On Sun, Mar 21, 2004 at 06:34:15AM -0500, Gan Uesli Starling wrote:
> Dion van der Grijp wrote:
> 
> >Hello,
> >
> >I just tried installing NetBSD 1.6.2 (i386) on a system that already has
> >NetBSD 1.6.1 installed.  That is, I have 1.6.1 in one physical partition,
> >and wanted to use another physical partition for 1.6.2.  However, sysinst
> >did not like the fact that I had defined more than one partition to be
> >of type "NetBSD", and suggested I re-edit the partition table.  When I
> >ignored that and tried to continue, it decided to use one of the two, and
> >it so happens that it chose the one with 1.6.1 - which I do not want to
> >lose (before 1.6.2 is running successfully).  So I aborted the installation.
> >
> >How do I overcome this?  Can there be only one NetBSD partition?  I was
> >able to install multiple FreeBSDs in different partitions without problems;
> >the active partition was the one that was operative (which to me makes
> >sense).
> >
> 
> If you have NetBSD 1.6.1 and want ONLY to update to 1.6.2 you do NOT 
> have to create another partition.
> I'm no guru. But I've updated regularly since 1.5.0 and never had to do 
> that. You can just make a copy of your
> existing kernel like so...
> 
> cp /netbsd /netbsd.old
> 
> ...where it will be safe. Likewise you can copy your whole /etc like so...
> 
> cp -R /etc /etc.old
> 
> ...and then build up a new kernel from source and run etcupdate (I think 
> that's how its named) and then boot
> to see if it works.
> 
> If it hangs, you can reboot again and interrupt the boot by hitting 
> space before it launches. Then deliberately
> boot to /netbsd.old. In a worst case scenario you can boot to netbsd on 
> a floppy or a CDROM and make manual
> changes.
> 
> I have a website with a few hints like that on it at...
> 
> http://starling.us/gus_netbsd
> 
> ...with a Human Error Recovery section. The NetBSD Guide from F. Lupi is 
> the best, however. Any advice by
> Robert Reed of J K Lowden overarch whatever I might say (and many others 
> too). But for a quickie allay of
> fears, I thought I'd pop in.
> 
> Read ya later,
> 
> Gan
> 
> PS You can have more than one NetBSD partition. I have my /user on a 
> whole separate drive even. Before
> that I had made a separate partition for /home on my main drive. You 
> just don't need to install a new kernel
> in a separate partition. You'd end up having to duplicate EVERYTHING if 
> you did that. What a waste. You
> might as well be using monopolysoft in such a case. Good luck.
> 

Thanks for the many helpful suggestions, which I'll keep in mind.  However,
I do not want to update right now; I need to be sure I can fall back to a
known working state quickly - with everything exactly preserved - which at
present translates (for me) to: change active partition + reboot.

-dvdg