Re: Is it possible to chroot and then install NetBSD to the boot drive

[Andrew Smallshaw <andrews%sdf.lonestar.org@localhost>]

On Sun, Mar 17, 2013 at 06:17:32PM -0400, Al wrote:
> 
> What I would like to be able to do is do an install on either
> another drive or on an NFS partition. Then chroot to it and then
> delete the files that are on /, /var, and /usr and then do a clean
> install of NetBSD. Is this possible? If it is, could someone give me
> a how to on doing something like this?

There are various ways of doing this of differing degrees of peril
so a little more background would be useful.  What out of band
managment do you have in any?  i.e. do you have a serial console
or IP KVM?  What kind of machine is it and does it have any lights-out
management toys?  If you do have at least a remote console of
whatever description I'd be thinking in terms of installing a
install image of some description to a spare partition (e.g. your
swap slice).

If your only way of controlling the machine is over the network
into the machine itself you are probably looking at some form of
in-place sleight of hand and treading on eggshells since one little
mistake can easily lose your network connectivity and ability to
control the machine with it.  That doesn't make it impossible but
it does mean everything needs double checking and ideally testing
on a local machine before you do it.

-- 
Andrew Smallshaw
andrews%sdf.lonestar.org@localhost