This FAQ now contains installation instructions for OpenBSD 2.8. There may be differences between the 2.8 installation and installation of earlier versions of OpenBSD.
OpenBSD has a very robust text-based install procedure. The OpenBSD install procedure was designed to be adaptable in almost any situation that a user could face. In addition to its robustness, the install procedure can be done using 1 floppy disk. Each architecuture's installation procedure is very similar, however a different set of tools will often be required. Below we will outline the different options that an OpenBSD user has when installing the system.
The following information is architecture independant. Please refer to each architectures installation page or the OpenBSD CD cover for architecture dependant installation information.
OpenBSD 2.8 supports X architectures listed below in alphabetical order. Please refer to each architectures page for specific information on what each architecture supports.
OpenBSD has the ability to install from multiple media types. The most common and architecture independant options are layed out below. These options can be used after booting from either an OpenBSD CD-ROM or floppy disk. More information on creating OpenBSD installdisk's is located later in this FAQ.
CD-ROM |
To do a CD-ROM install, you must have either purchased an
Official OpenBSD CD-ROM or
created your own OpenBSD CD. This is certainly the easiest
way to install an OpenBSD system. NOTE: Official OpenBSD CD's are bootable if your bios supports it. |
FTP | This installation option allows you to install OpenBSD by downloading the installation packages in realtime over the network. With this option you can choose either a static IP for use or grab an IP via DHCP. |
Local Filesystem | This option allows you to install from files on a pre-existing filesystem. Support for DOS, EXT2FS and FFS are included on the install disk. |
To create an installation floppy image you must first download the correct boot
floppy image from one of the OpenBSD distribution sites. You can find a list of FTP servers
at the OpenBSD FTP Distribution page. Each architecture
has one floppy image for download except the i386 platform,
which has 3 images to choose from. The differences between the i386 platform installation
floppies will be outlined below. For the other architectures you will just need to
download the respective floppy28.fs image.
NOTE: The cdrom28.fs image can be used to make a bootable OpenBSD installation
CD-ROM.
The i386 platform has 3 separate installation disks that you must choose from. The differences between each is outlined below.
Ethernet:
Disk:
Ethernet:
Most i386 users will just use the floppy28.fs installation floppy.
Once you have the correct floppy image, you need to get a clean floppy disk. If there are ANY bad sectors on the floppy disk, the installation will most likely fail. If you don't know, use the fdformat(1) command to both format and check for bad sectors.
# fdformat /dev/fd0a Format 1440K floppy `/dev/fd0a'? (y/n): y Processing VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV done. |
If your output is like the above example, then your disk is OK. However, if you do not see ALL "V"'s then your disk is most likely bad, and you should try a new one. If you are formatting in MS-DOS, simply use the DOS format command.
Once you have a clean, formatted floppy it is time to write the installation image to floppy. If you are creating this on an OpenBSD machine or another UNIX-like OS, you can use the dd(1) utility. an example usage of dd(1) is below:
# dd if=floppy28.fs of=/dev/rfd0c bs=126b |
Once the image is written, check to make sure that the copied image is the same as the original with the following command. If the test passes, you will just see another prompt.
# cmp /dev/rfd0c floppy28.fs |
Again, if you are creating this image on the Windows/DOS platform you can get tools from the tools directory on any of the ftp mirrors, or in 2.8/tools directory on CD1 on the OpenBSD CD. For users of Windows, rawrite will be all you need to write your boot floppy.
C:\> rawrite RaWrite 1.2 - Write disk file to raw floppy diskette Enter source file name: floppy28.fs Enter destination drive: a Please insert a formatted diskette into drive A: and press -ENTER- : >Enter< |
If you use NT, rawrite will not work for you. You can, however, use fdimage or ntrw to write the boot floppy. Both of which are availible on the ftp sites (linked above), or the OpenBSD CD. Here are example usages for each program.
C:\> fdimage -q floppy28.fs a: |
C:\> ntrw floppy28.fs a: 3.5", 1.44MB, 512 bytes/sector bufsize is 9216 1474560 bytes written |
This section is initially broken down into architecture dependant sections for popular architectures that OpenBSD supports. This is so we can properly instruct each user on the what to do on thier respective platform.
Booting an install image on the i386 architecture is nothing new to most people. If you are using the floppy disk, simply stick the floppy into your floppy drive and boot your system. Your install image will automatically load. If you are planning on booting from CD, you must go into your systems BIOS and set the boot options to allow booting from CD. Some older BIOS's do not have this option, and you must use a floppy for booting your installation image. Don't worry though, even if you boot from floppy you can still install from the CD.
To boot from floppy, place your floppy disk with the OpenBSD installation image on it into your floppy drive. Then use the following command to boot from your floppy:
ok boot floppy |
To boot from CD-ROM, place your OpenBSD CD-ROM disk into your drive. If your Sun only has one CD-ROM drive, then just go to the boot prompt, where you can 'boot cdrom':
ok boot cdrom |
Of course, this will only work in new command mode. If you are at the old command mode prompt (a right arrow), type 'n' for the new command mode. (If you are using an old sparc that is pre-sun4c, you probably don't have a new command mode. In this case, you need to experiment.) If you have multiple CD-ROM devices, you need to boot from the correct one. Try probe-scsi from the new command mode.
ok probe-scsi Target 0 Unit 0 Disk QUANTUM LIGHTNING 365S Target 1 Unit 0 Removable Disk QUANTUM EMPIRE_1080S Target 3 Unit 0 Removable Disk Joe's CD ROMs |
Figure out which disk is the CD ROM you want to boot from. Note the target number.
ok boot /sbus/esp/sd@X,0 |
Now that your bootdisk has been created, it's time to boot it. When you boot this floppy, the kernel and all of the programs that OpenBSD uses to install itself are loaded into memory. If problems arise, and your bootdisk doesn't boot, the problem is probobly due to a bad floppy disk. This is an extremly common problem! If your bootdisk fails to boot, try it a second time, and if it fails again, throw away the floppy and get a new one. When your floppy fails to boot, even if the floppy worked fine for you before, keep in mind that OpenBSD uses nearly every single bit available from the floppy! Any error in the disk will prevent OpenBSD from loading.
When your boot is successful, you will see a lot of white on blue text, that text is the kernel telling you what devices have been found, and where. Then, you will see the following:
rootdev=0x1100 rrootdev=0x2f00 rawdev=0x2f02 Enter pathname of shell or RETURN for sh: erase ^?, werase ^W, kill ^U, intr ^C (I)nstall, (U)pgrade or (S)hell? i ================================================== Welcome to the OpenBSD/i386 2.8 installation program. This program is designed to help you put OpenBSD on your disk in a simple and rational way. As with anything which modifies your disk's contents, this program can cause SIGNIFICANT data loss, and you are advised to make sure your data is backed up before beginning the installation process. Default answers are displayed in brackets after the questions. You can hit Control-C at any time to quit, but if you do so at a prompt, you may have to hit return. Also, quitting in the middle of installation may leave your system in an inconsistent state. If you hit Control-C and restart the install, the install program will remember many of your old answers. You can run a shell command at any prompt via '!foo' or escape to a shell by simply typing '!'. Specify terminal type [pcvt25]: <Enter> |
Depending on the architecture you are using, the terminal type you use might be different. For example, OpenBSD/sparc uses the "sun" terminal type.
Setting up disk's in OpenBSD is fairly similar for each platform. For i386 disk setup is done in two stages. One is with fdisk(8) and the other with disklabel(8).
The installation program needs to know which disk to consider the root disk. Note the unit number may be different than the unit number you used in the boot program (especially on a PC with multiple disk controllers). Available disks are: wd0 Which disk is the root disk? [wd0] <Enter> Do you want to use the *entire* disk for OpenBSD? [no] yes [...] |
This is the section in the install where you choose which disk you want as your "root" disk. Your root disk will be where the / filesystem and swap will be. wd0 specifies an IDE disk, if your disks are SCSI you will most likely see sd0. There should be an entry for each disk that OpenBSD finds. If you choose to alot the whole disk to OpenBSD, the installation program will automatically setup the diskspace for you, however if you choose not to give the whole disk to OpenBSD you will be placed in a disk editor, ie fdisk(8). For more information on using fdisk(8), refer to the FAQ.
Inside the BIOS 'A6' ('OpenBSD') partition you just created, there resides an OpenBSD partition table which defines how this BIOS partition is to be split up. This table declares the offsets and sizes of your / partition, your swap space, and any other partitions you might create. (NOTE: The OpenBSD disk label offsets are absolute, ie. relative to the start of the disk... NOT relative to the start of the BIOS 'A6' partition). disklabel: no disk label WARNING: Disk wd0 has no label. You will be creating a new one. If this disk is shared with other operating systems, those operating systems should have a BIOS partition entry that spans the space they occupy completely. For safety, also make sure all OpenBSD file systems are within the offset and size specified in the 'A6' BIOS partition table. (By default, the disklabel editor will try to enforce this). If you are unsure of how to use multiple partitions properly (ie. separating /, /usr, /tmp, /var, /usr/local, and other things) just split the space into a root and swap partition for now. # using MBR partition 3: type A6 off 63 (0x3f) size 16450497 (0xfb03c1) Treating sectors 63-80041248 as the OpenBSD portion of the disk. You can use the 'b' command to change this. Initial label editor (enter '?' for help at any prompt) > ? Available commands: p [unit] - print label. M - show entire OpenBSD man page for disklabel. e - edit drive parameters. a [part] - add new partition. b - set OpenBSD disk boundaries. c [part] - change partition size. d [part] - delete partition. g [d|b] - Use [d]isk or [b]ios geometry. m [part] - modify existing partition. n [part] - set the mount point for a partition. r - recalculate free space. u - undo last change. s [path] - save label to file. w - write label to disk. q - quit and save changes. x - exit without saving changes. X - toggle expert mode. ? [cmnd] - this message or command specific help. Numeric parameters may use suffixes to indicate units: 'b' for bytes, 'c' for cylinders, 'k' for kilobytes, 'm' for megabytes, 'g' for gigabytes or no suffix for sectors (usually 512 bytes). Non-sector units will be rounded to the nearest cylinder.Entering '?' at most prompts will give you (simple) context sensitive help. > p device: /dev/rwd0c type: ESDI disk: ESDI/IDE disk label: Maxtor 54098U8 bytes/sector: 512 sectors/track: 63 tracks/cylinder: 16 sectors/cylinder: 1008 cylinders: 16383 total sectors: 80041248 free sectors: 80041185 rpm: 3600 16 partitions: # size offset fstype [fsize bsize cpg] a: 16450497 63 unused 0 0 c: 80041248 0 unused 0 0 > d a > a a offset: [63] <Enter> size: [80041185] 80m Rounding to nearest cylinder: 164241 FS type: [4.2BSD] <Enter> mount point: [none] / > a b offset: [164304] <Enter> size: [79876944] 300m Rounding to nearest cylinder: 614880 FS type: [swap] <Enter> > a d offset: [779184] <Enter> size: [79262064] 80m Rounding to nearest cylinder: 164304 FS type: [4.2BSD] <Enter> mount point: [none] /tmp > a e offset: [943488] <Enter> size: [79097760] 80m Rounding to nearest cylinder: 164304 FS type: [4.2BSD] <Enter> mount point: [none] /var > a g offset: [1107792] <Enter> size: [78933456] 350m Rounding to nearest cylinder: 716688 FS type: [4.2BSD] <Enter> mount point: [none] /usr > a h offset: [1824480] <Enter> size: [78216768] <Enter> FS type: [4.2BSD] <Enter> mount point: [none] /home > p device: /dev/rwd0c type: ESDI disk: ESDI/IDE disk label: Maxtor 54098U8 bytes/sector: 512 sectors/track: 63 tracks/cylinder: 16 sectors/cylinder: 1008 cylinders: 16383 total sectors: 80041248 free sectors: 0 rpm: 3600 16 partitions: # size offset fstype [fsize bsize cpg] a: 164241 63 4.2BSD 1024 8192 16 # / b: 614880 164304 swap c: 80041248 0 unused 0 0 d: 164304 779184 4.2BSD 1024 8192 16 # /tmp e: 164304 943488 4.2BSD 1024 8192 16 # /var g: 716688 1107792 4.2BSD 1024 8192 16 # /usr h: 78216768 1824480 4.2BSD 1024 8192 16 # /home> w > q No label changes. |
Notice how each mount point is split onto its own partition. For a multiuser machine, it is best to make at least five separate filesystems, one for your / filesystem, one for swap, one for /var, one for /tmp, and one for /usr. If your users are going to store files of any significant size, you want a separate /home filesystem too.
There are four main reasons for using separate filesystems, instead of shoving everything into one or two filesystems:
Setting up your mountpoints is much more simple than it looks. After you setup your filesystems with disklabel, will see text like the text below. This should be done for you automatically if you configured mount points via disklabel(8). If you did not, you can do so here.
You will now have the opportunity to enter filesystem information for wd0. You will be prompted for the mount point (full path, including the prepending '/' character) for each BSD partition on wd0. Enter "none" to skip a partition or "done" when you are finished. The following partitions will be used for the root filesystem and swap: wd0a / wd0b swap Mount point for wd0d (size=82152k) [/tmp, RET, none, or done]? <Enter> Mount point for wd0e (size=82152k) [/var, RET, none, or done]? <Enter> Mount point for wd0g (size=358344k) [/usr, RET, none, or done]? <Enter> Mount point for wd0h (size=39108384k) [/home, RET, none, or done]? <Enter> Mount point for wd0d (size=82002k) [/tmp, RET, none, or done]? done <Enter> Now you can select another disk to initialize. (Do not re-select a disk you have already entered information for). Available disks are: wd0 Which one? [done] <Enter> You have configured the following devices and mount points: wd0a / wd0d /tmp wd0e /var wd0g /usr wd0h /home ============================================================ The next step will overwrite any existing data on: wd0a wd0d wd0e wd0g wd0h Are you really sure that you're ready to proceed? [n] y Creating filesystems... Warning: 64 sector(s) in last cylinder unallocated /dev/rwd0a: 164240 sectors in 163 cylinders of 16 tracks, 63 sectors 80.2MB in 11 cyl groups (16 c/g, 7.88MB/g, 1920 i/g) /dev/rwd0d: 164304 sectors in 163 cylinders of 16 tracks, 63 sectors 80.2MB in 11 cyl groups (16 c/g, 7.88MB/g, 1920 i/g) /dev/rwd0e: 164304 sectors in 163 cylinders of 16 tracks, 63 sectors 80.2MB in 11 cyl groups (16 c/g, 7.88MB/g, 1920 i/g) /dev/rwd0g: 716688 sectors in 711 cylinders of 16 tracks, 63 sectors 349.9MB in 45 cyl groups (16 c/g, 7.88MB/g, 1920 i/g) /dev/rwd0h: 78216768 sectors in 77596 cylinders of 16 tracks, 63 sectors 38191.8MB in 4850 cyl groups (16 c/g, 7.88MB/g, 1920 i/g) |
Notice this answer defaults to no, so you will have to directly tell it to format your labels. If you chose no you will simply be dropped into a shell and can start the install again by typing install, or just rebooting again with your bootdisk. At this point it will format all filesystems for you, this could take some time depending on the size of your disk.
Now it's time to setup your network configuration. This is extremely important if you are planning on doing any network based install, considering it will be based upon the information you are about to enter. Here is a walkthrough of the network configuration section of the install process.
You will now be given the opportunity to configure the network. This will be useful if you need to transfer the installation sets via FTP, HTTP, or NFS. Even if you choose not to transfer installation sets that way, this information will be preserved and copied into the new root filesystem. Configure the network [y] <Enter> Enter system hostname (short form): [] mybox Enter DNS domain name: [] someisp.com If you have any devices being configured by a DHCP server it is recommended that you do not enter a default route or any name servers. You may configure the following network interfaces (the interfaces marked with [X] have been succesfully configured): [ ] fxp0 Configure which interface? (or, enter 'done') [fxp0] <Enter> IP address (or 'dhcp') ? [] 199.185.137.55 Symbolic (host) name? [test2] <Enter> Netmask ? [255.255.255.0] <Enter> Your use of the network interface may require non-default media directives. The default media is: media: Ethernet autoselect (100baseTX full-duplex) This is a list of supported media: media autoselect media 100baseTX mediaopt full-duplex media 100baseTX media 10baseT mediaopt full-duplex media 10baseT If the default is not satisfactory, and you wish to use another media, copy that line from above (e.g. "media 100baseTX") Media directives? [] <Enter> You may configure the following network interfaces (the interfaces marked with [X] have been succesfully configured): [X] fxp0 Configure which interface? (or, enter 'done') [done] <Enter> |
In the above example, we use a static IP address. You can choose to use dhcp as well if you choose. In the case of DHCP, most of this information will be grabbed from a remote dhcp server.
Enter IP address of default route: [none] 199.185.137.128 Enter IP address of primary nameserver: [none] 199.185.137.1 Would you like to use the nameserver now? [y] <Enter> |
After your network is setup, the install script will give you a chance to make any changes to your network setup. (Mainly if errors were produced.) Then the filesystems you created will be mounted and a root password set. This will get your local disks ready for the OpenBSD packages to be installed upon them. After your local disks are ready you will get a chance to choose your installation media. The options are listed below.
You will now be given the opportunity to escape to the command shell to do any additional network configuration you may need. This may include adding additional routes, if needed. In addition, you might take this opportunity to redo the default route in the event that it failed above. Escape to shell? [n] <Enter> /dev/wd0a on /mnt type ffs (rw, asynchronous, local) /dev/wd0d on /mnt/tmp type ffs (rw, asynchronous, local) /dev/wd0e on /mnt/var type ffs (rw, asynchronous, local) /dev/wd0g on /mnt/usr type ffs (rw, asynchronous, local) /dev/wd0h on /mnt/home type ffs (rw, asynchronous, local) Please enter the initial password that the root account will have. Password (will not echo): <Your Password Here!> Password (again): <Your Password Here!> Do you expect to run the X Window System? [y] <Enter> It is now time to extract the installation sets onto the hard disk. Make sure the sets are either on a local device (i.e. tape, CD-ROM) or on a network server. You will have the chance to repeat this step or to extract sets from several places, so you don't have to try to load all the sets in one try and can recover from some errors. Install from (f)tp, (h)ttp, (t)ape, (C)D-ROM, (N)FS or local (d)isk? c |
In this example we are installing via CD-ROM. This will bring up a list of devices on your computer identified as a CD-ROM. Most people will only have one; if you don't, you need to make sure you pick the device in which you will be installing the OpenBSD from. After choosing the correct device, you will be prompted for which filesystem the installation files will reside on. If you are using the OpenBSD CD-ROM you will choose 'c' here, for 'c' represents the whole disk. Here is an example:
The following CD-ROM devices are installed on your system; please make sure the CD is in the CD-ROM drive and select the device containing the CD with the installation sets: cd0 Which CD-ROM contains the installation media? [cd0] <Enter> |
Now you will be prompted for which filesystem to use when reading the CD-ROM, and to what directory the installation files are. If you are using the official OpenBSD CD-ROM, you will use 'cd9660' as your filesystem. (Which is the default.) You will then be using '/2.8/i386/' as the directory in which the files reside. (Again, this is the default option.) After this you will get a list of packages to install. You can get a description of these files in FAQ 4.2. Here is what you will be seeing:
Now it's time to choose which packages you will be installing. You can get a description of these files in faq4.2. The files that the installdisk finds will be shown to you on the screen. Your job is just to specify which files you want. By default only 4 packages are selected. These are 'base28.tar.gz', 'etc28.tar.gz', 'man28.tar.gz' and 'bsd'. This is because these first 3 files MUST be present for you to have any sort of a functional system, the 'bsd' file is the kernel of the system. The rest are left up to your discretion. The example below is that of a full install, minus the games package.
Enter the directory relative to the mount point that contains the file. [/2.8/i386] <Enter> You will now be asked for files to extract. In addition to the files listed in the selector you may enter any file located in /mnt2//2.8/i386. You can also enter 'all' to install all the standard sets, or 'list' to list the files avilable in /mnt2//2.8/i386. When you are done selecting files, enter 'done'. Some of these sets are required for your install and some are optional -- You will want at least the base and bsd sets. Consult the installation notes if you are not sure which sets are required! The following sets are available for extraction. Enter filename, `list', `all', or `done'. You may de-select a set by prepending a '-' to its name. [X] base28.tgz [X] etc28.tgz [ ] misc28.tgz [ ] comp28.tgz [X] man28.tgz [ ] game28.tgz [ ] xbase28.tgz [ ] xshare28.tgz [ ] xfont28.tgz [ ] xserv28.tgz [X] bsd File name? [] * The following sets are available for extraction. Enter filename, `list', `all', or `done'. You may de-select a set by prepending a '-' to its name. [X] base28.tgz [X] etc28.tgz [X] misc28.tgz [X] comp28.tgz [X] man28.tgz [X] game28.tgz [X] xbase28.tgz [X] xshare28.tgz [X] xfont28.tgz [X] xserv28.tgz [X] bsd File name? [] -game* The following sets are available for extraction. Enter filename, `list', `all', or `done'. You may de-select a set by prepending a '-' to its name. [X] base28.tgz [X] etc28.tgz [X] misc28.tgz [X] comp28.tgz [X] man28.tgz [ ] game28.tgz [X] xbase28.tgz [X] xshare28.tgz [X] xfont28.tgz [X] xserv28.tgz [X] bsd File name? [] done |
Once you have successfully picked which packages you want, you will be prompted to make sure you want to extract these packages and they will then be installed. A progress bar will be shown that will keep you informed on how much time it will take. The times range greatly depending on what system it is you are installing OpenBSD on. After this your configuration files ( networking and filesystem ) will be moved onto your disks also from the installdisk.
/mnt2//2.8/i386/base28.tgz: 100% |**************************************************| 21192 KB 00:00 ETA /mnt2//2.8/i386/etc28.tgz: 100% |**************************************************| 987 KB 00:00 ETA /mnt2//2.8/i386/man28.tgz: 100% |**************************************************| 4957 KB 00:00 ETA /mnt2//2.8/i386/bsd: 100% |**************************************************| 3053 KB 00:00 ETA /mnt2//2.8/i386/misc28.tgz: 100% |**************************************************| 1644 KB 00:00 ETA /mnt2//2.8/i386/comp28.tgz: 100% |**************************************************| 14406 KB 00:00 ETA /mnt2//2.8/i386/xbase28.tgz: 100% |**************************************************| 5504 KB 00:00 ETA /mnt2//2.8/i386/xshare28.tgz: 100% |**************************************************| 1538 KB 00:00 ETA /mnt2//2.8/i386/xfont28.tgz: 100% |**************************************************| 6019 KB 00:00 ETA /mnt2//2.8/i386/xserv28.tgz: 100% |**************************************************| 15035 KB 00:00 ETA Extract more sets? [n] <Enter> |
Once this is done, all that's left is to set your timezone and install the bootblocks. Setting your timezone is extremely easy. Just pick the area you live in and enter the name. Thats it!. Only one more question, which is whether or not you will be running X on this server. If you plan to ever run X on this server you should chose yes, otherwise you might have to go change machdep.allowaperture=0 into machdep.allowaperture=1 in your /etc/sysctl.conf. After this is all done, just type 'reboot' at the shell prompt and your machine will be booted with OpenBSD!
Copying fstab, hostname.fxp0, hosts, myname, mygate, resolv.conf, ...done. Select a time zone for your location. Timezones are represented on the system by a directory structure rooted in "/usr/share/timezone". Most timezones can be selected by entering a token like "MET" or "GMT-6". Other zones are grouped by continent or country, with detailed zone information separated by a slash ("/"), e.g. "US/Pacific" or "Canada/Mountain". To get a listing of what's available in /usr/share/zoneinfo, enter "?" at the prompts below. What timezone are you in? [`?' for list] [GMT] ? Africa/ Chile/ GB-Eire Israel NZ-CHAT Turkey America/ Cuba GMT Jamaica Navajo UCT Antarctica/ EET GMT+0 Japan PRC US/ Arctic/ EST GMT-0 Kwajalein PST8PDT UTC Asia/ EST5EDT GMT0 Libya Pacific/ Universal Atlantic/ Egypt Greenwich MET Poland W-SU Australia/ Eire HST MST Portugal WET Brazil/ Etc/ Hongkong MST7MDT ROC Zulu CET Europe/ Iceland Mexico/ ROK posixrules CST6CDT Factory Indian/ Mideast/ Singapore Canada/ GB Iran NZ SystemV/ What timezone are you in? [`?' for list] [GMT] Canada There are several timezones available within zone 'Canada' Select a sub-timezone [`?' for list]: ? Atlantic Eastern Pacific Central Mountain Saskatchewan East-Saskatchewan Newfoundland Yukon There are several timezones available within zone 'Canada' Select a sub-timezone [`?' for list]: Mountain You have selected timezone "Canada/Mountain". Installing timezone link. Making all device nodes (by running /dev/MAKEDEV all) ...... done. Installing boot block... boot: /mnt/boot proto: /usr/mdec/biosboot device: /dev/rwd0c /usr/mdec/biosboot: entry point 0 proto bootblock size 512 room for 12 filesystem blocks at 0x16f Will load 7 blocks of size 8192 each. Using disk geometry of 63 sectors and 255 heads. 0: 20 @(0 108 44) (6847-6866) 1: 63 @(0 109 1) (6867-6929) 2: 13 @(0 110 1) (6930-6942) 3: 5 @(0 9 59) (625-629) 4: 11 @(0 10 1) (630-640) /mnt/boot: 5 entries total using MBR partition 3: type 166 (0xa6) offset 63 (0x3f) Enabling machdep.allowaperture. Read xf86(4) for more information. Unmounting filesystems... /mnt/home /mnt/usr /mnt/var /mnt/tmp /mnt ... Done. Done. CONGRATULATIONS! You have successfully installed OpenBSD! To boot the installed system, enter halt at the command prompt. Once the system has halted, reset the machine and boot from the disk. # reboot |
This section will hopefully point you in the right direction for clues on what to do initially after you have installed your OpenBSD system. This is basically modeled after the afterboot(8) man page. Which should definately be one of your first steps after installing OpenBSD. Here is a table which will point you to relevant FAQ sections.
Just to remind people, it's important for the OpenBSD developers to keep track of what hardware works, and what hardware doesn't work perfectly..
A quote from /usr/src/etc/root/root.mail
If you wish to ensure that OpenBSD runs better on your machines, please do us a favor (after you have your mail system setup!) and type dmesg | mail dmesg@openbsd.org so that we can see what kinds of configurations people are running. We will use this information to improve device driver support in future releases. (We would be much happier if this information was for the supplied GENERIC kernel; not for a custom compiled kernel). The device driver information we get from this helps us fix existing drivers.Also check with section 14.7
Make sure you send email from an account that is able to also receive email so developers can contact you back if they have something they want you to test or change in order to get your setup working. It's not important at all to send the email from the same machine that is running OpenBSD, so if that machine is unable to receive email, just
dmesg | mail your-account@yourmail.domand then forward that message to
dmesg@openbsd.orgwhere your-account@yourmail.dom is your regular email account. (or transfer the dmesg output using ftp/scp/floppydisk/carrier-pigeon/...)
NOTE - Please send only GENERIC kernel dmesg's. Custom kernels that have device drivers removed are not helpful.
Question: - Does OpenBSD provide an ISO image available for download?
Answer: - No. The official OpenBSD CD-ROM layout is copyright Theo de Raadt, as an incentive for people to buy the CD set. Note that only the layout is copyrighted, OpenBSD itself is free. Nothing precludes someone else to just grab OpenBSD and make their own CD.
Question: - I'm having problems installing with 8meg of RAM. What can i do here?
Answer: - Many people are having a problem at the end of the install where the system stalls on MAKEDEV all .... There is a workaround for this. Basically you need to turn on swap during the install. To do this do as described below:
If you followed these instructions and still have problems mail Eric Jackson <ericj@openbsd.org>.
There are many packages containing the OpenBSD binaries, but which ones do you need to get your system up and running? Here is an overview of each package.
The following are suggested sub-tree sizes for a full system install. The numbers include enough extra space to permit you to run a typical home system that is connected to the internet.
SYSTEM / /usr /var /usr/X11R6 alpha 56M 540M 27M 161M amiga 45M 399M 24M 36M hp300 31M 234M 24M 47M i386 35M 229M 24M 72M mac68k 29M 232M 24M 36M mvme68k 29M 232M 24M - (no Xserver) pmax 50M 355M 24M 60M sparc 40M 259M 24M 49M
When you are in the disklabel editor, you may choose to make your entire system have just an 'a' (main filesystem) and 'b' (swap) . The 'a' filesystem which you set up in disklabel will become your root partition, which should be the sum of all the 3 main values above (/, /usr, and /var) plus some space for /tmp. The 'b' partition you set up automatically becomes your system swap partition -- we recommend a minimum of 32MB but if you have disk to spare make it at least 64MB. If you have lots of disk space to spare, make this 256MB, or even 512MB.
There are four main reasons for using separate filesystems, instead of shoving everything into one or two filesystems:
OpenBSD & NT
To multiboot OpenBSD and NT, you can use NTloader, the bootloader that NT uses. To multi-boot with NT, you need a copy of your OpenBSD pbr. After running installboot, you can copy it something like this:
# dd if=/dev/rsd0c of=openbsd.pbr bs=512 count=1
Now boot NT and put openbsd.pbr in c:. Add a line like this to the end of c:\boot.ini:
c:\openbsd.pbr="OpenBSD"
When you reboot, you should be able to select OpenBSD from the NT loader menu. There is much more information available about NTloader at the NTLDR Hacking Guide.
OpenBSD & Windows or DOS (i386)
To boot OpenBSD along with Windows 3.1, Windows95, or DOS you must use a boot loader on the system that can handle OpenBSD, Windows, and DOS! Some bootloaders of choice are osbs20b8.zip or The Ranish Partition Manager. Both of these are able to boot OpenBSD partitions.
OpenBSD & Linux (i386)
Please refer to INSTALL.linux, which gives indepth instructions on getting OpenBSD working with Linux.
Just to remind people, it's important for the OpenBSD developers to keep track of what hardware works, and what hardware doesn't work perfectly..
A quote from /usr/src/etc/root/root.mail
If you wish to ensure that OpenBSD runs better on your machines, please do us a favor (after you have your mail system setup!) and type dmesg | mail dmesg@openbsd.org so that we can see what kinds of configurations people are running. We will use this information to improve device driver support in future releases. (We would be much happier if this information was for the supplied GENERIC kernel; not for a custom compiled kernel). The device driver information we get from this helps us fix existing drivers.Also check with section 14.7
Make sure you send email from an account that is able to also receive email so developers can contact you back if they have something they want you to test or change in order to get your setup working. It's not important at all to send the email from the same machine that is running OpenBSD, so if that machine is unable to receive email, just
dmesg | mail your-account@yourmail.domand then forward that message to
dmesg@openbsd.orgwhere your-account@yourmail.dom is your regular email account. (or transfer the dmesg output using ftp/scp/floppydisk/carrier-pigeon/...)
NOTE - Please send only GENERIC kernel dmesg's. Custom kernels that have device drivers removed are not helpful.
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