Below is a link to a restore CD for NetBSD 3.0 for the Cobalt MIPS-based appliances (e.g. Qube 1 and 2, Raq).
It has been successfully installed onto a Qube 2 and RaQ 2+
| File | Size |
|---|---|
| image-3.0-20060103.tgz | 152,158,896 |
| md5-3.0.txt | 67 |
===============================================================================
NetBSD/cobalt Installation CD [3.0 Release]
===============================================================================
Welcome to the NetBSD/cobalt installation.
This installation is targetted at Cobalt MIPS-based appliances (e.g. Qube 1
and 2, Raq) and clones (e.g. Gateway Microserver). Intel-based server
appliances (e.g. Qube 3) cannot be installed using this CD-ROM.
=====
Files
=====
The following files should be included here:
image-3.0-20060103.iso - the ISO image
image-3.0-20060103.md5 - MD5 sum
readme.txt - this file
GENERIC - config file for the GENERIC kernel
INSTALL - config file for the INSTALL kernel
============
Installation
============
0. Read this entire file - it will give you an understanding of what to do,
what will happen when you do it, and what to look for to see whether it
is working properly. Below (under the heading Alternative Installation
Steps) are some links to alternative installation instructions - it is
suggested you read those too, to see the approaches that others have taken.
1. This installation will reformat the hard drive in your appliance. Ensure
you have sufficient backups of the appliance before starting. The
installation process is automatic, there will be no final confirmation
prompt before reformatting.
2. Burn the ISO to a blank CD. On UNIX-like systems you can use the cdrecord
command. On other operating systems, utilities like Nero can be used.
3. Insert the CD into an i386-based PC and reset or power on the PC. The PC
must be able to boot from CD-ROM - it may be necessary to configure the
BIOS to enable this. This CD is essentially a live CD of an earlier
version of NetBSD (circa 1.6), and provides a BOOTP/NFS environment to
support the appliance's net booting installation methodology. Nothing
is installed onto the i386 PC.
4. After successfully booting the restore CD, the file /root/instructions.txt
will be displayed. This contains a slightly less verbose version of these
instructions, troubleshooting tips, and pointers on where to find further
information.
5. Connect the i386 PC to the appliance using a crossover network cable, or
via a hub or switch. Ensure you use the Primary network interface on the
appliance (on a Qube 2, for example, there are two network interfaces
labelled "Primary" and "Secondary" - use the Primary one).
6. Double-check your backups of the current contents of the appliance - after
this step there is no turning back!
7. Net boot the appliance. This is achieved by pressing and holding the left
(<) and right (>) arrow buttons on the LCD keypad while turning on the
appliance's power. After a couple of seconds, the message "Net Booting"
should appear on the LCD - release the left and right buttons.
8. The installation is automatic, there are no further prompts. Progress
messages will be displayed on the LCD as the installation proceeds. If
you want to monitor the installation in more detail, connect a PC or
terminal to the appliance's serial port configured for 115200 8N1. You
should not interrupt the installation - doing so may render the appliance
non-bootable.
9. After a successful installation, the applicance will automatically reboot.
Successful startup will be indicated by the hostname and IP address
appearing on the LCD.
A. A freshly installed box is configured as a DHCP client i.e. it tries to
obtain its IP address over the network from a DHCP server. To disable
this, change /etc/rc.conf to contain "dhclient=NO" line.
B. Be aware that a newly installed box is left in a highly insecure state.
All ttys are open by default and allow root access over the network. Also,
telnet and rlogin ports are open. This is done to allow you to login into
the fresh box in order to make necessary configuration changes. Please do
not forget to bring your box to a secure state.
C. Login as root (there is initially no password), type 'man afterboot' and
start reading :) Some of the information is not applicable to the cobalt
architecture, but will give you some background information on configuring
NetBSD in general.
===============
Troubleshooting
===============
Q: Installation seems to go smoothly, but after reboot I am seeing
"Jump_to_Real_Kernel: disk error, trying BFD again"
A: This may be a problem with the hard drive configuration. Here is
an advice from debian-mips list:
Check the jumpers on your hard drive. The jumper on my Qube's hard
drive had settings for "Primary" and for "Only disk in the chain". I
had it set to "primary" which let me install things, but wouldn't
boot. I had to put it on "Only disk" to get a boot. This cost me
three days :(
Q: Installation was ok, but the boot loader doesn't seem to boot a kernel
A: Please report this to port-cobalt@netbsd.org. In the meantime, use the
following workaround:
- Connect a PC or terminal to the appliance's serial port (115200 8N1)
- Reboot or power-cycle the appliance
- When Cobalt's banner "We serve it, you surf it" appears, hit space bar
- In PROM console, type
bfd /boot/netbsd-INSTALL.gz
- When kernel is booted, login as root, mount /dev/wd0e partition and set
up all vmlinux* links to point to netbsd-INSTALL.gz:
# mount /dev/wd0e /mnt
# cd /mnt/boot
# rm vmlinux.gz
# ln netbsd-INSTALL.gz vmlinux.gz
...
# rm vmlinux_raq-2800.gz
# ln netbsd-INSTALL.gz vmlinux_raq-2800.gz
Q: My appliance will not net boot
A: If the original Linux boot partition and/or the files it contains have been
corrupted or replaced with something else, you may need to perform a
completely manual installation. Please refer to the FAQ (link below) for
more information on how to do this.
Please report any problems not covered by this section to
port-cobalt@netbsd.org.
=========================
Installing Extra Software
=========================
The installation process will install the base NetBSD system, including the
following sets: base comp etc man misc text
Included on the CD, but not installed, are games and the X Window System.
These can be installed by copying the files to the appliance and extracting
them.
For example, to install games, copy /nfsroot/cobalt/binary/sets/games.tgz
from the restore CD onto the appliance and execute the following command as
root:
tar xzv -C / -f games.tgz
To install the X Window System, do the same thing but for files xbase.tgz,
xcomp.tgz, xetc.tgz, xfont.tgz and xserver.tgz.
Other software can be installed by using pkgsrc - refer to one of the web
pages below, and/or the NetBSD pkgsrc Guide.
==============================
Alternative Installation Steps
==============================
The following web pages provide alternative installation sequences beyond what
is summarised above. They also include some notes on post-installation
configuration and the installation of extra software.
http://www.aironaut.ch/content/view/18/53/
http://netbsd.ouellet.biz/iso/install.html
===================
Further Information
===================
NetBSD home page
http://www.netbsd.org/
NetBSD/cobalt port page
http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/cobalt/
NetBSD/cobalt FAQ
http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/cobalt/faq.html
general instructions on configuring a fresh NetBSD install
man afterboot
detailed description of Cobalt boot process
man boot
The pkgsrc Guide
http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/pkgsrc/
The NetBSD Guide
http://www.netbsd.org/guide/en/
=======
Credits
=======
Cobalt Networks, Inc. -- first and foremost, for the idea of this installation.
Beside of the idea, many configuration files were taken out of the original
Cobalt OS Restore CD and modified to work with NetBSD.
NetBSD Cobalt users -- for testing and many useful suggestions. Without you,
this work would have never been done!
Dennis Chernoivanov -- for the NetBSD 1.6 restore CD on which many subsequent
restore CDs were based.
Alex Pelts -- for the excellent instructions on how to create a restore CD.