I want to install NetBSD on a netbook. It doesn't have a CD drive and I don't have access to wired Internet, just wireless. Booting and installing from USB is my only choice.

This is not the first time I try this. I tried it about one year ago, but looked for help in the IRC channel. I was directed to a script that generates a USB installation image, but... it can only be generated from NetBSD. 100% useless to me since I don't have a NetBSD installation yet.

Also note that Unetbootin only works with NetBSD 4. Yes, I tried it with 5, it won't work.

I have searched this forum, I only found one thread and it didn't help me at all.

I tried several other methods, the only one that boots the NetBSD installation disk successfully is MultiBootISOs. It boots fine and the installation procedure goes ahead all the way... until it's time to install the packages. The installation procedure cannot find the CD where the packages are. Well, it is indeed not a CD, it's a USB stick.

There are other options, such as local directory or unmounted file system. I thought that local directory would be fine because the USB stick is mounted so the installation can run. Right? But I can't find it on the minimal installation shell. I ran 'ls' in all directories and can't find the USB stick.

Then I tried unmounted filesystem and tried cd0, cd0a, then sd0 and sd0a, to no avail. I remember seeing something at the beginning of the installation that my USB stick is sd0, but I can't find a way to make the installation software find those packages. Can someone please give me some pointer to what location I should suggest so that sysinst will find them?

Why are you using netbsd? If you insist you may have to rebuild the installer and change where it looks for packages.

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I am not "using" NetBSD yet. I can't even install it. I want to try it, experiment with it etc. Fair game.

Now, what's the point of rebuilding the installer? Why not just tell the existing installer "Look, the packages are here, in this location. You may now proceed, if you don't mind."

Anyone? Please?

You don't have a USB-CDROM at hand?

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What packages does it fail to install, the core packages or add-on packages? Have you tried installing it without the packages?

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All the packages fail.

Install without the packages? Without BASE? Without the kernel? Are you sure you're familiar with NetBSD?

It doesn't even pass the install test but you still want to use it? I usually use the install as my first impression of any distro. Anyway if you insist you may need to build a new installer package changing the settings you need. If you don't understand what I mean then you have some research to do.

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1) You have a valid point, but I don't think this is the right time/thread to discuss whether some OS "is worthy" of attention and effort or not. I thought I had made it quite clear that I expected someone who KNOWS NetBSD to tell me where the files could be found. That's all.

2) The installer is not supposed to be run from a USB stick. It's made for CD ROM disks. So it's not really fair to say that it doesn't pass the install test. We could, on the other hand, justly criticize NetBSD for not distributing USB images, like so many distros do in this second decade of the 21st century, including FreeBSD. But well, NetBSD has always been Spartan that way. I knew what I was getting into.

3) I solved the problem about two hours ago. I copied the contents of the CD image to a FAT32 partition, then booted from the USB stick, mounted that partition and told sysinst to find the packages there. It worked flawlessly.

However, for the life of me, I can't make my wireless connection work on it. I spent some 90 minutes googling and reading documentation, to no avail. I got sick of it, I am now downloading FreeBSD. I haven't fooled around with it for more than a year, and NetBSD is still too rough for my palate.

Thank you for your attention.