How to install a NetBSD 6.0 workstation on a laptop

How to install a NetBSD workstation on a laptop:

This is a very short tutorial how to install NetBSD 6.0
on a Laptop.
It installs the OS on the whole hard disc, sets ups WIFI,
installs pkgin, a binary package manager, and some basic software…

Grab the ISO for NetBSD 6.0 for your machine and burn it:
ftp://iso.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/iso/6.0/

Install NetBSD:

  • put CD into your CD-ROM drive
  • setup BIOS to boot from CD
  • reboot computer
  • NetBSD installer
    • choose language
    • choose keyboard type
    • Install NetBSD to hard disk
    • confirm install to whole hard disk
    • press ok to confirm install to whole hard disk again
    • choose custom Installation
      • kernel
      • kernel modules
      • base
      • /etc
      • compiler tools
      • online manual pages
      • text processing tools
      • complete X11
      • confirm disc geometry
    • use the entire disc
    • update boot code
    • use predefined partition sizes
      • will create swap with size of memory
      • will create root partition
    • confirm disk name
    • confirm installation
    • use bios console
    • choose cd-rom as install media
    • choose timezone
    • change root password
    • finish configuring
    • remove cd
    • reboot

Basic rc.conf setup:

vi /etc/rc.conf

put under

“# Add local overrides below
wscons = YES”

the following lines:

sshd=NO
postfix=NO
inetd=NO

Enable WIFI:

vi /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

Add the following lines:

network={
ssid=”<YOUR SSID/WLAN NAME>”
psk=”<PSK>”
}

vi /etc/rc.conf

put the following to the end of the file

# wlan
wpa_supplicant=YES
wpa_supplicant_flags=”-B -i -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf”
ifconfig_<DEVICE NAME>=”dhcp”
dhclient=YES

reboot

Install pkgin:

export PKG_PATH=ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/<arch>/6.0/All
pkg_add -v pkgin

echo $PKG_PATH > /usr/pkg/etc/pkgin/repositories.conf

pkgin update

Install Midnight Commander:

pkgin install mc

Install XFCE:

pkgin install xfce4

vi .xinitrc in your home folder and place the following line

startxfce4

to start x type in shell

startx

Install Thunderbird:

pkgin install thunderbird

Install Firefox:

pkgin install firefox36

if xfce asks later for browser executable just type “firefox36”

Install VLC:

pkgin install vlc-2.0.3

Install Scite code editor

pkgin install scite

Add a user

useradd -m -G wheel <name>
passwd <name>

More to come:

GDM or similar
Flash
Java, Eclipse
CodeBlocks
Skype

modular-xorg

for hardware accelerated OpenGL- unfortunatly as of 12-10-27 it was broken with my intel GPU