requires about 450.00 MB HDD space.
  19. Next screen exhibits the BSD-disklabel partitions. Since for most people in most situations this suits the best, keep the changes as it is and select "Partitions are OK" and press enter
  20. A name is prompted for your NetBSD disk, I entered "ghosh" and continue.
  21. /sbin/newfs runs to create the new filesystems.
  22. In the next screen you are prompted to install either normal set of bootblocks or serial bootblocks. Since we are using the BIOS console device as the console, you must select "Use normal bootblocks" and press enter.
  23. This completes the first part of the NetBSD installation procedure. Sysinst has written a disklabel to the target disk, and newfs'ed and fsck'ed the new partition on the disk. The next step is to fetch and unpack the distribution filesystems.
  24. I chose "Custom Installation" of NetBSD distribution sets.
  25. In the next screen, choose all that you would like to install and press "Exit".
  26. Enter the type of installing media. Select "cdrom" and device:cd0 and directory:/i386/binary/sets and continue.
  27. The following .tgz files gets untarred and installed onto your hard disk: base.tgz, etc.tgz, comp.tgz, games.tgz, man.tgz, misc.tgz, text.tgz, xbase.tgz, xfont.tgz, xserver.tgz, xcomp.tgz and xcontrib.tgz.
  28. A message appears as "All selected distribution sets unpacked successfully". Next, device files are made automatically, and you are prompted for a few necessary post-installation configuration steps.
  29. You need to set timezone, I choose "Europe/Moscow".
  30. Next, to choose the password cipher. The options available are: DES or MD5. I prefer MD5 to DES.
  31. I set the root password and then finally a message appears on your screen telling you that NetBSD 1.6.1 operating system has been successfully installed on your computer. Reboot your computer to boot from hard disk.
  32. When I reboot for the first time, I get the following prompt on the screen: F1 Windows, F2 NetBSD each in one line. I press the F1 functional key to boot into Windows 98 (SE) and check whether everything is working perfectly or not. As it so happens, it does! Then I reboot and this time, I press F2, which logs me into NetBSD 1.6.1. 
  33. Depending on the configuration of your computer, you will receive bootup messages on your screen when you boot into NetBSD for the first time. Though the messages scroll off the screen rather fast for you to read anything productive, you can always read it later by using the "/sbin/dmesg | more" command. Finally, you will arrive at the login prompt. Login using the username/password you set during installation. Check if everything is in place or not and try exploring the new system. 
  34. Readers must note: We still have Linux to install and configure. So, for doing this and more, we proceed to the next chapter, Chapter 6: Installing Red Hat Linux 7.3 (Valhalla).

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