I share here a quick guide I wrote a while ago about manually installing NetBSD on UEFI firmware with a GPT partition table, initially recently tested anfd fixed by myself on bare metal. Thanks to @pin for having tested it and cooperated fixing typos and inconsistencies no sooner had I posted it on DaemonForums
create a new GPT disklabel
gpt destroy wd0
gpt create -f wd0
create partitions
gpt add -a 2m -s 65536 -t efi -l "ESP" wd0
gpt add -a 2m -s 5g -t ffs -l "netbsd-root" wd0
gpt add -a 2m -s 8g -t swap -l "netbsd-swap" wd0
gpt add -a 2m -s 5g -t ffs -l "netbsd-var" wd0
gpt add -a 2m -s 20g -t ffs -l "netbsd-usr" wd0
gpt add -a 2m -t ffs -l "netbsd-home”
format partitions
newfs_msdos -F 16 /dev/rwd0a
newfs -O 2 -V2 -f 2048 /dev/rwd0b
newfs -O 2 -V2 -f 2048 /dev/rwd0d
newfs -O 2 -V2 -f 2048 /dev/rwd0e
newfs -O 2 -V2 -f 2048 /dev/rwd0f
swapctl -a -p 1 /dev/wd0c
mount filesystems
mount /dev/wd0b /mnt
cd /mnt
mkdir {var,usr,home}
swapon /dev/wd0c
mount /dev/wd0d /mnt/var
mount /dev/wd0e /mnt/usr
mount /dev/wd0f /mnt/home
extract binary sets
cd /mnt
for set in KERN-GENERIC base comp etc games man misc modules tests text xbase xcomp xetc xfont xserver; do
> tar -xzpf /amd64/binary/sets/$set.tgz
> done
mv netbsd netbsd.gen && ln -fh netbsd.gen netbsd
set up bootloader
mount -t msdos /dev/wd0a /media
mkdir -p /media/EFI/boot
cp /usr/mdec/*.efi /media/EFI/boot
cat > /media/EFI/boot/boot.cfg << EOF
menu=Boot normally:rndseed /etc/entropy-file;boot hd0b:netbsd
menu=Boot single user:rndseed /etc/entropy-file;boot hd0b:netbsd -s
menu=Disable ACPI:rndseed /etc/entropy-file;boot hd0b:netbsd -2
menu=Disable ACPI and SMP:rndseed /etc/entropy-file;boot hd0b:netbsd -12
menu=Drop to boot prompt:prompt
default=1
timeout=5
clear=1
EOF
installboot -v /dev/rwd0b /mnt/usr/mdec/bootxx_ffsv2
create devnodes
cd /mnt/dev
sh MAKEDEV all
set up a chroot env
mkdir {kern,proc}
mount_kernfs kernfs /mnt/kern
mount_procfs procfs /mnt/proc
mount_tmpfs tmpfs /mnt/var/shm
mount_ptyfs ptyfs /mnt/dev/pts
chroot /mnt su -
/etc/fstab
/dev/wd0b / ffs rw 1 1
/dev/wd0c none swap sw,dp 0 0
/dev/wd0d /usr ffs rw 1 2
/dev/wd0e /var ffs rw 1 2
/dev/wd0f /home ffs rw 1 2
kernfs /kern kernfs rw
ptyfs /dev/pts ptyfs rw
procfs /proc procfs rw
/dev/cd0a /cdrom cd9660 ro,noauto
tmpfs /var/shm tmpfs rw,-m1777,-sram%25
set root password
passwd root
set keyboard layout
echo "encoding $layout" >> /etc/wscons.conf
disable speaker beep
echo "setvar wskbd bell.volume 0" >> /etc/wscons.conf
echo "setvar wskbd bell.pitch 0" >> /etc/wscons.conf
set a reasonable framebuffer console speed
echo "setvar wskbd repeat.del1 250" >> /etc/wscons.conf
echo "setvar wskbd repeat.deln 30" >> /etc/wscons.conf
set timezone
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/${region}/${state} /etc/localtime
/etc/rc.conf
if [ -r /etc/defaults/rc.conf ]; then
. /etc/defaults/rc.conf
fi
rc_configured=YES
hostname=$HOSTNAME
clear_tmp=YES
random_seed=YES
random_file=/etc/entropy-file
wscons=YES
dhcpcd=YES
system-wide locale settings
echo "export LANG=\"en_US.UTF-8\"" >> /etc/profile
echo "export LC_CTYPE=\"en_US.UTF-8\"" >> /etc/profile
echo "export LC_ALL=\"\"" >> /etc/profile
/etc/resolv.conf
domain $hostname.$domain.$extension
nameserver $nameserver
configure ethernet interface
cat > /etc/ifconfig.${if} << EOF
up
media autoselect
dhcp
EOF
set your IP
echo "$my_ip $hostname $hostname.$domain.$extension" >> /etc/hosts
add a standard user
useradd -g wheel -G users -s /bin/${shell} -c "foo's real name" -m foo
passwd foo
enable networking (ifconfig -l lists available interfaces)
ifconfig $if up dhcp
dhcpcd $if
fetch a quarterly release pkgsrc tarball
ftp ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/pkgsrc-${release}/pkgsrc.tar.gz
tar -xzf pkgsrc.tar.gz -C /usr
rm pkgsrc.tar.gz
install pkgin and update the binary package repo
cd /usr/pkgsrc/pkgtools/pkgin
make install clean clean-depends
echo "ftp://ftp.fr.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/$(uname -m)/$(uname -r)_${quarterly_release}/All" >> /usr/pkg/etc/pkgin/repositories.conf
pkgin -f update
exit chroot
exit
umount /media
umount -fR /mnt
reboot
reboot
