NetBSD Problem Report #46753

From www@NetBSD.org  Sun Jul 29 18:39:02 2012
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Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2012 18:39:00 +0000 (UTC)
From: bluemoon.cgp@gmail.com
Reply-To: bluemoon.cgp@gmail.com
To: gnats-bugs@NetBSD.org
Subject: INSTALL documents should mention how to use USB images
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>Number:         46753
>Category:       install
>Synopsis:       INSTALL documents should mention how to use USB images
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    install-manager
>State:          open
>Class:          doc-bug
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Sun Jul 29 18:40:00 +0000 2012
>Last-Modified:  Thu Aug 09 17:40:02 +0000 2012
>Originator:     César Gil
>Release:        NetBSD-6.0_BETA2
>Organization:
>Environment:
i386
>Description:
There exist some images for USB flash memory installation in several architectures. e.g.:

ftp://ftp.fr.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/netbsd-6/201207280330Z/i386/installation/installimage/i386inst.img.gz

Since many modern hardware lacks CD-ROM or DVD readers (not to mention floppy disk drives) and those images are already part of the regular distribution of NetBSD, it would be interesting to see some instructions in the INSTALL.* documents, regarding how to use the dd(1) command or other recommended method to create bootable USB media.
>How-To-Repeat:

>Fix:
Include instructions regarding how to write the {ARCH}inst.img.gz files
to a USB flash memory or external hard disk drive with a USB interface.

>Audit-Trail:
From: Izumi Tsutsui <tsutsui@ceres.dti.ne.jp>
To: gnats-bugs@NetBSD.org
Cc: install-manager@NetBSD.org, tsutsui@ceres.dti.ne.jp
Subject: Re: install/46753: INSTALL documents should mention how to use USB
	 images
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2012 02:36:16 +0900

 > >Synopsis:       INSTALL documents should mention how to use USB images
  :
 > >Fix:
 > Include instructions regarding how to write the {ARCH}inst.img.gz files
 > to a USB flash memory or external hard disk drive with a USB interface.

 Here is rough description I sent to releng:

 ---
 - images are "raw" format
 - gunzipped sizes are 550MB (amd64) and 512MB (i386) so
   at least 1GB USB memories are required
 - images can be written to USB media using gzcat(1) and dd(1) etc
   # gzcat NetBSD-6.0_BETA2-i386-install.img.gz | dd of=/dev/rsd0d bs=64k
 - Rawrite32.exe can be used to write images on Windows
   http://www.NetBSD.org/~martin/rawrite32/download.html
 - booted USB memory must be recognized as "sd0" by kernel
   otherwise sysinst won't start (due to static fstab(5))
 - during sysint installation using the image,
   http://www.netbsd.org/docs/guide/en/chap-exinst.html#exinst-choose-media
   you have to choose
   "g: Local directory"
   at the "choosing the installation media" menu and then
   just hit return (choose defaults) in directory location menu

 ---

 All other images than amd64/i386 are for possible emulators, BTW.
 (any USB bootable architecture we support?)

 ---
 Izumi Tsutsui

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