xref: /netbsd-current/distrib/notes/mac68k/prep

Find your favorite disk partitioning utility.  Any formatter
capable of partitioning a SCSI disk should work.  Some
of the ones that have been tried and seem to work are:
	HD SC Setup from Apple
	Hard Disk ToolKit from FWB
	SCSI Directory Lite
	Disk Manager Mac from OnTrack
	Silverlining from LaCie
	APS Disk Tools

Apple's HD SC Setup is probably the easiest to use and the most
commonly available.  Instructions for patching HD SC Setup
so that it will recognize non-Apple drives is available at:
http://www.euronet.nl/users/ernstoud/patch.html

First, you need to choose a drive on which to install NetBSD.
Try to pick a drive with a low SCSI ID number, especially if you
are likely to add or remove drives to your SCSI chain in the
future.

NOTE:  BE SURE YOU HAVE A RELIABLE BACKUP OF ANY DATA WHICH YOU
MAY WANT TO KEEP.  REPARTITIONING YOUR HARD DRIVE IS AN EXCELLENT
WAY TO DESTROY IMPORTANT DATA.

Second, decide how you want to set up your partitions.  At
minimum, you need a partition to hold the NetBSD installation (the
root partition) and a partition to serve as swap.  You may choose
to use more than one partition to hold the installation.  This
allows you to separate the more vital portions of the filesystem
(such as the kernel and the /etc directory) from the more volatile
parts of the filesystem.  Typical setups place the /usr directory
on a separate partition from the root partition.  Generally, the
root partition can be fairly small while the /usr partition should
be fairly large.  If you plan to use this machine as a server, you
may also want a separate /var partition.

Once you have decided how to lay out your partitions, you need
calculate how much space to allocate to each partition.  A minimal
install of NetBSD (i.e. netbsd13, base13, and etc13) should fit in
a 30M partition.  For a full installation, you should allocate at
least 80M.  A general rule of thumb for sizing the swap partition
is to allocate twice as much swap space as you have real memory.
Having your swap + real memory total at least 20M is also a good
ideo. Systems that will be heavily used or that are low on real
memory should have more swap space allocated.  Systems that
will be only lightly used or have a very large amount of real
memory can get away with less.
 
Next, use your favorite partitioning utility to make partitions of
the necessary sizes.  You can use any type of partition, but
partitions of type "Apple_Free" might save you some confusion in
the future.

You are now set to install NetBSD on your hard drive.