Daniel Lamblin writes:
> Hi,
>   I recently installed port-i386 on a 486 from a disc given to me which had
> November 1999 Preview release written on it.  It works, but there's a problem.
> I gathered from the man pages that this was a 1.4.2 release.

Actually it sounds more like a -current release like 1.4? (? being A thru ...)
NetBSD/i386 1.5 will use ELF instead of AOUT for it's binary format.  The
release have is apparently ELF, which means that the AOUT emulation support
must be enabled to use the 1.4.x packages.

> I downloaded some 1.4.2 i386 package (like bash)
> I installed them just fine.
> when I try to execute the binary for any of them I get the message:
> 
> missing: ld.so

You probably just need to install the a.out emulation support.  This is done
by setting up the appropriate directory under /emul and then populating it 
with binaries/libraries. (and including COMPAT_AOUT in the kernel)

> I think is this could possibly be easily remedied.  What's going wrong here
> and what can I do to get a Nov1999 Preview to be upgraded to a 1.4.2 without
> downloading too much (I don't have a network or modem working with this
> machine yet, so all files would have to be moved on floppy or cd.

Yes, should be easily remedied with the compatibility support, or by just
rebuilding the packages from source so they are native ELF.

-Andrew
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew Gillham                            | NetBSD ist Affengeil.
gillham@whirlpool.com                     | Nachts ist es kaelter
I speak for myself, not for my employer.  | als draussen.