Re: i386 Installer questions: MBR slices, ext2fs root, bootblock location

[Greg Troxel <gdt%lexort.com@localhost>]

Steve Rikli <sr%genyosha.net@localhost> writes:

> On Wed, Nov 04, 2026 at 03:13:03PM -0500, Greg Troxel wrote:
>> Nutchanon Wetchasit <xwindows%xwindows.in.th@localhost> writes:
>> 
>> >     I.e. if I installed NetBSD on one (NetBSD-compatible) computer
>> >     in a usual way, then unplug its hard disk and move it
>> >     to another (NetBSD-compatible) computer of the same CPU architecture
>> >     but different brand of mainboards and peripheral cards;
>> >     would the moved NetBSD instance still boot and use the new hardware
>> >     automatically? [3]
>> 
>> Yes, if an install would have succeeded on the new one.
>> [more later unless somebody else answers]
>
> One thing I would add (I'm sure gdt@ knows this) is in the area of
> peripheral cards.
>
> E.g. if one system has an Intel NIC and the other has Broadcom,
> depending on how you've configured the network settings, you may need
> to adjust the network config from wm0 to bge0 or some similar change.
>
> I have done this sort of sysdisk migration in the past, and aside
> from updating /etc/rc.conf and/or /etc/ifconfig.if for the different
> device name, it worked fine.

Indeed a very good point.  I knew that but should have remembered and
didn't.

Also the name of the disk can change, due to scsi/umass scan order, ld
vs wd vs ?, but these are in the "edit rc.conf and other files" rather
than "reinstall" category.

I have routinely moved disks to new computer boxes over the years.