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Originally Posted by danboid
I'm only familar with Linux where we only have one bootloader (GRUB or lilo on x86, u-boot on ARM) so I presumed that installboot would be analagous to GRUB in that it would be the bootloader I'd be using to boot NetBSD on x86/x64.
However, after your latest response I now get the impression that if I was dual-booting NetBSD with Linux on x86 I would need to have both GRUB and the installboot primary bootloader installed, installboot living exclusively on the NetBSD partition whilst GRUB (or u-boot in this case) would be on the MBR.
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Yes, now you have it. On x86 there is that extra step, which probably has historical origins in that BSD did not originate in an environment where there would be DOS, or other, boot code on a hard disk MBR. Just to clarify, note that installboot is a system program residing in a NetBSD filesystem, and what it does is install boot code from another file into the right place on the disk (hence the name "install boot").
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As I said in my first post, I avoided using disklabel / fdisk to prepare my drive by using sysinst instead, although I expect that is just a script that depends upon disklabel/fdisk. However, only the partitioning aspect of it works for me on BPi so I have to quit out of it after its done that. I would've expected sysinst to run installboot on my HD too but maybe it only does that after downloading and installing the packages?
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That seems possible (though I haven't checked the sysinst script). The reason being that it may have to unpack the install sets (what you called "packages") first so that all the system files are on the disk, then it can run installboot which is one of those files. However, installboot might already be present in the install system you booted up into too. (I am unable to verify this conveniently at the moment.)
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I'll have a look at the installboot manpage now and see if it makes sense. I may have to do the whole patitioning and formatting procedure manually instead of cheating by using sysinst.
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It's always good to look at the man page. You may not have to start from scratch though, since some things were already done. But then you'll have to figure out if they were or not, and carry on at the right point.
From your following post it sounds like you are heading in the right direction on this process of discovery.