Re: Installing NetBSD 9.1 on USB stick, not booting

[Martin Husemann <martin%duskware.de@localhost>]

On Tue, Apr 06, 2021 at 07:41:39AM +0530, Mayuresh wrote:
> Device     Boot  Start      End  Sectors  Size Id Type
> /dev/sdb1           64   262207   262144  128M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
> /dev/sdb2  *    262272 30031871 29769600 14.2G a9 NetBSD

A device booted via UEFI (as you are apparently setting up) will not
need any bootsector installed, so the installer does not ask for anything
but just puts the proper file(s) into the EFI partition.

If you are preparing the stick for another machine (that does not boot
via UEFI but uses BIOS) the installer (assuming it runs on the target
machine and can use all characteristics of the current machine to set up
the installation) will not work.

There might be subtle differences in the setup (e.g. default partition
sizes vary depending on available memory and disk size), but on typical
amd64 machines they should be negliable.

If this happens in this direction (perparation on UEFI machine, target machine
might use BIOS) all that should be needed is an additional installboot call.
In the other direction you are basically lost due to the missing EFI partition.

However, I totaly fail to see *why* you are trying to do this instead of
starting with the USB image and modifying that after boot to your liking
(after it once resized the root partition).

Martin