On 2019-11-27 21:29, Edgar Pettijohn wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 27, 2019 at 08:05:30PM -0600, Clay Daniels wrote:
>> I have successfully installed OpenBSD 6.6 release and would like to
give
>> the Current Snapshots a try. I went to a mirror, and to:
>>
>> Index of /pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/amd64/
>>
>> I saw install66.fs (probably for usb memstick) and install66.iso
(surely
>> for a cd/dvd) at ~450Mb. I picked the install66.fs, wrote it to a usb
>> thumbdrive, and it starts the install. When i get into the install it
asks
>> where are the file sets? Humm, maybe it gets these online and it tries
to
>> do this but no luck. It was late last night, and I checked to see if
it had
>> written anything to my disk, which it had not, and went to bed. This
>> evening I'm looking a bit deeper at the snapshot directory and I
suspect I
>> need to provide the install with base66.tzg at ~239Mb.
NO!
[snip misleading stuff]
> I noticed this also, but hadn't had time to figure out if I had messed
up or
> the installer had. As a general rule I assume its me that messed up.
Its odd
> if you mount the install66.fs you can see the pub/amd64 directory, but
during
> installation it can't seem to find the directory regardless of what I
have
> tried.
>
> Edgar
First of all...nothing at all to do about snapshots -- the OpenBSD
installation process has remained amazingly stable over the last 20
years.
New options here and there, but overall, very similar. Unless
something
changed in the last few days, installing a snapshot is identical to
installing 6.6.
The installXX.iso and installXX.fs are complete, stand-alone
installation
kits. Everything you need is on them. You can boot from them, and
all
the installation files are right there. Look Ma! No network needed!
...well...unfortunately there is the issue of firmware files, which
are
legally not feasible to put on the install media, so you will need
network
for most machines eventually. But let's ignore that for now. :)
Once the system has booted on the install kernel, you have three
devices
you are working with:
1) the install kernel's internal "RAM disk" that is part of bsd.rd
which
you booted from,
2) your target disk
3) the USB drive with the install files on it.
The reason you can't see the install files on the USB stick from the
install kernel is they aren't mounted. You didn't boot from the
entire
USB stick, you booted from ONE TINY LITTLE bsd.rd file, that just
happened
to be sitting on the big USB stick...but as far as bsd.rd is
concerned,
the USB stick isn't part of the booted environment (yet).
You aren't booting from a "Live Media". You are booting from a tiny
kernel
with a built in file system that's sitting on the same inert file
system
as
the install files.
Read that over and over until you understand what I'm saying, not
what you
are assuming is going on. It's really important to understand. It's
very
different from many Linux installation processes -- you are running
off a
file only 10MB in size which is now completely in RAM. That file
JUST
HAPPENED to come from a USB stick that's much bigger.
So, when it comes to answering where your install files are, they are
on
a disk, but it's NOT a mounted disk. It's on your USB drive that's
not
mounted now, and won't be after installation, but could be useful
shortly.
Your next problem is...WHICH disk? On a minimal system, it would be
the
next sd device after your install disk -- assuming you are installing
to
sd0, your USB stick might be sd1. HOWEVER, if you have a flash media
reader
on your system, who knows where it is. One trick would be to unplug
your
USB drive and plug it back in and look at the white-on-blue console
message
that come up at you. Yes, you are unpluging your boot device, sounds
bad,
but read what I wrote earlier, it's no longer using that -- the boot
has
completed, and it's running from RAM now, it's completely ignoring
that
USB drive. So let's say you do this and you see it's sd4. Tell the
installer the files are coming from a file system not currently
mounted
and when it asks, tell it "sd4"
Nick.
