eeepc via usb pen

[mwa]

Hi
Sorry for the noise but I am trying to install openbsd an an eeepc via a usb pen. I have managed to install 4.(1 or 2) in the past but do not seem to be able to get the 4.3 install to boot off a pen. I know I could (hopefully) un-tar the files from the install4.3.iso mounted with loopback on another *nix and copy the fs then configure everything and dd the mbr (or something like that); the closest i have got is a kernel panic saying boot too old upgrade when I try to boot bsd.rd via grub. But is there an easier way (without buying a usb cdrom) to boot the usb pen as a install source....
or take any action in reliance on its content.
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[Pete Vickers-2]

1. enable netboot in eee's BIOS settings
2. man 8 pxeboot

/Pete
On 23 Jul 2008, at 16:33, mwa@... wrote:

> Hi
> Sorry for the noise but I am trying to install openbsd an an eeepc  
> via a usb pen. I have managed to install 4.(1 or 2) in the past but  
> do not seem to be able to get the 4.3 install to boot off a pen. I  
> know I could (hopefully) un-tar the files from the install4.3.iso  
> mounted with loopback on another *nix and copy the fs then configure  
> everything and dd the mbr (or something like that); the closest i  
> have got is a kernel panic saying boot too old upgrade when I try to  
> boot bsd.rd via grub. But is there an easier way (without buying a  
> usb cdrom) to boot the usb pen as a install source....
> or take any action in reliance on its content.
> ***************************************************************************
>
> ***************************************************************************
> This email has been checked for known viruses.
> ***************************************************************************

[Nick Holland]

mwa@... wrote:

> Hi
> Sorry for the noise but I am trying to install openbsd an an eeepc
> via a usb pen. I have managed to install 4.(1 or 2) in the past but
> do not seem to be able to get the 4.3 install to boot off a pen. I
> know I could (hopefully) un-tar the files from the install4.3.iso
> mounted with loopback on another *nix and copy the fs then configure
> everything and dd the mbr (or something like that); the closest i
> have got is a kernel panic saying boot too old upgrade when I try
> to boot bsd.rd via grub. But is there an easier way (without buying
> a usb cdrom) to boot the usb pen as a install source....
> or take any action in reliance on its content.

quit making life hard on yourself.

1) grub won't help you.
2) stick USB flash drive in another computer
3) Install (minimal?) OpenBSD on it (sd0, PROBABLY).
3a optional) Copy over install files
4) stick USB flash drive in target computer.
5) Boot from it
6) At boot> prompt, type "bsd.rd"
7) ta-da.

Note that the config machine doesn't even need to be USB-bootable
to make this flash drive, though it must be to test the results.

Yes, that's more of an install than you NEED, but if you gotta
ask "how", that's what you want to do, and the above process works
on just about anything that can boot from USB.

Besides, the finished flash drive is wonderfully useful. :)
(I've got a 4G, partitioned out as 2G OpenBSD, 2G FAT32, which is
bootable on OpenBSD and still usable as a Windows flash drive,
as well.  Only problem I have is I keep buying the super-cheap
flash drives which work great until you sit on them.)

(the "proper" solution is to boot OpenBSD (inc. off a CDROM
or floppy), partition and format the media, install MBR, install
kernel, install /boot, install PBR.  If you can do that without
error, you can probably skip the OpenBSD install script, just
manually copy files onto your target machine.  i.e., not worth
the effort, probably.  I know how to do it, and I rarely do so
without error).

Nick.