Yeah. disklabel and newfs are the tools you are supposed to use. Still
the case even on 9.3.
fdisk and so on are additional tools needed for x86 (and some other)
platforms. They are not relevant on VAX. You don't have PC style disk
partitioning on a VAX.
Johnny
On 2023-10-10 20:46, David Brownlee wrote:
On Tue, 10 Oct 2023 at 05:58, Dennis <s...@dingeldein-online.de> wrote:
I am trying to update a MicroVAX 3100, running an old NetBSD 1.5.3. Idea was to
add NetBSD 9.3 on another disk.
So I attached an additional hard drive to the machine and wanted to partition
that disk and create filesystems on it. On one partition I wanted to put the
NetBSD installation and boot from that drive then.
My problem now is, on that 1.5.3 installation, there is no fdisk, no mkfs, no
bsdlabel. I checked the installations tgz files located here
https://archive.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-archive/NetBSD-1.5.3/vax/binary/sets/,
but these also do not contain these tools. But they are required to create the
partitions and file systems I want to use for installation.
From where can I get these files to continue my installation of NetBSD 9.3 ?
I am restricted in my options for the installation, I have harddisk, cdrom and
maybe floppy(not tested). With cdrom I've already failed, because MicroVAX
console boot loader seems to have problems with either the drive or the ISO
image containing NetBSD 9.3 I've used (ISO was downloaded from
https://ftp.fau.de/netbsd/NetBSD-9.3/iso/NetBSD-9.3-vax.iso )
So my question is, from where can I get or compile 1.5.3 versions of fdisk and
mkfs. I saw there is newfs, which may replace mkfs. But fdisk still seems
missing. I saw also in doc a tool required named bsdlabel, but there is a tools
called disklabel, which may be an older version of bsdlabel...
Or is there an easier way to do it? Any help welcome
gcc is present on the 1.5.3 installation, so I may be able to compile from
sources, but I am NetBSD starter and do not even know where the source would
come from. The tool pkgsrc is also not present on the 1.5.3 installation.
(I am a NetBSD beginner. But using Linux for +30 years, so both newbie and old
rabbit).
(I believe other replies may have already directed you towards
disklabel and newfs)
Another option could be to download the miniroot, then use swapctl to
disable the existing swap partition (or just reboot into single user),
dd the miniroot to the swap partition and boot from it.
Also, NetBSD is just in the process of updating gcc for the upcoming
netbsd-10 release with a bunch of very useful fixes (many thanks to
Kalvis), and the images at
https://nyftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/netbsd-10/latest/
should be showing up shortly (likely tomorrow) with the fixed gcc version
Finally, have cc'ed in port-vax@ as there are likely to be any number
of people more interested in any VAXness relating to the questions :-p
David
--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: b...@softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
