On Sun, May 18, 2003 at 08:14:23PM -0400, Yasir Malik wrote:
> I upgraded to 1.6.1 because I thought that would get rid of that loud
> infinite beep (btw, that core file that was made in /var/crash is 33MB;
> there's noway I can send that for someone to look at).

getting a backtrace would be easy, but I have a feeling something is
going amiss in the keyboard driver, and that takes someone familiar with
kernel internals to debug from a core file...

> When I rebooted, this message came up that said
>
> /etc/rc.conf is not configured.  Multiuser boot aborted.
> Enter pathname of shell or RETURN for sh:
> 
> When I pressed enter, this came
> 
> We recommed creating a non-root account and using su(1) for root access.
> No entry for terminal type "dumb";
> using dumb terminal settings.
> 
> I thought /etc/rc.conf putting rc_configured=YES would work, but vi isn't
> there!  When I used ed, this error comes up
> 
> ed: /tmp/ed.00020a: Read-only file system.
> 
> I can't even copy my old rc.conf file in /etc.old into /etc because it
> keeps saying my file system is read only.  Do I have to reinstall NetBSD
> from scratch?

nope.  see the section on "Upgrading a previously-installed NetBSD
System" in the installation notes:

ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-1.6.1/i386/INSTALL.html#Upgrading%20a%20previously-installed%20NetBSD%20System

to wit:

	The upgrade procedure using the sysinst tool is similar
	to an installation, but without the hard disk
	partitioning. The original /etc directory is renamed to
	/etc.old, and no attempt is made to merge any of the
	previous configuration into the new system except that
	the previous /etc/fstab file is copied into the new
	configuration.

if you haven't changed much in /etc besides rc.conf, you can just copy it
over after mounting / read-write.  (hint, try "mount /")

for updating my 1.6 machines to 1.6.1, I've been renaming etc to etc.new
and then renaming etc.old to etc, then using postinstall and etcupdate
to merge the changes between the two.

> By the way, for some reason, the loud sharp beep sound that comes up
> when I try to go past end of file is now a soft beep that doesn't make
> me jump.  Yasir

perhaps something got fixed.  :)

-- 
  Aaron J. Grier | "Not your ordinary poofy goof." | agrier@poofygoof.com
      "It's not fast, but why not?"  --  John Klos on VAX dnet client
  "because it needlessly contributes to global warming?"  --  Paul Vixie