Re: 9.1 install comments

[Mouse <mouse%Rodents-Montreal.ORG@localhost>]

>> [...9.1 install issues...]

I just retried.  This time I saved a full capture of the serial-port
data, so I can go into detail.

There were also three issues which I forgot to note down, and thus
didn't mention in my previous email:

(1)

When booting the CD, I see
	command(s): rndseed /var/db/entropy-file;boot
	default boot twice, skipping...
	18463280+668736+1428416 [869065+1251672+893433]=0x16e07d0
	WARNING: couldn't open /var/db/entropy-file

It appears to work fine, so this is probably just cosmetic.  I can't
see any way to have a useful entropy file on a CD, so it's no surprise
that there isn't one; the issue is that it tries to load one anyway,
and that "default boot twice, skipping..." line, which is slightly
disturbing.

(2)

When setting up the system, it says

 Your configuration requires the NetBSD bootselect code to select which
 operating system to use.

 It is not currently installed, do you want to install it now?

The first time around, my reaction was "I don't believe it; there is no
other OS on the disk, nor will there be (on this disk), so I don't need
bootsel" and told it no.  The resulting disk was not bootable; using
fdisk to put a bootblock in the MBR made it bootable.  So it appears
that the truth is more like

 This system does not support installing without a boot selector, even
 if you have only one OS on the disk.

 It is not currently installed; do you want to install it now?

I'd also suggest that this be fixed.  Since simply installing the
bootblock from a different OS rev (I forget whether I used the 8.0 one
or the 5.2 one) worked, the only reasons I can see for this are (a)
someone got lazy when writing sysinst and (b) 9.1 no longer contains a
non-bootsel MBR bootblock.  Either way, I'd suggest it be fixed.

(3)

When configuring the network, it asked me for a hostname and DNS
domain, even though I can't see anything it actually needs either one
for.  Am I missing something here?

>>> - I was operating on serial, and it didn't recognize mterm as a
>>>    terminal type.  8.0 recognized mterm; was it unreasonable of me
>>>    to expect 9.1 to?
>> Which medium did you boot?
> I'm fairly sure it was amd64/installation/cdrom/boot.iso, burnt to a
> CD-R.

I had the same failure when booting from the CD-R this time, so (a) the
problem exists there for me and (b) that probably _is_ how I did it
before.

In case it's relevant: I used boot.iso, with "consdev com0" entered
manually before booting, rather than using boot-com.iso.

>>> - I was trying to use MBR partitioning, [...]
>> Please file a PR for this [...]
> Will do.

install/55740

>>> - I couldn't even _try_ to get the sets from the install CD,
>>>    because it refused to mount the silly thing.
>> Can you describe this more detailed?
> I'll have to redo the install, [...]

Okay.  I saw the same symptom again.  My transcript says I picked the
sets to install (which was "all of them", though I did it via the
custom interface rather than picking "full installation").  I picked
"CD-ROM / DVD / install image media" as the source of the sets.  I got
a display showing me

Command: /sbin/mount -rt cd9660 /dev/cd0a /mnt2

and

Command failed

(though it didn't give any visible stderr; I don't know _how_ the
command failed).

It then said the sets "have not been found at the default location on
this CD", which is hardly surprising if it failed to mount it.

>>> - The timezone selection menus appear to be completely unusable
>>>    without arrow keys.  [...]

This manifested again, same as I remember it from before: no reference
letters and, as far as I can tell, no way to pick an item unless you're
lucky and land on it when paging up and down with < and >.

>> You can use < and > instead, but that is (AFIK) not documented.
> It is documented, actually (another respect in which the timezone
> menus are unusual), but those move by page.

Actually, I noticed, earlier, one menu which had too many items for the
screen told me I could < and > up and down.  (Unlike the timezone
menus, it had reference letters.)

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