Subject: Installing NetBSD
To: None <netbsd-help@NetBSD.ORG>
From: Andreas Brusinsky <brusinsk@inf.tu-dresden.de>
List: netbsd-help
Date: 07/04/1996 13:39:58
Hello Unix experts!

Abstract:

  What would I have to read(or to do) when I like to install 
  NetBSD-current or NetBSD-1.2 or OpenBSD and a X-Windows system 
  on a hp300 workstation? ( I managed to install NetBSD-1.1 with
  the help of the ../hp300/INSTALL file )


Description of my current situation:

 (Don't read further if you are too busy.)

I am new to the netbsd-help group and hope to find here what I need.

I managed to install NetBSD-1.1 on a hp300 workstation with an HP-IB disk.

(This was because I have three old HP workstations and I could make another
 with an HP-UX 9.000b on it, to transmit the SYS_INST over the ethernet)

When I started up the system I recognized that it is NOT self explanatory
and new users are not easily added.

There was also no X-Windows on it.

My current hardware situation is:
 3 hp workstations (one Apollo 400 with 16MB RAM and a 68040 25 MHz,
		    one s380 block with 8 MB RAM and a 68040 25 MHz  and
		    one s360 block with 8 MB RAM and a 68030 25 MHz)
and
 5 Harddisk drives ( 4 scsi and one HP-IB, each HD with around 300 MB)


My interest:

 I am a member of a local students council of the computer science
 students in Dresden (Germany) and would like to support our council
 members with a modern computing platform, which is independent from
 any company.

 We have a HP-UX 9.000 on this machines and a kind of X-windows system
 (X11R5) but no tools and no LateX and no other useful tools available
 in other unix environments. So we just login from our machines to
 other servers in our university and redirect the x-displays.
 This is one way to access computers but not a very satisfying.
 Especially are our access rights and quotas on the university servers 
 limited and also some tools I know about not available.
 
 So I read just a bit around in the web and looked for a suitable operating
 system to our machines. Linux is not yet ported to hp300 series and
 I don't know other OpSys than FreeBSD NetBSD and OpenBSD that are
 supposed to work on hp300 and are free available. Actually I would like
 to install OpenBSD because what I read about it is that there is more
 support for current standards and it also has ELF binary format which
 is also the format of Linux I think.
 But the internet is quite slow nowdays and the OpenBSD mirrors in europe
 are not quite acessable over the day and I could not find INSTALL text
 files that explained me in a straightforward manner how I can install it.

 So the only file I had was the INSTALL file of some ../NetBSD-1.1/hp300/
 directories. So I installed it and now it works. But certainly it is not
 very transparent and to analyse what it does and can just by a prompt
 is not my understanding of a computer as help or fun of humans.
 Certainly I know some unix commans but up to now I was no administrator
 and don't like to become a extreme unix freak/specialist. I would
 prefer to have a small set of tools that make the administration easy
 and eficcient.

 So what would I have to read when I like to install NetBSD-current or
 NetBSD-1.2 or OpenBSD and a X-Windows system on a hp300 workstation.
 
 I am also open to further information about other operating systems
 that are free available and work on hp300 machines.

	Thank you very much for recognizing my situation
	 and any help in advance

		Bye Andreas