Re. PPP:

I think that the only gotcha about doing it straight from a basic NetBSD
install boot is that you don't get PPP on the install boot image.  (At
least, I found pppd missing the last time I used a boot-floppy for NetBSD.  
I thought that the kernel was partly involved in NetBSD's PPP, but I can't
find any options enabling/disabling it in GENERIC or INSTALL...  So either
the kernel doesn't actually have to support PPP, or else you you probably
have PPP support in the INSTALL kernel, but just lack the pppd binary.)

SLIP support _is_ included (last I checked) in the standard boot image.  
If you can get the other end of your line to let you use SLIP, that might
be a little simpler (if only because you don't have to get the pppd binary
installed).

If you want/need PPP, though, you'll have to get pppd.  You can use tip
(or cu? I forget which is included in the install image) to manually
dial/login, if needed.  If you follow the man-page approach to pppd,
however, you will need chat to dial/login.

  file                       is in

  /usr/sbin/chat             base.tgz
  /usr/sbin/pppd             base.tgz
  /usr/share/man/cat8/chat.0 man.tgz
  /usr/share/man/cat8/pppd.0 man.tgz
  /usr/share/man/man8/chat.8 man.tgz
  /usr/share/man/man8/pppd.8 man.tgz

(cat?/*.0 files are pre-formatted man-pages.  man?/*.? files are *roff
sources to the man-pages.)



Re. ext2fs:

The normal, GENERIC NetBSD kernel should support the GNU/LINUX ext2fs.  So
do INSTALL and INSTALL_LAPTOP.  (At least, all three have ext2fs
filesystem support listed in their kernel config files for i386.  (^&)
The other INSTALL_* kernels do NOT support ext2fs (at least, those lines
are commented out of my copies of those kernel config files).

I'm not sure exactly which INSTALL* kernel goes in for a given install
boot-image.


If it comes to it, you might get someone to build a custom install boot
image for you.  (I'm not sure exactly what steps are involved, but it
shouldn't be too hard...(^&)


  "I probably don't know what I'm talking about." --rauch@eecs.ukans.edu