Annotation of wikisrc/guide/inst-media.mdwn, revision 1.2
1.2 ! jdf 1: **Contents**
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! 3: [[!toc levels=3]]
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1.1 jdf 5: # Building NetBSD installation media
6:
7: ## Creating custom install or boot floppies for your architecture e.g. i386
8:
9: Sometimes you may want to create your own boot or install floppies for i386
10: instead of using the precompiled ones, or tailor the ones built by the NetBSD
11: build system. This section outlines the steps to do so.
12:
13: The overall idea is to have a filesystem with some tools (sysinst, ls,
14: whatever), and embed this filesystem as some sort of ramdisk into a NetBSD
15: kernel. The kernel needs to include the `md` pseudo device to be able to hold a
16: ramdisk. The kernel with the ramdisk can then be put on removable media or made
17: available via the net (using NFS or TFTP).
18:
19: To perform the following steps, you need to be running a kernel with the `vnd`
20: pseudo device enabled (this is the default for a GENERIC kernel).
21:
22: 1. First, you must create a valid kernel to put on your floppies, e.g.
23: INSTALL. This kernel must include the `md` pseudo device, which allows
24: embedding a ramdisk. See [[Compiling the kernel|guide/kernel]] for kernel
25: building instructions.
26:
27: 2. The next step is to create the ramdisk that gets embedded into the kernel.
28: The ramdisk contains a filesystem with whatever tools are needed, usually
29: [init(8)](http://netbsd.gw.com/cgi-bin/man-cgi?init+8+NetBSD-5.0.1+i386) and
30: some tools like sysinst,
31: [ls(1)](http://netbsd.gw.com/cgi-bin/man-cgi?ls+1+NetBSD-5.0.1+i386), etc.
32: To create the standard ramdisk, run `make` in the
33: `src/distrib/i386/ramdisks/ramdisk-big` directory (for NetBSD 3.x:
34: `src/distrib/i386/floppies/ramdisk-big`).
35:
36: This will create the `ramdisk.fs` file in the directory. If you want to
37: customize the contents of the filesystem, customize the `list` file.
38:
39: 3. Now, the ramdisk gets inserted into the kernel, producing a new kernel which
40: includes the ramdisk, all in one file. To do so, change into the
41: `src/distrib/i386/instkernel` directory (for NetBSD 3.x:
42: `src/distrib/i386/floppies/instkernel`) and run `make`.
43:
44: 4. The next step is to make one or more floppy images, depending on the size of
45: the kernel (including the ramdisk). This is done by changing into
46: `/usr/src/distrib/i386/floppies/bootfloppy-big`, and running `make` again.
47:
48: This will create one or two (depending on the size of kernel) files named
49: `boot1.fs` and `boot2.fs`
50:
51: 5. Last, transfer these files to the floppies with the commands
52:
53: # dd if=boot1.fs of=/dev/fd0a bs=36b
54: # dd if=boot2.fs of=/dev/fd0a bs=36b
55:
56: 6. Put the first floppy in the drive and power on!
57:
58: ## Creating a custom install or boot CD with build.sh
59:
60: Creating custom install or boot CDs is easy with `build.sh`. The NetBSD base
61: system includes the
62: [makefs(8)](http://netbsd.gw.com/cgi-bin/man-cgi?makefs+8+NetBSD-current)
63: tool for creating filesystems. This tool is used to create iso-images. Creating
64: iso-images includes these tasks:
65:
66: 1. Release build
67:
68: #./build.sh release
69:
70: 2. CD-ROM iso-image build
71:
72: #./build.sh iso-image
73:
74: The `build.sh` iso-image command will build a CD-ROM image in
75: `RELEASEDIR/MACHINE/installation`
76:
77: **Warning**: For now not all architectures are supported. The mac/68k ports
78: doesn't boot for now.
79:
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