Re: upgrading an old system

[coypu%SDF.ORG@localhost]

Probably less "cool", but I've previously installed to older i386
machines by just putting their hard disks in a newer amd64 machine that
could boot from USB.

If you are still interested in a more complex setup, several people have
install scripts that could help you not miss any steps you might forget
in a manual install, e.g.:
http://mirror.isoc.org.il/pub/netbsd/misc/kamil/autoinst.sh
(I have not tried it myself so cannot testify for it)
I imagine it is also possible to execute these steps in single user.

On Mon, Aug 15, 2016 at 07:15:01PM +0100, Steve Blinkhorn wrote:
> I have two servers I have just retrieved from their regular home in a
> data centre some distance away.  (Less tha opportune interventions by
> the staff there meant they would not accept remote logins).
> 
> While I have them here I want to upgrade them to 7.0 (i386).   But one is
> 2.0, the other 3.0 at present.
> 
> It looks as though they will not boot from their USB ports, the
> CD-ROM drives seem not to be DVD-compatible (and I'm  not sure I can
> find any blank CD-ROM disks).   They have floppy drives, but I'm not
> sure I have a working floppy drive on a working machine any more.
> 
> I have both the machines running normally, and I've backed up everything I
> need to keep.   Is there a way of upgrading these machines by placing
> initial installation files on their hard drives, say in a /altboot
> directory, bootin from there and doing the rest over NFS or FTP?   I
> have to do an install because I think both machines need new boot
> blocks to even boot newer releases.   I also need to change the disk
> layout to add more swap space and create /tmp on disk rather than in an
> MFS.
> 
> I am under time pressure because these two machines form the backbone
> of live 24/7/365 services, now being run on VPSs in their absence.
> 
> -- 
> Steve Blinkhorn <steve%prd.co.uk@localhost>