On Thu, 9 Aug 2001, David Walker wrote:

> Frustrating.
> A bit of a saga.
> I have managed to install netbsd via sysinst.
> When I boot from HD I get "rc.conf not configured"
> I try vi /etc/rc.conf and I get vi: not found.
> I then mount / and /usr and try vi again.
> Now I get terminal type unknown or similar.
> I tried tset vt100 but it doesn't seem to do anything.
> I noticed when it was booting from HD that vt100 came up in the text.

As I mentioned before, thats why you need to do "export TERM=vt100".  But
if you haven't read anything about how to use vi, I suggest you don't
bother YET, it'll just make you more frustrated (its not a program you can
learn easily just by pressing keys).  Use the "echo rc_configured=YES >>
/etc/rc.conf" instead.

> Why do I have to mount any of the native netbsd slices? I would have thought
> there would be a file somewhere that mounts these slices once and records
> the settings.
> Everytime I boot and get "rc.conf not configured" I have to mount stuff to
> be able to access man and vi.
> Perhaps when rc.conf is happy it may all come together.

Yes.  When the system isn't configured it boots in "single user mode".
Single user mode is sort of a safe-mode where NOTHING is done
automatically incase it might cause trouble (i.e. you need a way to fix
your system if its mounting the wrong root partition or something).  Once
rc.conf is setup, you'll be able to boot in "multi-user mode" and all
sorts of things will happen automatically - file systems will get mounted,
etc.

> I have made maybe 50 phone calls as everytime I try something I have to
> reboot and lose my connection (I have a dual boot with windows). Oh, and I
> don't have a printer so I write all this stuff down.
> I have been trying for 4 days (about 40 hours) to install netbsd and get a
> shell.
> I don't really know what I'll do with it, hopefully I can find the games and
> de-stress.
> I reckon it probably won't work and I'll have to set up XWindows or
> something I have got no idea how to do.

I suggest you look around for a good introduction to UNIX book.  I
don't know of any that have good introductory material specific to
NetBSD, but you might be able to get someone on the list to reccomend
something.

Any type of UNIX isn't really the sort of thing you can just install and
use without having some idea of how it works (unlike MS-Windows for
example).  NetBSD isn't really designed to be easily picked up by people
with little UNIX experience (although it is getting better - back when I
installed it there wasn't even sysinst to help with the installation, had
to do it all manually).  I'll probably get flamed for this, but generally
Linux is considered to be aimed more towards PC users new to UNIX (it has
more "hand-holding"), but NetBSD is a better system in the end in my
oppinion.

Some people like to learn just by trial-and-error and experimentation, but
it can be really frustrating if you don't understand whats going on.  The
beauty of UNIX-like systems are that they are designed so that you can
understand and control every little detail of their operation (They don't
intentionally hide things, and pretend that things are simpler than they
really are like Windows does).  Myself, I used a UNIX system at work for
months, and read parts of numerous books so that I had a good handle on
how to use UNIX from a users perspective (i.e. basic operation, managing
files, system utilities, etc.) before I even attempted installing NetBSD.
I can immagine it would be extremely frustrating trying to learn
everything necessary to install and use it in just 4 days.

So, relax and don't expect huge results right away.  Many people on theese
lists have probably been using UNIX systems since the 70's...

Good luck,
	Rick