Subject: Re: installing with sysinst on small (4MB, i386) systems....
To: NetBSD/i386 Discussion List <port-i386@netbsd.org>
From: Greg A. Woods <woods@weird.com>
List: port-i386
Date: 04/16/2001 19:38:27
[ On Monday, April 16, 2001 at 16:00:20 (-0700), Aaron J. Grier wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: installing with sysinst on small (4MB, i386) systems....
>
> On Mon, Apr 16, 2001 at 05:33:55PM -0400, Greg A. Woods wrote:
> 
> > There are two obvious choices:
> > 
> > 	1. go back to using a separate root filesystem on a second
> >            floppy for the *-tiny tools.
> > 
> > 	2. swap to floppy (or if you're lucky some other device which
> >            won't be used during the install process)  I think even 1.2MB
> >            additional virtual memory would suffice....
> 
> 3. create a swap partition on a local or a remote hard drive and use it.

Like I said: "(or if you're lucky some other device which
              won't be used during the install process)"

The floppy is the only obvious choice on many small machines, though
this clearly makes the assumption that the install sets will be fetched
either via some sort of network connection, or from some other local
device such as a tape (or a disk that also won't be installed to).

> a few days ago I successfully installed 1.5.1_BETA on my 486DLC 8MB
> laptop over a 38400 SLIP connection with sysinst.  it took quite a while
> to extract the sets, but it did work.

An 8MB machine is an entirely different critter!  I think you could even
manage with INSTALL, though INSTALL_LAPTOP should definitely be usable
on such a well endowed machine (the other 486 laptop I'm testing on has
20MB and it'll run X11 just fine, though only at 680x400):

text    data    bss     dec     hex     filename
3454345 2141480 205068  5800893 5883bd  /var/NetBSD-obj/arch/i386/compile/INSTALL/netbsd
1683095 2128556 171996  3983647 3cc91f  /var/NetBSD-obj/arch/i386/compile/INSTALL_LAPTOP/netbsd
1082541 1376116 145300  2603957 27bbb5  /var/NetBSD-obj/arch/i386/compile/INSTALL_SMALL/netbsd
1111663 1401092 141024  2653779 287e53  /var/NetBSD-obj/arch/i386/compile/INSTALL_TINY/netbsd

My INSTALL_TINY is actually a bit bigger than INSTALL_SMALL because it
contains PCMCIA support and for some reason it ended up with 48 more
blocks in its ramdisk filesystem, however I think there should only be
bootfloppy-big and bootfloppy-small, i.e. the distinction between
"small" and "tiny" is pointless when you're trying to build a
single-floppy installation "set".  If the PCMCIA support fits then
there's no point to ripping it out just to save a few more bytes.
NetBSD will never install in a 2MB machine ever again anyway.

Maybe there should be "normal", "small", "normal-laptop", and
"small-laptop" install sets, with "small" and "small-laptop" being
single-floppy `sets' that are both expected to work in 4MB machines --
the differences being different ethernet drivers in small vs. pcmcia
drivers for old latptops, and hopefully with older ISA SCSI support for
"small" systems too, though that may be asking for a bit too much.

-- 
							Greg A. Woods

+1 416 218-0098      VE3TCP      <gwoods@acm.org>     <woods@robohack.ca>
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