Netbsdinstall

Notes during NetBSD installation on i386 machine.

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Download

Check releases page and download installation media image for the target architecture, in this example will be used USB media for a i386 architecture;

$ wget https://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-8.0/images/NetBSD-8.0-i386-install.img.gz

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Prepare media

Read preparing the installation media from netbsd guide, first extract image and then copy to USB;

# gunzip NetBSD-8.0-i386-install.img.gz
# dd if=NetBSD-8.0-i386-install.img.gz of=/dev/your-usb bs=2m

Boot USB with grub

If the bios don't support boot from USB is possible to boot USB from installed grub on disk;

root     (hd1,msdos1)
chainloader +1
boot

To find block and partition number use "ls (" and press tab.

Boot USB with NetBSD bootloader

Select "5. Drop to boot prompt, and list drives/blocks enter;

> dev

Boot;

boot hd1a:netbsd

Boot using networkinhg PXE

Setup dnsmasq pxe? boot ...

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Installation

Wizard contain good explanation for each step, choose most default options.

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Post install

Read NetBSD command line and first steps after install. Pre installed editor is vi. To setup keyboard for currest session use wsconsctl;

# wsconsctl -k -w encoding=us.dvorak
encoding -> us.dvorak

Edit /etc/wscons.conf file:

encoding us.dvorak

Configure /etc/rc.conf;

hostname=machine
dhcpcd=YES
sshd=YES
rpcbind=YES
famd=YES 
dbus=YES 
hal=YES
defaultroute=10.0.0.1

Change shell and enable tab completion;

$ chsh

Set ksh shell;

Shell: /bin/ksh

Edit ~/.profile to enable autocompletion;

export EDITOR=vi

To install binary packages from upstream netbsd builds set environment PKG_PATH to where packages are located;

PKG_PATH="http://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/<PORT>/<RELEASE-NUMBER>/All"

Replace <PORT> with target architecture and <RELEASE-NUMBER> by the NetBSD installed release, example for i386 release 8.0;

$ echo $PKG_PATH
http://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/i386/8.0/All/

Uncomment on root ~/.profile and add to admin user ~/.profile files;

# Uncomment the following line(s) to install binary packages
# from cdn.NetBSD.org via pkg_add.  (See also pkg_install.conf)
export PKG_PATH="http://cdn.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/$(uname -p)/$(uname -r|cut -f '1 2' -d.|cut -f 1 -d_)/All"

Install packages vim, tmux, firefox52 and mate.

# pkg_add -v vim
# pkg_add -v tmux
# pkg_add -v fam
# pkg_add -v hal
# pkg_add -v firefox52
# pkg_add -v mate
# cp /usr/pkg/share/examples/rc.d/famd /etc/rc.d/
# cp /usr/pkg/share/examples/rc.d/dbus /etc/rc.d/
# cp /usr/pkg/share/examples/rc.d/hal /etc/rc.d/

Create user xinitrc file;

$ cp /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc ~/.xinitrc

Configure ~/.xinitrc to start mate desktop, read install mate as a reference to configure with other window managers;

## Start the window manager

	#xrandr -s 1366x768
	#xrandr --dpi 100
	#xrandr --output eDP1 --mode 1366x768
	#xgamma -gamma 0.8
	#syndaemon -d
	#setxkbmap dvorak

	#exec openbox-session
	#exec dwm
	#exec spectrwm
	exec mate-session

Reboot;

# reboot