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Old 30th May 2008
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jggimi jggimi is offline
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Join Date: May 2008
Location: USA
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If network install is not an option, booting the cd43.iso image on a computer of the same architecture that has a BIOS which can boot the El Torito CD gives you the ramdisk kernel, and this is enough of OpenBSD to build a bootable pen drive.

This is basic process. Disclaimer: this is untested, from my fallable memory. Use this only as a guide. Look up the commands and what they do before doing any of them. Some settling of contents may occur during shipping. All models over 18.
  1. Boot the CD
  2. At the "Install, Upgrade or Shell" prompt, select the shell.
  3. Insert the pen drive. You will see kernel messages about the insertion, including the virtual SCSI drive # assigned to the drive. For this example, I will use "sd0" but it may be another number.
  4. Put an MBR on the drive, reserve all space as a single MBR partition for OpenBSD:
    # fdisk -iy sd0
  5. Put an OpenBSD disklabel on the drive, assign all available space as a single "a" partition on sd0:
    # disklabel -E sd0
    Use "a a" to add partition a, take the defaults for all prompts, once the partition is created, use the "q" command to exit the disklabel program. Answer "y" to write the disklabel.
  6. Format the "a" partition on sd0 as an OpenBSD FFS partition:
    # newfs sd0a
  7. Mount it:
    # mount /dev/sd0a /mnt
  8. Copy the second stage boot loader and the ramdisk kernel to it:
    # cp /bsd.rd /mnt
    # cp /usr/mdec/boot /mnt
  9. Create an /etc/boot.conf on the drive so you do not have to request the ramdisk kernel manually at boot time:
    # mkdir /mnt/etc
    # echo set image /bsd.rd > /mnt/etc/boot.conf
  10. Install the PBR:
    # /usr/mdec/installboot -v /mnt/boot /usr/mdec/biosboot sd0
  11. Unmount the pen drive:
    # umount /mnt

Last edited by jggimi; 30th May 2008 at 05:54 PM.
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