In article <41CAEA77.9070009@fmi.uni-sofia.bg>,
	ogi@fmi.uni-sofia.bg (Ognyan Kulev) writes:
> 
> I tryed to install NetBSD/i386 2.0 only with floppies.  So I selected 
> kern-GENERIC, base and etc, intending to continue somewhat with PPP.
> 
> The problems started when I started transferring kern-GENERIC.  I made the 
> mistake to split and transfer netbsd-GENERIC.gz.  Of course, untarring failed. 
> I became aware of my mistake and I have transferred kern-GENERIC.tgz.  But 
> untarring failed again!  After more time of trying, I understood that 
> kern-GENERIC.tgz in /targetroot/usr/INSTALL is not truncated before transferring 
> the split tar.

You need the INSTALL floppies for that. GENERIC is not a stand-alone system,
but only a kernel. They are called "boot1.fs" and "boot2.fs", and they're in
".../installation/floppy". Those are floppy images, meant to be "dd"'d whole
onto the floppy disks. (Read the INSTALL notes.)
 
> So this is the first problem -- I think that before getting split parts and 
> concatenating them, the tgz should be truncated.  Why it isn't so?

I don't recall if the installation kernel actually supports the splits sets
at all, these days, even though the INSTALL notes (as of NetBSD 2.0) still
tell you how to make them.  It's *much* easier to install from the network
or from CD-ROM. The problem with floppies is that one single media error
on one floppy disk makes you have to start all over, and that most of the
computers that are too old to have network or CD-ROM drives will also have
aging floppy drives that give lots of media errors, even on new disks. You
can always get one or two good ones, but "base" alone is 20MB, and to make
a dozen floppies with no errors takes a minor miracle.


Frederick