Nico van Eikema Hommes wrote:
> 
> >>> at the end of the boot I get
> >>> /etc/rc.conf is not configured.  Multiuser aborted
> >>> help.  I am fairly new to BSD so I don't know all the configs
> >>Basically, you need to boot into single-user and edit the file
> >>/etc/rc.conf so that the line that currently says:
> >>rc_configured=NO
> >>says
> >>rc_configured=YES
> >>instead.
> >You'll probably want to make other changes while you're in there
> >(if you haven't already ;-).
> >You'll want to `mount -u /` before editing the file so you can
> >write it back.
> 
> We're in the phase of testing 1.3alpha to locate bugs, aren't we?
> I'd definitely consider this a bug, not a cute new feature.

I still think that this is a feature, not a bug, but perhaps it could give
a slightly more verbose error message.

> Forcing a user (in particular if (s)he is new to netbsd) to fiddle
> with files while in single user mode, without giving any instructions
> on what to do, is ridiculous. Even the above is incorrect, since it does
> not include the necessary "fsck -p" (which no doubt will fail too for
> a lot of people for yet another confusing reason).

Actually, there are some (admittedly brief at the moment) instructions
regarding setting this up in the latest INSTALL document, although I
should probably work on this a bit before the 1.3 release.

Why should the "fsck -p" fail?  Why give a "-p" in this case, anyway?  You
should be in single-user at this point in all likelihood, go ahead and
perform a full check and clean up any problems.

> IIRC, "RC_CONFIGURED" was introduced to increase security, i.e. to avoid
> letting the machine boot in multi-user in an insecure setup. The advice
> given above means "forget it, be as insecure as it used to be". I'm aware
> that this is NetBSD, not OpenBSD (which is sooo much more secure :-), but
> we nevertheless should care about security sufficiently.

I believe this is true, but it also serves as a note to new users that
there is at least 1 file that they need to look at right away.  Otherwise,
some people might not take note of it.  This way, you have to look at
/etc/rc.conf in order to have a useful system.

> An improvement might be:
> * with RC_CONFIGURED == YES, boot the usual way;
> * otherwise, boot with a minimal configuration, in particular without any
>   network setup, and print a nice warning like "/etc/rc.conf is not yet
>   configured. Edit this file to enable the functions you want. See
>   man rc.conf(8) for more information". (it should be 8, shouldn't it?)

This error message might be a bit more helpful than the current one... :-)

> It would be nice if someone actively involved in preparing the 1.3 release
> could forward this to the proper list. Thanks.

I'll forward this to current-users...

Later.

-- 
Colin Wood                                 cwood@ichips.intel.com
Component Design Engineer - MD6                 Intel Corporation
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I speak only on my own behalf, not for my employer.