This note is mostly to the web site maintainers.

The "obvious" path in the NetBSD/Mac68k web site
(http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/mac68k/) is a link to  the latest release
(ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/arch/mac68k/binary/). The files there are
*.tar.gz files and aren't the ones I want anyway.

The next obvious path is to the NetBSD 1.4.2 release
(http://www.netbsd.org/Releases/formal-1.4/) and from there the "obvious"
link is Apple Macintosh (http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/mac68k/) which takes
you back to the start. WTF?

The correct path then is
NetBSD page, mac68k link (http://www.netbsd.org/)
NetBSD 1.4.2 link (http://www.netbsd.org/Releases/formal-1.4/)
Primary Site link (ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-1.4.2/)
... [dig a bit deeper] ... (/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-1.4.2/mac68k/binary/kernel/)
and here the files are indeed .gz files. Yay! So I'm up and running. I
installed some packages. I'm trying to figure out whether I should try to
get X to work or build a firewall instead.

It has been easier to get this far than with my earlier attempt at getting
Linux up. Their hype got me but the shininess wore off. NetBSD's maturity
and support for many platforms is impressive, but for a newbie it is not
simple.

I think it's a documentation problem. The reference material is thorough
enough ... if you know what you're doing. But there needs to be
documentation for people who don't know what they're doing. "RTFM" is not
enough.

Everyone I've talked to about learning Unix says that the learning curve is
a step function. There doesn't appear to be a whole lot of effort to change
that. If there is, I'd like to join in.



>On Thu, Apr 13, 2000 at 09:26:48PM -0700, Timberwoof wrote:
>> So I downloaded the files for the official 1.4.2 release ... and they're
>> all *.gz files, and BSD/Mac68k Installer doesn't know what to do with them.
>> It gives me some cryptic instructions about how to install them. The
>> problem is, I don't have a working BSD system. Until I get either 1.4.2
>> installed or the init problem solved, I'm dead in the water. :-(
>
>Hrm.
>
>> open netbsd
>[...]
>> pwd
>
>Current remote directory: /pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-1.4.2/mac68k/binary/sets
>
>> ls
>
>BSDSUM          base.tgz        kern.tgz        xbase.tgz@ xserver.tgz
>CKSUM           comp.tgz        man.tgz         xcomp.tgz@
>MD5             etc.tgz         misc.tgz        xcontrib.tgz@
>SYSVSUM         games.tgz@      text.tgz@       xfont.tgz@
>
>Beyond the fact that some of those are sym links into
>../../../m68k/binary/sets, I don't see what the problem is. They sure
>look like .tgz files to me.
>
>       ~ g r @ eclipsed.net

--
Michael "Timberwoof" Roeder
Chief Perpetrator, Infernosoft: Putting the No in Innovation.
mroeder@infernosoft.com -- http://www.infernosoft.com