@ball It should definitely fit in reasonable memory sized #VAXen, say 16MB. The kernel can be stripped back and the ramdisk needs just enough to prompt for source and target devices, plus gzip - so much less than the current #sysinst based images. Something akin to the old #SunOS miniroot boot tape.

As it happens #NetBSD/ #amiga still has a miniroot install option - you partition with #AmigaOS native tools, write the miniroot to what will be the swap partition, then boot into it to complete.

Hey you there! Yes, you! Do you suffer from unwholesome impulses to shell out from OS installers? Do you then crave the satisfaction of pressing an up arrow key and having access to previously typed commands?

Well, do we have a deal for you!

As of today, #sysinst in #NetBSD current builds now provide just such gratification

(Terms & Conditions apply. Not applicable to memory constrained image such as #vax #atari #amiga #dreamcast #mac68k #hp300 #next68k & #zaurus. Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball)