Re: installation problems with 10.1 then 9.4

[void <void%f-m.fm@localhost>]

On Wed, Dec 17, 2025 at 08:16:33PM +0100, Martin Husemann wrote:
> Serial is simple if you have a mainboard with one.
>
> Boot the USB installer and stop the countdown. Connect a serial (e.g. USB)
> cable to another machine and open a terminal there. Use e.g. 115200 8n1 as
> settings and enable logging.
>
> Now on the console of the booting machine enter something like:
>
>  consdev com0,115200
>
> and you should see the boot loader prompt show up on the serial terminal.
> Enter
>
>   boot
>
> there and the installer will talk to you over the serial console.

Hi Martin, thanks for replying.

My issue is getting a screen on this machine is very difficult.

Is there a modification I can make to the NetBSD install image that tells
it to use only the serial for console from the outset? The context of what 
you wrote seems to suggest booting with a screen then stopping the 
countdown. In my case there would be no screen at all.

In OpenBSD, one can make a change to the install img like so:

1. On eg a freebsd box, download the openbsd img.
2. become root. mdconfig -f install.img
   md0 # echoes back
3. mount /dev/md0s4 /mnt
4. echo "stty com0 115200" > /mnt/etc/boot.conf
5. echo "set tty com0" >> /mnt/etc/boot.conf
6. umount /mnt
7. mdconfig -d -u 0 # removes the md0 resource

then write the img to usb stick, then connect serial to host, and on the 
connecting machine, in freebsd open a tmux and issue 
cu -l cuaU0 -s 115200
and it'll say
Connected

then boot the openbsd box with the stick and all the console output is 
displayed via the serial connection.

I'm looking for a NetBSD way of doing this.
--
NetBSD n00b - https://www.f451.online/~void/NetBSD