Re: Install kernel and userland without source?

[Andy Ruhl <acruhl%gmail.com@localhost>]

On Sat, Feb 9, 2019 at 2:09 PM J. Lewis Muir <jlmuir%imca-cat.org@localhost> wrote:
>
> I have an amd64 router running the netbsd-8 stable branch that does not
> have sources and does not have pkgsrc, and I'd like to build the kernel
> and userland from source on another machine and then install them on the
> router; how do I do that?

I didn't read all of the responses, sorry if I repeated something.

I usually don't use source unless I want to build my own custom
kernel, but I just do that after installing a system and then adding
my kernel later.

I tend to upgrade by just downloading an install kernel and then
pointing it to a NetBSD ftp mirror.

At some point (maybe this is still true), you could do "build
distribution" and it would package the whole thing up into installable
packages.

You could point and install kernel at a local ftp server (or whatever
server) with these distribution files you built yourself and upgrade
your system that way.

I make backups of the system (/etc in particular) but the official
NetBSD builds installed over ftp with an install kernel "never" break
anything for me, so I've become very comfortable with it.

Andy