Re: Insights from successful, yet painful, install attempt.

[David Brownlee <abs%netbsd.org@localhost>]

On Mon, 4 Oct 2021 at 16:09, Roc Vallès <vallesroc%gmail.com@localhost> wrote:
>
> Once I have some time and energy, I'll try and figure out how talking
> with scsi.library with 64bit offsets works. Having it on AmigaXfer
> will give a lot of peace of mind. I could implement something like a
> nbd server, which would go a long way re: giving me free remote access
> to disks installed within Amiga computers.
>
> > > This is a script that installs netbsd, very different from the installer
> > > found in some other architectures. I do not know why Amiga port uses a
> > > separate script (although I'm curious).
> >
> > So Amiga installation doesn't use sysinst? If it is a simple script, where could I find the source? The script does something useful: list the RDB partition table with NetBSD mapped device file, so you can chose the correct name for installation. I have not found any way to print this information after the install, that is quite annoying and dangerous if you intend to use dd.
> >
> > I asked a question on this list, but without definitive answer so far. Taking a look on how the scripts does this would help.

"Historical reasons". No-one with access to an amiga has had the time
and inclination to convert the install across to sysinst - other ports
like x68k use distrib/common to build a set of tarfloppies including
sysinst & vax for example has a distrib/vax/miniroot which builds a
sysinst using miniroot.

I think most people with NetBSD installed on an amiga decide they
would prefer not to mess with installing again, which is a pity as it
could really help new people.

For testing sysinst you can just build and run the sysinst binary
directly from a normal install and install onto an additional disk

> I have no idea how the install image is generated either. Being able
> to look at all that would indeed help; besides fixing some, I'd
> probably be able to find further issues :-)

Download NetBSD src on *nix system (A nice fast amd64 is a good
candidate :) and run
'./build.sh -m amiga release'
to build _everything_ from scratch

'./build.sh -m amiga install-image'
should work to build just an install-image, if its setup

All of the logic lives in distrib/amiga

David