Someone wrote to me saying that OpenBSD had a bootable CD install mechanism.
Gee, aren't schisms fun.  (I think I better stop before I say something 
nasty.)

mrg writes:
> bootable cdrom's are well supported in netbsd-current.  see
> src/distrib/utils/mksunbootcd and src/distrib/sparc for the
> bits you need.

But I suppose this means I could only build a bootable CD-R to install 
-current
then, right?  This is going to be for my home system, I get my mail and Usenet
feed here, stability is kinda important (at least for the moment, anyway).
And 1.3.3 has been *very* stable for me at work.  (Praise to all involved!)

Heh, I guess I should start re-sup'ing again at some point, eh?  :-)

(I think my old "sup" setup has to change to work again, yes?  My cron job was

45     4       *       *       *       /usr/local/sbin/sup -m -v -s 2>&1

and

netbsd4me:1:56 [/] % cat /usr/lib/supfiles/coll.list
current release=security host=sup.netbsd.org hostbase=/a/anon_ftp base=/usr \
prefix=/usr backup use-rel-suffix delete keep
current release=doc host=sup.netbsd.org hostbase=/a/anon_ftp base=/usr \
prefix=/usr backup use-rel-suffix delete keep
current release=othersrc host=sup.netbsd.org hostbase=/a/anon_ftp base=/usr \
prefix=/usr backup use-rel-suffix delete keep
current release=allsrc host=sup.netbsd.org hostbase=/a/anon_ftp base=/usr \
prefix=/usr backup use-rel-suffix delete keep

netbsd4me:1:57 [/] % cat /usr/lib/supfiles/coll.what
sup/current

for my sup files ... )

> - sparc & alpha can not share bootable cdroms, due to conflicting
>   disklabel/boot sector issues.

I'd be happy with a SPARC bootable installer CD-ROM for the moment  :-)

Nathan Williams writes:
> 	This is slightly flip, but some of us are used to hacking
> systens of such a vintage that CD installs are far from obvious.  I've
> done an order of magnitude more tape installs than CD installs, and
> another order of magnitude more network installs than tape
> installs.  CD installs just don't occur to me as a way to do things. 

Well, I've worked on Suns since 1983, so I've done more than my share of
tape installs in the past too  :-)  And this is at home, so "network install"
doesn't really come into the picture (I'm not a "I have 5 computers of
varying vintages lying around" type - just have a Mac and a SPARCstation).

I have a 5 Gb Exabyte here gathering dust too.  I guess my main point was
not only about not having the ease of a CD install, but also the lack of
apparent easy support for doing a fresh install on a brand spankin' new disk.
Having a bootable installation CD-R/CD-ROM would address both of these issues.

The main thing is that with not having a second head for the new machine to
use temporarily, and not having an easy way to get all the install bits here
at home without going through burning a CD-R somehow (and then hoping it
works when I try it), I'm in a bit of a bind without a bootable CD-ROM.

> 	On a more practical note, while making a bootable CD isn't
> hard, I gather that making a bootable CD that boots on different
> systems is much harder, and those who invest in CD production don't
> relish the idea of N different CDs for the various architectures that
> have any ability to boot from CD.

> 	- Nathan, who owns one CD-ROM drive, but just for the laser...

My SPARCstation's CD-ROM drive (old 1x external) never gets used at all -
except to boot from/do installs.  I could sure use it right now, though  :-)

Thanks for listening,

	- Greg