Re: Installing netbsd on another drive using existing installation

[Louis Guillaume <louis%zabrico.com@localhost>]

On 11/17/11 6:25 AM, Mayuresh wrote:
> I have a machine whose CD drive has gone bad and somehow BIOS is not
> recognizing bootable USB sticks. (Both CD and bootable USB are fine as
> they work on other computers.)
>
> Perhaps I should sort out problems with CD drive and BIOS.  But, as of
> now, I do have an external HDD on which NetBSD is already installed and
> this computer boots with this external HDD.
>
> Now I want to install NetBSD on internal HDD of this computer by booting
> it using this external HDD with NetBSD.
>
> Is there any way to do that?
>
> Mayuresh.


Assuming you have 2 drives sd0 (the internal, target disk) and sd1 (the 
external, from which you're booting, that has the install), this is the 
approach I'd take.

While booted off of sd1...

1. Format and partition sd0 to match sd1.

2. mount the partitions on sd0 on /mnt

  # mount /dev/sd0a /mnt
  # mount /dev/sd0e /mnt/usr
  # mount /dev/sd0f /mnt/var

3. Copy each file system with pax

  # cd /
  # pax -vXrwpe . /mnt

Repeat this for each file system making sure you change to the base of 
that partition before copying. For example, if you want /var on 
/dev/sd0f, you would...

  # cd /var
  # pax -vXrwpe . /mnt/var


4. Install the bootloader on sd0

  # installboot -v /dev/rsd0a /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffsv1

5. Change /mnt/etc/fstab so that we see "sd0" instead of "sd1"

6. Poweroff, disconnect the external drive, Power on. Or just reboot and 
select the appropriate boot device (assuming you set up the bootselector 
with fdisk(8)).

That should work. If you end up with /dev on tmpfs, you might have to 
run MAKEDEV in /mnt/dev before rebooting, but I'm not sure that'll happen.

Hope that helps.

Louis