It has been a while, I last did this shortly after the last alpha, but the way I remember it,
download raw image and uncompress
mount raw image
copy files via Tracker
That works because the raw image file was an image of a system that one can boot, obviously.
But the “raw image” for r48353 is essentially a directory full of packages. Not sure what the point of that would be. Installer (from my older Haiku) dutifully copies this stuff into the new partition, but still just a directory of packages.
Is there a way to install one of these nightly images directly into the BFS filesystem on another partition? Or if it needs to format a new BFS filesystem, that’s OK, but of course I don’t want to just dd something into the partition and get 600Mb usable space out of 115Gb.
Your best bet is to reformat the partition and install Haiku using the Installer app from a USB drive or from a CD-R. A raw image is for USB drives, ISO is for CDs and .Anyboot is a hybrid that can be used for both.
Copying from tracker should still work too (don’t forget to run makebootable after copying). The packages don’t need to be extracted for the system to run.
OK, the answer to that is apparently “no” - I can actually mount the anyboot image, if I specify iso9660 filesystem, but that gets me only a small filesystem with a small floppy image, and Installer crashes when it sees it.
So it looks to me like, from where I am, a little after alpha4, the current “raw image” is mountable but is no longer a system image; the anyboot image is not effectively mountable; so there’s no longer any way to install a nightly from hard disk.
Makebootable new bfs partition (in Terminal) makebootable /dev/disk/scsi/0… (view in DriveSetup)
Install /boot/system/apps/BootManager
Restart system
Boot Manager isn’t yet tested very well and still has a few restrictions that it will complain about if they aren’t met: the menu can only be installed on your first harddisk and there has to be a 2KiB space after the Master Boot Record (MBR).
I have been using BootManager since the '90s, assuming that’s the same thing that came with the BeOS CDs. Not very well tested yet, is it? The one I’m using now probably did come from Haiku, as opposed to BeOS, but I assume it’s the same thing. I’m getting to the partition and running whatever boot blocks it has, but no joy after that because the partition doesn’t have a “system”, it just has .hpkg files. Do you believe a new version of BootManager is going to deal with that? I don’t, but there’s a lot I don’t know about this system.
I found that we have a USB thumb drive or two around the house, so I tried that, with the anyboot image: “NTLDR is missing”
That was a simple dd copy with bs=1M as suggested in “Making a Haiku USB Stick” Afterwards there’s something in there that’s marked as a BFS partition, but it isn’t mountable. The same page also discusses installing to USB via Installer, but as best as I can make out, that will work only if you have a mounted system to install from.
You can register an anyboot image from Terminal via “diskimage register {name-of-anyboot}”. Then mount as usual and use Installer.
The issue seems to be that you can’t install a current nightly from an ancient Haiku installation. The Installer/makebootable etc. don’t know about the package anagement intricacies.
You’ll have to make one last clean installation by creating a USB stick or CD from a nightly. After that you can use the new update mechanism.
Yes, though note that as ancient as it may be, it’s newer than the last alpha, so everyone with an alpha install is in the same boat. And for what? I suppose there must have been some point to a raw nightly that isn’t a system image, but from here it just looks like gratuitous breakage.
I’ll have to round up a writeable CD, crossing my fingers. The USB approach isn’t working for me, with either the anyboot or raw image
For the very deep changes package managment required.
RAW nightly are just as much a system image as before. You just can’t use pre-PM infrastructure (Installer/makebootable) to install it. You have to make a clean install.
[quote]I’ll have to round up a writeable CD, crossing my fingers. The USB approach isn’t working for me, with either the anyboot or raw image
NTLDR is missing
Press any key to restart[/quote]
I thought I’ve read about this issue before, but can’t find a ticket… You may want to try another USB stick and consider filing a bug if the issue persists. Maybe doublecheck your dd command line…