On 2006/05/02 12:15, John Kintaro Tate wrote: > I was wondering about installing OpenBSD on a very old laptop (no cdrom) via > serial line. I am aware it would take literally ages.
Transferring the files over serial line shouldn't take /too/ long, unless the laptop can't keep up with the serial port. Obviously you need a null modem cable between the boxes. If at all possible use a cable with rts/cts wired and enable hardware handshaking. Suggested manpages: slattach(8), release(8) (since the distributed ramdisk kernels don't have SLIP, you'll need to build your own release floppy with the sl device and a copy of slattach; you'll probably need to trim some unused devices to fit it on a floppy). If this isn't your cup of tea, put the drive in a USB adapter or on a 40-44pin cable, and install it on a standard PC (you'll need to adjust /etc/fstab to change sdN into wd0 if you use USB; it's a simple task to learn enough ed(1) to do this and USB adapters are easier to come by than 40-44 cables). If you have the option of using USB or PC-card NIC, that's simpler. One last thing - before going to all this trouble, check it's got enough RAM to be useful.
