I recently installed NetBSD (1.5.2 generic laptop) and I am am starting to
populate the machine with the software I want using the pkg_add utility. I
have not installed pkgsrc, choosing instead to rely on the precompiled
binaries.

I am having two problems

(1) I set the environment variable PKG_PATH as follows:
set PKG_PATH="ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/1.5/i386/All"

and 'echo $PKG_PATH' returns the url fine. Keep in mind this is the default
shell.

When I go to get a package the following error occurs:

#pkg_add bash-2.05.tgz
pkg_add: can't find package 'bash-2.05.tgz'

Yet, if I do the following
pkg_add ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/1.5/i386/All/bash-2.05.tgz

it works. Any ideas why pkg_add is not getting the path? The NetBSD guide
shows the export command, but that is not available in the default install.
I assume that the author was using a different shell.


(2) When I type in 
pkg_add ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/1.5/i386/All/bash-2.05.tgz
the tool sends back a message

 ftp: connect to address 3ffe:8050:201:1860:2a0:c9ff:feed:b7ea : No route to
host.

and then sits there for many minutes before it apparantly falls back to IPv4
and proceeds with the transfer. This looks like an IPv6 thing (I'm not
rerally sure, being new to IPv6). I have not set up IPv6 and my regular
networking stuff is simply set up with a call to 'dhclient rtk0'. 

I have also noticed a similar lag in ftp, and I am able to eliminate it by
specifying an active connection (instead of passive). This must have
something to do with the fact that I am behind a firewall (but I am not
sure). Anyway, can I set up the pkg_add 
to use ftp in active mode?

I do not have either the mk.conf nor the mk.conf.example on my system
because I did not install the package collection. The NetBSD guide indicated
that if I just want to get precompiled programs, then the pkg_tools
installed with the system will suffice.





Brian Rose 
Brian dot Rose at icn dot siemens dot com 
407-942-6934 
To understand recursion, one must first understand recursion