Tell me more ×
Unix & Linux Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for users of Linux, FreeBSD and other Un*x-like operating systems.. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 2 down vote favorite

With FreeBSD 8 you could manually install by doing something like:

# mdconfig -f /FreeBSD-8.2-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso
# mount -t cd9660 /dev/md0 /cdrom
# cd /cdrom/8.*
# export DESTDIR=/mnt
# cd base; sh install.sh; cd ..
# cd catpages; sh install.sh; cd ..
# cd manpages; sh install.sh; cd ..
# cd src; sh install.sh all; cd ..
# cd kernels; sh install.sh generic; cd ..

etc.. This was very handy for remote installs and other special circumstances.

FreeBSD 9 install has changed a lot and the CD directory structure is totally different so I'm wondering if anyone knows of a similar way of doing this with FreeBSD 9? Appreciate any help.

share|improve this question
You could get the binary sets from the server and proceed similarly, I suppose. – sr_ Feb 22 '12 at 17:37
Good idea. I will look into this. Thanks. – Maniac Feb 23 '12 at 9:36

1 Answer

up vote 2 down vote accepted

The distribution is broken up into larger chunks now. In theory you can extract the tarballs (they are tar xz) with bsdtar into their appropriate directories. kernels and base are the two you'd need.

As far as trying to semi-automate it, bsdinstall (the sysinstall replacement) actually calls multiple scripts and programs. You can edit them to your needs. The source is in /usr/src/usr.sbin/bsdinstall and you can find installed copies of most of it in /usr/libexec/bsdinstall/

share|improve this answer
Was wondering where the bsdinstall stuff was, guess I should have looked a little harder. :-) Thank you that very helpful I think I can get it worked out now. – Maniac Feb 23 '12 at 9:37

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.