>Number:         4443
>Category:       bin
>Synopsis:       /sbin/sysinst installation from ro /
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    bin-bug-people (Utility Bug People)
>State:          open
>Class:          change-request
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Thu Nov  6 15:20:04 1997
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Gregory McGarry
>Organization:
Queensland University of Technology
>Release:        current
>Environment:
NetBSD/pmax netboot install

System: NetBSD ernie.sprc.qut.edu.au 1.3_ALPHA NetBSD 1.3_ALPHA (ERNIE) #29: Tue Oct 28 15:27:47 PST 1997 gmcgarry@ernie.sprc.qut.edu.au:/usr/src/sys/arch/pmax/compile/ERNIE pmax

>Description:

The /sbin/sysinst installation program is primarily intended to be installed
from a ramdisk.  However, on the pmax, the closest we come to is an install
across the network via tftp and nfs.  Indeed, this would also be the case
for the sun3 (and probably others).

For security reasons it isn't good to have the nfs shared filesystem to
be writeable, however /sbin/sysinst insists on writing to /etc.

>How-To-Repeat:
>Fix:

(1) replace the files intended to be updated by /sbin/sysinst with
    symbolic links to /tmp.
    eg /etc/resolv.conf -> /tmp/resolv.conf
       /etc/disklabel -> /tmp/disklabel
       /etc/hosts -> /tmp/hosts
(2) Detect if the root filesystem is writeable.
    if not: mount_mfs -s 1024 swap /tmp
(3) change "cp /etc/disktab.preinstall /etc/disktab" code
(4) change the files on /tmp to your hearts content.

>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted: