Subject: alpha bootable CDROM
To: None <port-alpha@NetBSD.ORG>
From: Martin Grossman <grossman@BBN.COM>
List: port-alpha
Date: 04/07/1998 09:37:05
What does it take to make an alpha (DEC pc164 motherboard with a PCI NCR scsi
cntrl) bootable from a CDROM?

I've found in the distribution  (ie OS/arch/alpha/stand) installboot_cd9660.

It installs the boot sector stuff into a iso (cd9660) image file right before
you copy the image file to a CDR!

1) Yes, I know how to create the iso file using mkisofs!
2) What should be in this filesystem?
  a) I assume it should contain a complete root, etc, usr etc all withing 1
     filesystem.
  b) I also assume their should be files /boot and /netbsd.

Questions:
1) should /boot be the standard /boot file?
2) what switches should be turned on/off in /netbsd so it knows the cdrom
   contains the root fs?
3) Or, should (like the i386 port boot floppy) the kernel contain within it,
   its root fs?
4) Once booted (ie from CDROM) what does netbsd use for a swap area? or does
   it know not to do any swapping? (PS all our systems have 512MB of mem).
5) What do I do for the /var stuff?  I assume /var/log/* need to be writeable
   and /var/run/* also need to be writable?  Do I somehow make /var mounted
   as a in memory fs?

HAS ANYONE TRIED ANY OF THESE THINGS AND GOTTEN ANY PART OF IT WORKING?