How to install NetBSD on Compact Flash (for the Soekris 4501)

This was tested on NetBSD 3.99.16, however the instructions should apply to older (and newer) versions as well. I have attempted to flag steps where you may run into version incompatabilities with “Version Note”.

There are a number of devices that will allow you to read your CF card on a NetBSD machine, the device I chose was the mediaGear Keychain Compact Flash Reader.

A snippet of your dmesg output should appear as follows:

  [...]
  umass0 at uhub1 port 1 configuration 1 interface 0
  umass0: mediaGear Compact Flash Keychain, rev 1.10/1.00, addr 2
  umass0: using SCSI over Bulk-Only
  scsibus0 at umass0: 2 targets, 1 lun per target
  sd0 at scsibus0 target 0 lun 0: <MG, CF-Key, 1.00> disk removable
  sd0: fabricating a geometry
  sd0: 244 MB, 244 cyl, 64 head, 32 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 500400 sectors
  [...]

Run the following commands:

  # cd /root
  # mkdir cfimage
  # dd if=/dev/zero of=netbsd.img bs=512 count=500400
  # vnconfig vnd0 netbsd.img
  # fdisk -ua0 vnd0
  # disklabel -e -I vnd0
  # newfs /dev/rvnd0a
  # mount /dev/vnd0a /root/cfimage
  # cd /root/cfimage && mtree -Udef /etc/mtree/NetBSD.dist
  # tar xzpf i386/binary/sets/base.tgz
  # tar xzpf i386/binary/sets/kern-GENERIC.tgz
  # cp i386/binary/sets/etc.tgz /root/cfimage/root

  # chroot /root/cfimage /bin/sh

You are in the chroot environment, continue with

Version Note: Older versions of etcupdate do not accept a tgz file an argument, you will need to extract the contents prior to running it.

  # etcupdate -s /root/etc.tgz
  # rm /root/etc.tgz
  # touch /etc/mail/local-host-names

 
Add a non-root user and his group.

  # groupadd jdoe
  # useradd -g jdoe -G wheel -k /etc/skel -s /bin/csh -m jdoe

 
Note: included in wheel group to allow user to run su.

Other files you will likely need to modify are…

  /etc/fstab
  /etc/ifconfig.sip0
  /etc/localtime
  /etc/mygate
  /etc/mygate6
  /etc/myname
  /etc/rc.conf
  /etc/resolv.conf
  /etc/ttys

 
To exit your chroot environment simply

  # exit

 
Now you will need to make the CF bootable. First we begin by copying the secodary bootstrap, followed be installing the primary.
Note: You can’t install the primary bootstrap on a mounted device, do not forget the umount step
Note #2: The baud rate you pass to installboot should match what you’ve configured in the Soekris bios.
Note #3: If you chose to use a different filesystem for primary bootstrap partition, /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffsv1 sould be changed to reflect that.

  # cp /usr/mdec/boot .
  # cd ~ && umount /root/cfimage
  # installboot -v -o console=com0,speed=19200 /dev/rvnd0a /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffsv1

We end by unconfiguring the vnode disk and writing it to CF.

  # vnconfig -u vnd0
  # dd if=netbsd.img of=/dev/sd0d bs=1m