![[OpenBSD]](../images/smalltitle.gif){kind=small}
[FAQ Index] [To Section 3 - Getting started with OpenBSD] [To Section 5 - Building the System from Source]
OpenBSD has a robust and adaptable text-based installation procedure, and can be installed from a single floppy disk. Most platforms follow a similar installation procedure; however there are some differences in the details. In all cases, you are urged to read the platform-specific INSTALL document in the platform directory on the CD-ROM or FTP sites (for example, i386/INSTALL.i386, mac68k/INSTALL.mac68k or sparc/INSTALL.sparc).
The OpenBSD installation process uses a special kernel with a number of utilities and install scripts embedded in a preloaded RAM disk. After this kernel is booted, the operating system is extracted from a number of compressed tar(1) (.tgz) files from a source other than this preloaded RAM disk. There are several ways to boot this install kernel:
Once the install kernel is booted, you have several options of where to get the install file sets. Again, not every platform supports every option.
Before you start your install, you should have some idea what you want to end up with. You will want to know the following items, at least:
As examples, we will look at the installation images available for the i386 and sparc platforms.
The i386 platform has six separate installation disk images to choose from:
The sparc platform has four separate installation disk images to choose from:
To create a formatted floppy, use the fdformat(1) command to both format and check for bad sectors.
# fdformat /dev/rfd0c Format 1440K floppy `/dev/rfd0c'? (y/n): y Processing VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV done. |
If your output is like the above example, then the disk is OK. However, if you do not see ALL "V"'s then the disk is most likely bad, and you should try a new one.
Note that some Unix-like systems have different commands for formatting floppies. Refer to your system's documentation for the exact procedure.
Once you have a clean, formatted floppy it is time to write the installation image to floppy. For this, you can use the dd(1) utility. An example usage of dd(1) is below:
# dd if=floppy45.fs of=/dev/rfd0c bs=32k |
Once the image is written, check to make sure that the copied image is the same as the original with the cmp(1) command. If the diskette is identical to the image, you will just see another prompt.
# cmp /dev/rfd0c floppy45.fs |
This section describes how to write the installation images to floppy disk under Windows. You can get the tools mentioned below from the tools directory on any of the FTP mirrors.
To prepare a floppy in Windows, first use the native formatting tools to format the disk, verifying that the disk has no bad sectors.
To write the installation image to the prepared floppy you can use ntrw.exe.
Example usage of ntrw:
C:\> ntrw floppy45.fs a: 3.5", 1.44MB, 512 bytes/sector bufsize is 9216 1474560 bytes written |
You can create a CD-ROM using the cd45.iso or install45.iso files. The exact details here are left to the reader to determine with the tools they have at their disposal.
Some of the tools in OpenBSD are:
You can also install by booting bsd.rd from an existing OpenBSD partition, or over the network using the PXE boot process.
To boot from floppy, place the floppy disk with the OpenBSD installation image on it into the floppy drive. Then use the following command to boot from the floppy:
ok boot floppy |
To boot from CD-ROM, place the OpenBSD CD-ROM disk into the drive. Usually, you can boot from the CDROM drive of a Sun system from the boot prompt by typing '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 (or probe-ide on newer systems) 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-ROM
|
Figure out which disk is the CD-ROM you want to boot from. Note the target number.
ok boot /sbus/esp/sd@X,0 |
At almost any point during the OpenBSD install process, you can terminate the current install attempt by hitting CTRL-C and can restart it without rebooting by running install at the shell prompt.
When your boot is successful, you will see a lot of text messages scroll by. This text, on many architectures in white on blue, is the dmesg, the kernel telling you what devices have been found, and where. Don't worry about remembering this text, as a copy is saved as /var/run/dmesg.boot.
Then, you will see the following:
root on rd0a swap on rd0b dump on rd0b erase ^?, werase ^W, kill ^U, intr ^C, status ^T (I)nstall, (U)pgrade or (S)hell? i |
And with that, we reach our first question. Most of the time, you have the three options shown:
In this example, we will do an install, but the upgrade process is similar.
Welcome to the OpenBSD/i386 4.5 install program.
This program will help you install OpenBSD. At any prompt except password
prompts you can escape to a shell by typing '!'. Default answers are shown
in []'s and are selected by pressing RETURN. At any time you can exit this
program by pressing Control-C, but exiting during an install can leave your
system in an inconsistent state.
Terminal type: [vt220] Enter
kbd(8) mapping? ('L' for list) [none] Enter
|
In most cases, the default terminal type is appropriate; however if you are using a serial console for install, don't just take the default, respond appropriately.
If you do not select a keyboard encoding table, a US keyboard layout will be assumed.
IS YOUR DATA BACKED UP? As with anything that modifies disk contents, this program can cause SIGNIFICANT data loss. It is often helpful to have the installation notes handy. For complex disk configurations, relevant disk hardware manuals and a calculator are useful. Proceed with install? [no] y |
If you take the default here, the install process will terminate and drop you to a shell prompt.
The installation notes referred to here are on the install CDs and FTP servers, in the file INSTALL.<plat>, where <plat> is your platform, for instance, i386.
Setting up disks in OpenBSD varies a bit between platforms. For i386, amd64, macppc, zaurus and armish, disk setup is done in two stages. First, the OpenBSD slice of the hard disk is defined using fdisk(8), then that slice is subdivided into OpenBSD partitions using disklabel(8).
Some users may be a little confused by the terminology used here. It will appear we are using the word "partition" in two different ways. This observation is correct. There are two layers of partitioning in the above OpenBSD platforms, the first, one could consider the Operating System partitioning, which is how multiple OSs on one computer mark out their own space on the disk, and the second one is how the OpenBSD partition is sub-partitioned into individual filesystems. The first layer is visible as a disk partition to DOS, Windows, and any other OS that uses this disk layout system, the second layer of partitioning is visible only to OpenBSD and those OSs which can directly read an OpenBSD filesystem.
Cool! Let's get to it. You will now initialize the disk(s) that OpenBSD will use. To enable all available security features you should configure the disk(s) to allow the creation of separate filesystems for /, /tmp, /var, /usr, and /home. Available disks are: wd0. Which one is the root disk? (or done) [wd0] Enter |
The root disk is the disk the system will boot from, and normally where swap space resides. IDE disks will show up as wd0, wd1, etc., SCSI disks and RAID devices will show up as sd0, sd1, and so on. All the disks OpenBSD can find are listed here -- if you have drives which are not showing up, you have unsupported or improperly configured hardware.
Do you want to use *all* of wd0 for OpenBSD? [no] Enter |
If you say "yes" to this question, the entire disk will be allocated to OpenBSD. This will result in a standard Master Boot Record and partition table being written out to disk -- one partition, the size of the entire hard disk, set to the OpenBSD partition type, and flagged as the bootable partition. This will be a common choice for most production uses of OpenBSD; however, there are some systems this should not be done on. Many Compaq systems, many laptops, some Dell and other systems use a "maintenance" or "Suspend to Disk" partition, which should be kept intact. If your system has any other partitions of any type you do not wish to erase, do not select "yes" to the above question. On the other hand, if your system has a brand new disk that has never been used, you will probably want to say "yes" here (or use the "update" option of fdisk), so you do get a valid master boot record and signature in place.
For the sake of this example, we will assume the disk is to be split between OpenBSD and a pre-existing Windows 2000 partition, so we take the default of "no", which will take us into the fdisk(8) program. You can also get more information on fdisk(8) here.
Note: If you say "Y" to the "Do you want to use *all* of wd0 for OpenBSD?" question, or if you are using a platform which does not use fdisk (for example, sparc64), you will not go through this step, but will rather jump directly to creating a disklabel
You will now create a single MBR partition to contain your OpenBSD data. This
partition must have an id of 'A6'; must *NOT* overlap other partitions; and
must be marked as the only active partition.
The 'manual' command describes all the fdisk commands in detail.
Disk: wd0 geometry: 2434/255/63 [39102336 Sectors]
Offset: 0 Signature: 0xAA55
Starting Ending LBA Info:
#: id C H S - C H S [ start: size ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*0: 0B 0 1 1 - 195 254 63 [ 63: 3148677 ] Win95 FAT-32
1: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
2: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
Enter 'help' for information
fdisk: 1> help
help Command help list
manual Show entire OpenBSD man page for fdisk
reinit Re-initialize loaded MBR (to defaults)
setpid Set the identifier of a given table entry
disk Edit current drive stats
edit Edit given table entry
flag Flag given table entry as bootable
update Update machine code in loaded MBR
select Select extended partition table entry MBR
swap Swap two partition entries
print Print loaded MBR partition table
write Write loaded MBR to disk
exit Exit edit of current MBR, without saving changes
quit Quit edit of current MBR, saving current changes
abort Abort program without saving current changes
fdisk: 1>
|
A few commands are worthy of elaboration:
Our drive here has a 1.5G partition for Windows 2000 (using the FAT filesystem). Looking at the info from the above display, we can see that the Windows partition occupies through cylinder 195 on the drive. So, we are going to allocate the rest of the disk to OpenBSD, starting at cylinder 196. You could also calculate OpenBSD's starting sector of 3148740 by adding the existing partition's starting sector (63) and its size (3148677).
You can edit the drive layout in either Cylinder/Heads/Sectors form or just raw sectors. Which is easier depends upon what you are doing; in this case, working around an existing partition, using CHS format will probably be easier. If you are creating the first partition on the disk, just using raw sectors may be easier.
fdisk: 1> e 1
Starting Ending LBA Info:
#: id C H S - C H S [ start: size ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
Partition id ('0' to disable) [0 - FF]: [0] (? for help) a6
Do you wish to edit in CHS mode? [n] y
BIOS Starting cylinder [0 - 2433]: [0] 196
BIOS Starting head [0 - 254]: [0] Enter
BIOS Starting sector [1 - 63]: [0] 1
BIOS Ending cylinder [0 - 2433]: [0] 2433
BIOS Ending head [0 - 254]: [0] 254
BIOS Ending sector [1 - 63]: [0] 63
fdisk:*1> p
Disk: wd0 geometry: 2434/255/63 [39102336 Sectors]
Offset: 0 Signature: 0xAA55
Starting Ending LBA Info:
#: id C H S - C H S [ start: size ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*0: 0B 0 1 1 - 195 254 63 [ 63: 3148677 ] Win95 FAT-32
1: A6 196 0 1 - 2433 254 63 [ 3148740: 35953470 ] OpenBSD
2: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
fdisk:*1> p m
Disk: wd0 geometry: 2434/255/63 [19093 Megabytes]
Offset: 0 Signature: 0xAA55
Starting Ending LBA Info:
#: id C H S - C H S [ start: size ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*0: 0B 0 1 1 - 195 254 63 [ 63: 1537M] Win95 FAT-32
1: A6 196 0 1 - 2433 254 63 [ 3148740: 17555M] OpenBSD
2: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0M] unused
3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0M] unused
fdisk:*1>
|
On platforms which use fdisk, it is important that the first partition skips the first track of the disk, in this case, starting on sector 63. This will vary from machine to machine and disk system to disk system. If an OpenBSD partition is created starting at offset 0, this partition table will end up being overwritten by the OpenBSD partition's Partition Boot Record. The system may still be bootable, but it will be very difficult to maintain, and this configuration is not recommended or supported.
Note that the prompt changed to include an asterisk ('*') to indicate you have unsaved changes. As we can see from the output of p m we have not altered our Windows partition, we have successfully allocated the rest of the drive for OpenBSD, and the partitions do not overlap. We are in business. Almost.
What we haven't done is flagged the partition as active so the machine will boot OpenBSD on the next reboot:
fdisk:*1> f 1
Partition 1 marked active.
fdisk:*1> p
Disk: wd0 geometry: 2434/255/63 [39102336 Sectors]
Offset: 0 Signature: 0xAA55
Starting Ending LBA Info:
#: id C H S - C H S [ start: size ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0: 0B 0 1 1 - 195 254 63 [ 63: 3148677 ] Win95 FAT-32
*1: A6 196 0 1 - 2433 254 63 [ 3148740: 35953470 ] OpenBSD
2: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
fdisk:*1>
|
And now, we are ready to save our changes:
fdisk:*1> w Writing MBR at offset 0. wd0: no disk label fdisk: 1> q |
Here is the partition information you chose:
Disk: wd0 geometry: 2586/240/63 [39100320 Sectors]
Offset: 0 Signature: 0xAA55
Starting Ending LBA Info:
#: id C H S - C H S [ start: size ]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
0: 0B 0 1 1 - 202 239 63 [ 63: 3069297 ] Win95 FAT-32
*1: A6 203 0 1 - 2585 239 63 [ 3069360: 36030960 ] OpenBSD
2: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
You will now create an OpenBSD disklabel inside the OpenBSD MBR
partition. The disklabel defines how OpenBSD splits up the MBR partition
into OpenBSD partitions in which filesystems and swap space are created.
The offsets used in the disklabel are ABSOLUTE, i.e. relative to the
start of the disk, NOT the start of the OpenBSD MBR partition.
# Inside MBR partition 1: type A6 start 3148740 size 35953470
Treating sectors 3148740-39102210 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:
? [command] - show help n [part] - set mount point
a [part] - add partition p [unit] - print partitions
b - set OpenBSD boundaries q - quit & save changes
c [part] - change partition size r - display free space
D - reset label to default s [path] - save label to file
d [part] - delete partition u - undo last change
e - edit drive parameters w - write label to disk
g [d | u] - [d]isk or [u]ser geometry X - toggle expert mode
l [unit] - print disk label header x - exit & lose changes
M - disklabel(8) man page z - delete all partitions
m [part] - modify partition
Suffixes can be used to indicate units other than sectors:
'b' (bytes), 'k' (kilobytes), 'm' (megabytes), 'g' (gigabytes)
'c' (cylinders), '%' (% of total disk), '&' (% of free space).
Values in non-sector units are truncated to the nearest cylinder boundary.
>
|
Again, a few of these commands could use a little elaboration:
Slicing up your disk properly is important. The answer to the question, "How should I partition my system?" is "Exactly how you need it". This will vary from application to application. There is no universal answer. If you are unsure of how you want to partition your system, see this discussion.
In this system, we have over 17G available for OpenBSD. That's a lot of space, and it isn't likely we will need most of it. So, we will deliberately not use absolute minimum sizes. We would rather have a few hundred megabytes of unused space than a kilobyte too little.
On the root disk, an 'a' partition must be created for the root filesystem (/). The installation process can not proceed without it. Generally, you will want to have a swap partition, 'b', though if you are sure your system will never exhaust real memory, you can leave it off. If a 'b' partition exists on the root disk, it will automatically be used for swap. Swap partitions on other disks will have to be manually added to /etc/fstab.
After a little thought, we decide to create just enough partitions to allow the creation of the recommended separate filesystems (/, /tmp, /var, /usr, /home) along with a swap partition:
> p m
# size offset fstype [fsize bsize cpg]
OpenBSD area: 1537.5M-19092.9M; size: 17555.4M; free: 17555.4M
c: 19092.9M 0.0M unused 0 0
i: 1498.7M 0.0M MSDOS
> a a
offset: [3148740] Enter
size: [35953470] 150m
Rounding to cylinder: 321300
FS type: [4.2BSD] Enter
mount point: [none] /
> a b
offset: [3470040] Enter
size: [35632170] 300m
Rounding to cylinder: 626535
FS type: [swap] Enter
> a d
offset: [4096575] Enter
size: [35005635] 120m
Rounding to cylinder: 257040
FS type: [4.2BSD] Enter
mount point: [none] /tmp
> a e
offset: [4353615] Enter
size: [34748595] 80m
Rounding to cylinder: 176715
FS type: [4.2BSD] Enter
mount point: [none] /var
> a g
offset: [4530330] Enter
size: [34571880] 6g
Rounding to cylinder: 12594960
FS type: [4.2BSD] Enter
mount point: [none] /usr
> a h
offset: [17125290] Enter
size: [21976920] 4g
Rounding to nearest cylinder: 8401995
FS type: [4.2BSD] Enter
mount point: [none] /home
> p m
OpenBSD area: 1537.5M-19092.9M; size: 17555.4M; free: 6628.4M
# size offset fstype [fsize bsize cpg]
a: 156.9M 1537.5M 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1 # /
b: 305.9M 1694.4M swap
c: 19092.9M 0.0M unused 0 0
d: 125.5M 2000.3M 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1 # /tmp
e: 86.3M 2125.8M 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1 # /var
g: 6149.9M 2212.1M 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1 # /usr
h: 4102.5M 8362.0M 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1 # /home
i: 1537.4M 0.0M MSDOS
> q
Write new label?: [y] Enter
|
You will note there is a c partition we seem to have ignored. This partition is your entire hard disk; don't attempt to alter it. You will also note the i partition wasn't defined by us; this is the pre-existing Windows 2000 partition. Partitions are not assigned any particular letters -- with the exception of a (root), b (swap) and c (entire disk), the rest of the partitions (through letter p) are available for use as you desire.
Mount point for wd0d (131584 KBytes)? (or 'none' or 'done') [/tmp] Enter Mount point for wd0e (90624 KBytes)? (or 'none' or 'done') [/var] Enter Mount point for wd0g (6656 MBytes)? (or 'none' or 'done') [/usr] Enter Mount point for wd0h (4096 MBytes)? (or 'none' or 'done') [/home] Enter Mount point for wd0d (131584 KBytes)? (or 'none' or 'done') [/tmp] done No more disks to initialize. OpenBSD filesystems: wd0a / wd0d /tmp wd0e /var wd0g /usr wd0h /home The next step *DESTROYS* all existing data on these partitions! Are you really sure that you're ready to proceed? [no] y newfs: reduced number of fragments per cylinder group from 20080 to 19992 to enl arge last cylinder group /dev/rwd0a: 156.9MB in 321300 sectors of 512 bytes 5 cylinder groups of 39.05MB, 2499 blocks, 5120 inodes each newfs: reduced number of fragments per cylinder group from 16064 to 15992 to enl arge last cylinder group /dev/rwd0d: 125.5MB in 257040 sectors of 512 bytes 5 cylinder groups of 31.23MB, 1999 blocks, 4096 inodes each newfs: reduced number of fragments per cylinder group from 11040 to 10992 to enl arge last cylinder group /dev/rwd0e: 86.3MB in 176712 sectors of 512 bytes 5 cylinder groups of 21.47MB, 1374 blocks, 2816 inodes each /dev/rwd0g: 6149.9MB in 12594960 sectors of 512 bytes 31 cylinder groups of 202.47MB, 12958 blocks, 25984 inodes each /dev/rwd0h: 4102.5MB in 8401992 sectors of 512 bytes 21 cylinder groups of 202.47MB, 12958 blocks, 25984 inodes each /dev/wd0a on /mnt type ffs (rw, asynchronous, local, ctime=Tue Oct 21 00:36:28 2 008) /dev/wd0h on /mnt/home type ffs (rw, asynchronous, local, nodev, nosuid) /dev/wd0d on /mnt/tmp type ffs (rw, asynchronous, local, nodev, nosuid) /dev/wd0g on /mnt/usr type ffs (rw, asynchronous, local, nodev) /dev/wd0e on /mnt/var type ffs (rw, asynchronous, local, nodev) |
You may wonder why the installer again asks for mount points. This allows you to recover from any errors or omissions in the mount points specified during the creation of the disklabel. For instance, the installation process will automatically delete any duplicate mount points you enter during the configuration of the disklabel. The disklabel program will allow you to enter such duplicates, and thus they must be checked for after the disklabel program exits. The deleted duplicate mount points will result in partitions without mount points, that you must assign new mount points for if you wish to use the space.
Notice the "Are you really sure that you are ready to proceed?" question defaults to no, so you will have to deliberately tell it to proceed and format your partitions. If you chose no, you would simply be dropped into a shell and could start the install again by typing "install", or just by rebooting again with your boot disk.
At this point all filesystems will be formatted for you. This could take some time depending on the size of the partitions and the speed of the disk.
Now you must set the system hostname. This value, along with the DNS domain name (specified below), will be saved in the file /etc/myname, which is used during normal boot to set the hostname of the system. If you do not set the domain name of the system, the default value of 'my.domain' will be used.
It is important to set this name now, because it will be used when the cryptographic keys for the system are generated during the first boot after installation. This generation takes place whether the network is configured or not.
System hostname (short form, e.g. 'foo'): puffy |
Now it is time to configure your network. The network must be configured if you are planning on doing an FTP or NFS based install, considering it will be based upon the information you are about to enter. Here is a walk through of the network configuration section of the install process. In our example, we will attach one interface (fxp0) to a cable modem, which will be configured using DHCP, the other will be to our internal network, and configured statically.
Configure the network? [yes] Enter
Available interfaces are: fxp0 xl0.
Which one do you wish to initialize? (or 'done') [fxp0] xl0
Symbolic (host) name for xl0? [puffy] Enter
The media options for xl0 are currently
media: Ethernet autoselect (100baseTX full-duplex)
Do you want to change the media options? [no] Enter
IPv4 address for xl0? (or 'dhcp') 192.168.1.254
Netmask? [255.255.255.0] Enter
IPv6 address for xl0? (or 'rtsol' or 'none') [none] Enter
Available interfaces are: fxp0.
Which one do you wish to initialize? (or 'done') [fxp0] Enter
Symbolic (host) name for fxp0? [puffy] Enter
The media options for fxp0 are currently
media: Ethernet autoselect (10baseT half-duplex)
Do you want to change the media options? [no] Enter
IPv4 address for fxp0? (or 'none' or 'dhcp') dhcp
Issuing hostname-associated DHCP request for fxp0.
DHCPDISCOVER on fxp0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 1
DHCPOFFER from 73.34.136.1
DHCPREQUEST on fxp0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPACK from 73.34.136.1
bound to 69.241.244.76 -- renewal in 1800 seconds.
IPv6 address for fxp0? (or 'rtsol' or 'none') [none] Enter
No more interfaces to initialize.
DNS domain name? (e.g. 'bar.com') [my.domain] example.com
DNS nameserver? (IP address or 'none') [68.87.77.130 68.87.72.130 68.87.75.194] Enter
Use the nameserver now? [yes] Enter
Default route? (IP address, 'dhcp' or 'none') [dhcp] Enter
Edit hosts with ed? [no] Enter
Do you want to do any manual network configuration? [no] Enter
|
NOTE: Only one interface can easily be configured using DHCP during an install. If you attempt to configure more than one interface using DHCP you will encounter errors. You will have to manually configure the additional DHCP interfaces after the installation.
Now, we set the password for the root account:
Password for root account? (will not echo) pAssWOrd Password for root account? (again) pAssWOrd |
Use a secure password for the root account. You will create other user accounts after the system is booted. From passwd(1):
The new password should be at least six characters long and not purely
alphabetic. Its total length must be less than _PASSWORD_LEN (currently
128 characters). A mixture of both lower and uppercase letters, numbers,
and meta-characters is encouraged.
After your network is set up, the install script will give you a chance to make manual adjustments to the configuration.
Next, you will get a chance to choose your installation media. The options are listed below.
Let's install the sets! Location of sets? (cd disk ftp http or 'done') [cd] Enter Available CD-ROMs are: cd0. |
In this example we are installing from 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 need to, make sure you pick the device which you will use to install OpenBSD from.
NOTE: Not all platforms support all installation options. In this case, the OpenBSD/i386 platform does not support NFS installs, so they are not shown on this list.
Available CD-ROMs are: cd0. Which one contains the install media? (or 'done') [cd0] Enter Pathname to the sets? (or 'done') [4.5/i386] Enter |
Here, you are prompted for which directory the installation files are, which is 4.5/i386/ on the official CD-ROM or a CD built from install45.iso.
Now it's time to choose which file sets you will be installing. You can get a description of these files in the next section. The files that the install program finds will be shown to you on the screen. Your job is just to specify which files you want. By default all the non-X file sets are selected; however, some advanced users may wish to limit this to the bare minimum required to run OpenBSD, which would be base45.tgz, etc45.tgz and bsd. Most people will want to install the default file sets or all file sets. The example below is that of a full install.
Select sets by entering a set name, a file name pattern or 'all'. De-select
sets by prepending a '-' to the set name, file name pattern or 'all'. Selected
sets are labeled '[x]'.
[X] bsd
[X] bsd.rd
[ ] bsd.mp
[X] base45.tgz
[X] etc45.tgz
[X] misc45.tgz
[X] comp45.tgz
[X] man45.tgz
[X] game45.tgz
[ ] xbase45.tgz
[ ] xetc45.tgz
[ ] xshare45.tgz
[ ] xfont45.tgz
[ ] xserv45.tgz
Set name? (or 'done') [bsd.mp] all
[X] bsd
[X] bsd.rd
[X] bsd.mp
[X] base45.tgz
[X] etc45.tgz
[X] misc45.tgz
[X] comp45.tgz
[X] man45.tgz
[X] game45.tgz
[X] xbase45.tgz
[X] xetc45.tgz
[X] xshare45.tgz
[X] xfont45.tgz
[X] xserv45.tgz
|
You can do all kinds of nifty things here -- "-x*" would remove all X components, if you changed your mind. In this case, we are going to load all the sets. While the system will run with fewer sets, either the starting default or installing all sets is recommended. More details on selecting sets here.
Once you have successfully picked which file sets you want, you will be prompted to make sure you want to extract these file sets 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, the file sets installed, and the speed of the source media. This part may take from a few minutes to several hours.
Set name? (or 'done') [done] Enter Ready to install sets? [yes] Enter Getting bsd ... 100% |**************************************************| 6539 KB 00:01 Getting bsd.rd ... 100% |**************************************************| 5461 KB 00:01 Getting bsd.mp ... 100% |**************************************************| 6558 KB 00:01 Getting base45.tgz ... 100% |**************************************************| 46941 KB 00:29 Getting etc45.tgz ... 100% |**************************************************| 501 KB 00:00 Getting misc45.tgz ... 100% |**************************************************| 2866 KB 00:01 Getting comp45.tgz ... 100% |**************************************************| 87874 KB 00:43 Getting man45.tgz ... 100% |**************************************************| 8032 KB 00:07 Getting game45.tgz ... 100% |**************************************************| 2555 KB 00:01 Getting xbase45.tgz ... 100% |**************************************************| 9761 KB 00:05 Getting xetc45.tgz ... 100% |**************************************************| 75214 00:00 Getting xshare45.tgz ... 100% |**************************************************| 2698 KB 00:05 Getting xfont45.tgz ... 100% |**************************************************| 34745 KB 00:16 Getting xserv45.tgz ... 100% |**************************************************| 19478 KB 00:09 Location of sets? (cd disk ftp http or 'done') [done] Enter |
At this point, you can pull additional files from other sources (including custom file sets) if desired, or hit 'done' if you have installed all the file sets you need.
Start sshd(8) by default? [yes] y |
(If you change your mind later, alter /etc/rc.conf.local or /etc/rc.conf.)
You will be given the option to run OpenNTPD on boot. OpenNTPD is a low-impact way to keep your computer's clock accurately synchronized, and the default configuration is sufficient for many people's use.
Start ntpd(8) by default? [no] yes NTP server? (hostname or 'default') [default] Enter |
If you have a local time server, you can specify it here, if you chose "default", OpenNTPD will use pool.ntp.org, a huge collection of free access time servers. (If you change your mind later, alter /etc/rc.conf.local and/or /etc/ntpd.conf.)
On some platforms, you will now be asked if you plan to run X on this system. If you answer 'Y', /etc/sysctl.conf will be modified to include the line machdep.allowaperture=1 or machdep.allowaperture=2, depending on your platform. Some platforms will not ask this question at all. If you do not intend to run X on this system or are not sure, answer 'N' here, as you can easily change it by editing /etc/sysctl.conf should you need to later. There is a potential security advantage to leaving this aperture driver xf86(4) disabled, as the graphics engine on a modern video card could potentially be used to alter memory beyond the processor's control.
Do you expect to run the X Window System? [no] y |
Next, you are asked if you are wanting to use a serial console with this computer, rather than a standard keyboard and monitor. If you chose "yes" and answer a couple other simple questions, /etc/boot.conf and /etc/ttys will be edited appropriately for you. Most users will take the default, no here.
Change the default console to com0? [no] Enter |
Your last task is to enter the time zone. Depending on where your machine lives, there are may be several equally valid answers for the question. In the example that follows, we used US/Eastern, but could also have used EST5EDT or US/Michigan and had the same result. Hitting ? at the prompts will guide you through your choices.
Saving configuration files......done.
Generating initial host.random file ......done.
What timezone are you in? ('?' for list) [Canada/Mountain] ?
Africa/ Chile/ GB-Eire Israel NZ-CHAT UCT
America/ Cuba GMT Jamaica Navajo US/
Antarctica/ EET GMT+0 Japan PRC UTC
Arctic/ EST GMT-0 Kwajalein PST8PDT Universal
Asia/ EST5EDT GMT0 Libya Pacific/ W-SU
Atlantic/ Egypt Greenwich MET Poland WET
Australia/ Eire HST MST Portugal Zulu
Brazil/ Etc/ Hongkong MST7MDT ROC posix/
CET Europe/ Iceland Mexico/ ROK posixrules
CST6CDT Factory Indian/ Mideast/ Singapore right/
Canada/ GB Iran NZ Turkey zone.tab
What timezone are you in? ('?' for list) [Canada/Mountain] US
What sub-timezone of 'US' are you in? ('?' for list) ?
Alaska Central Hawaii Mountain Samoa
Aleutian East-Indiana Indiana-Starke Pacific
Arizona Eastern Michigan Pacific-New
Select a sub-timezone of 'US' ('?' for list): Eastern
Setting local timezone to 'US/Eastern'...done.
|
If you are concerned about very precise time, you may wish to read this.
The last steps are for the system to create the /dev directory (which may take a while on some systems, especially if you have a small amount of RAM), and install the boot blocks.
Making all device nodes...done. Installing boot block... boot: /mnt/boot proto: /usr/mdec/biosboot device: /dev/rwd0c /usr/mdec/biosboot: entry point 0 proto bootblock size 512 /mnt/boot is 3 blocks x 16384 bytes fs block shift 2; part offset 3148740; inode block 24, offset 1832 using MBR partition 1: type 166 (0xa6) offset 3148740 (0x300bc4) done. CONGRATULATIONS! Your OpenBSD install has been successfully completed! To boot the new system, enter halt at the command prompt. Once the system has halted, reset the machine and boot from the disk. # halt syncing disks... done The operating system has halted. Please press any key to reboot. |
OpenBSD is now installed on your system and ready for its first boot, but before you do...
A trick you can use for some "before first boot" configuration is to run:
# /mnt/usr/sbin/chroot /mnt
at the shell prompt.
This will set your mount points to be what they will be on a normal
reboot of your newly installed system.
You can now do some basic system configuration, such as adding users,
changing mount points, etc.
One of your first things to read after you install your system is afterboot(8).
You may also find the following links useful:
The complete OpenBSD installation is broken up into a number of separate file sets. Not every application requires every file set. Here is an overview of each:
IF you need xbase45.tgz, just install it. It won't hurt you any more than the application you are needing it for will. Note that compiling from source will often require more of X to be installed, but the above points still apply.
Obviously, the answer to this question varies tremendously based on your use of the system. However, these numbers can be used as a starting point:
Those are minimum suggested filesystem 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, but not much else.(root) 60MB /usr 500MB (no X) or 660MB (with X) /var 25MB /tmp 50MB swap 32MB
Keep the following facts in mind, however:
There are several reasons for using separate filesystems, instead of shoving everything into one or two filesystems:
Some additional thoughts on partitioning:
Only one of the four primary MBR partitions can be used for booting OpenBSD (i.e., extended partitions will not work).
Here are several options to multibooting:
boot hd0a:/bsd
to cause the system to boot from hard drive 0, OpenBSD partition 'a',
kernel file /bsd. Note you can also boot from other drives
with a line like: "boot hd2a:/bsd" to boot off the third
hard drive on your system. To boot from OpenBSD, slip your floppy in,
reboot. To boot from the other OS, eject the floppy, reboot.
In this case, the boot(8) program is loaded from the floppy, looks for and reads /etc/boot.conf. The "boot hd0a:/bsd" line instructs boot(8) where to load the kernel from -- in this case, the first HD the BIOS sees. Keep in mind, only a small file (/boot) is loaded from the floppy -- the system loads the entire kernel off the hard disk, so this only adds about five seconds to the boot process.
# dd if=/dev/rsd0a of=openbsd.pbr bs=512 count=1Note: this is a really good time to remind you that blindly typing commands in you don't understand is a really bad idea. This line will not work directly on most computers. It is left to the reader to adapt it to their machine.
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 NTLDR at the NTLDR Hacking Guide.
On Windows XP you can also edit the boot information using the GUI; see the XP Boot.ini HOWTO.
Programs that do much of this for you are available, for example, BootPart. This program can be run from Windows NT/2000/XP, and will fetch the OpenBSD PBR, place it on your NT/2000/XP partition, and will add it to C:\BOOT.INI
Note: The Windows NT/2000/XP boot loader is only capable of booting OSs from the primary hard drive. You can not use it to load OpenBSD from the second drive on a system.
With Vista, Microsoft dropped NTLDR support in favor of their newer Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store used for controlling the boot environment. Since BOOT.INI is no longer available for customization, a command-line utility, bcdedit, takes its place.
Once OpenBSD's PBR is copied to Vista's system partition, the following three commands are required to select and boot OpenBSD when the system is restarted:
C:\Windows\system32> bcdedit /create /d "OpenBSD/i386 4.6" /application bootsector
The entry {05a763ce-d81b-11db-b3ec-000000000000} was successfully created.
C:\Windows\System32>
The GUID returned here, 05a763ce-d81b-11db-b3ec-000000000000, is shown for illustrative reasons. Take note of the GUID displayed when you run this command as this value will need to be copied into the following commands. Simply copying the GUID shown above will not work.
The following two commands are also required:
C:\Windows\system32> bcdedit /set {05a763ce-d81b-11db-b3ec-000000000000} device boot
The operation completed successfully.
C:\Windows\system32> bcdedit /set {05a763ce-d81b-11db-b3ec-000000000000} path \openbsd.pbr
The operation completed successfully.
C:\Windows\system32>
Note the absolute pathname of the imported PBR file. Do not add a drive letter as it is assumed that the file is placed in the system partition. bcdedit will not complain about an explicit drive specification, but the boot manager will later balk claiming that it cannot resolve the designated pathname.
Upon rebooting, Vista will be listed first in the boot manager ultimately followed by OpenBSD. Selecting either entry will boot the corresponding operating system.
For more information, consult bcdedit's help by issuing:
C:\Windows\system32> bcdedit /?
or by searching Microsoft's documentation and Website. A good introduction can be found in this TechNet Frequently Asked Questions article.
For those who find manual configuration daunting, EasyBCD provides a GUI alternative.
Microsoft has enhanced BCD since releasing Vista to allow multiple versions of Windows to be booted through bcdedit. Because of this greater control, five commands are required to configure a multiboot environment with OpenBSD.
After copying OpenBSD's PBR into Window 7's system partition, issue the following command to initialize the needed registry hive:
C:\Windows\system32> bcdedit /create /d "OpenBSD/i386 4.6" /application bootsector
The entry {0154a872-3d41-11de-bd67-a7060316bbb1} was successfully created.
C:\Windows\system32>
As admonished before, the {0154a872-3d41-11de-bd67-a7060316bbb1} GUID is system-dependent. Note the value you receive when executing, and copy it into the following commands:
C:\Windows\system32> bcdedit /set {0154a872-3d41-11de-bd67-a7060316bbb1} device boot
The operation completed successfully.
C:\Windows\system32> bcdedit /set {0154a872-3d41-11de-bd67-a7060316bbb1} path \openbsd.pbr
The operation completed successfully.
C:\Windows\system32> bcdedit /set {0154a872-3d41-11de-bd67-a7060316bbb1} device partition=c:
The operation completed successfully.
C:\Windows\system32> bcdedit /displayorder {0154a872-3d41-11de-bd67-7060316bbb1} /addlast
The operation completed successfully.
C:\Windows\system32>
At the time of writing, Windows 7 had not been officially released. It would be prudent for users to consult Microsoft's documentation and Website for more current information. Details may have changed.
Some other bootloaders OpenBSD users have used successfully include GAG, The Ranish Partition Manager and GRUB.
Please refer to INSTALL.linux, which gives in depth 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 configured!) and type something like: # dmesg | mail -s "Sony VAIO 505R laptop, apm works OK" dmesg@openbsd.org so that we can see what kinds of configurations people are running. As shown, including a bit of information about your machine in the subject or the body can help us even further. We will use this information to improve device driver support in future releases. (Please do this using the supplied GENERIC kernel, not for a custom compiled kernel, unless you're unable to boot the GENERIC kernel. If you have a multi-processor machine, dmesg results of both GENERIC.MP and GENERIC kernels are appreciated.) The device driver information we get from this helps us fix existing drivers. Thank you!
Make sure you send email from an account that is able to also receive email so developers can contact you 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.
NOTES
The method above is very easy, but if you have chosen not to configure mail on your OpenBSD system, you should still send your dmesg to the developers. Save your dmesg output to a text file.
$ dmesg > ~/dmesg.txtThen transfer this file (using FTP/scp/floppydisk/carrier-pigeon/...) to the system you normally use for email. Since the dmesg output you send in is processed automatically, be sure to check the following when using alternate email clients/systems:
Sometimes, you realize you really DID need comp45.tgz (or any other system component) after all, but you didn't realize this at the time you installed your system. Good news: There are two easy ways to add file sets after the initial install:
# cd / # tar xzvphf comp45.tgz |
Do NOT forget the 'p' option in the above command in order to restore the file permissions properly!
One common mistake is to think you can use pkg_add(1) to add missing file sets. This does not work. pkg_add(1) is the package management tool to install third party software. It handles package files, not generic tar files like the install sets.
If you are installing the xbase file set on your system for the first time using tar(1) and without rebooting, the shared library cache must be updated after the installation using ldconfig(8). To add all the X libraries to the cache:
Alternatively, you can just reboot your system, and this will be done automatically by the rc(8) startup script.# ldconfig -m /usr/X11R6/lib
Calling it a "RAM Disk kernel" describes the root filesystem of the kernel -- rather than being a physical drive, the utilities available after the boot of bsd.rd are stored in the kernel, and are run from a RAM-based filesystem. bsd.rd also includes a healthy set of utilities to allow you to do system maintenance and installation.
On some platforms, bsd.rd is actually the preferred installation technique -- you place this kernel on an existing filesystem, boot it, and run the install from it. On most platforms, if you have a running older version of OpenBSD, you can FTP a new version of bsd.rd, reboot from it, and install a new version of OpenBSD without using any removable media at all.
Here is an example of booting bsd.rd on an i386 system:
Using Drive: 0 Partition: 3 reading boot..... probing: pc0 com0 com1 apm mem[639k 255M a20=on] disk: fd0 hd0+ >> OpenBSD/i386 BOOT 3.02 boot> boot hd0a:/bsd.rd . . . normal boot to install . . . |
The general rule on booting bsd.rd is to change your boot kernel from /bsd to bsd.rd through whatever means used on your platform.
machine mem +0x3000000@0x1000000
to add 48M (0x3000000) after the first 16M
(0x1000000). Typically, if you had a machine with this
problem, you would enter the above command first at the install
floppy/CD-ROM's boot> prompt, load the system, reboot, and
create an /etc/boot.conf file with the above line in it so all
future bootings will recognize all available RAM.
It has also been reported that a ROM update will fix this on some systems.
# fdisk -u wd0
Note: the "update" option within the interactive ("-e") mode of
fdisk will not write the signature bytes required to make the disk
bootable.
Note that the default key size was increased for OpenBSD 3.8, so the generation times are much longer than they used to be. Users of very slow machines may wish to generate their keys on another computer, place them in a site45.tgz file, and install them with the rest of the file sets.
Display the list of known ftp servers? [no] yes Getting the list from 192.128.5.191 (ftp.openbsd.org)... FAILED Failed to change directory. Server IP address or hostname? |
Simply use the FTP mirror list to find your favorite FTP mirror, and manually enter its name when prompted.
Note: You should not see this if you are installing -release or from CD-ROM.
While this configuration can work, it can be a maintenance problem and should be fixed. To fix this, the disk's file systems must generally be recreated from scratch (though if you REALLY know what you are doing, you may be able to recreate just your disklabel and MBR, and only lose and have to rebuild the first OpenBSD partition on the disk).
This file set allows the user to add to and/or override the files installed in the 'normal' sets and thus customize the installation or upgrade.
You can also create and use hostname-specific install sets, which are named siteXX-<hostname>.tgz, for example, "site45-puffy.tgz". This allows easy per-host customized installations, upgrades, or disaster recovery.
Some example uses of a siteXX.tgz file:
Note that the install.site script would have to be in a siteXX.tgz file, while the upgrade.site script could be put in the root directory before the upgrade, or could be put in a siteXX.tgz file.
The scripts can be used to do many things:
The combination of siteXX.tgz and install.site/upgrade.site files is intended to give users broad customization capabilities without having to build their own custom install sets.
Note: if you will be doing your install from an http server, you will need to add your site*.tgz file(s) to the file index.txt in the source directory in order for them to be listed as an option at install time. This is not needed for FTP or other installs.
If this is an acceptable situation, you may find the dd command will do what you need, allowing you to copy one disk to another, sector-for-sector. This would provide the same functionality as commercial programs without the cost.
mount -t msdos /dev/fd0a /mnt
dmesg >/mnt/dmesg.txt
umount /mnt
If you have another OpenBSD system, you can also write it to an OpenBSD
compatible floppy -- often, the boot floppy has enough room on it to
hold the dmesg. In that case, leave off the "-t msdos" above.
General information on setting up a serial console is provided elsewhere in the FAQ; in order to capture a log of the install, the following commands are usually sufficient.
i386
At the boot loader prompt, enter
boot> set tty com0
This will tell OpenBSD to use the first serial port (often called COM1 or COMA in PC documentation) as a serial console. The default baud rate is 9600.
Sparc/Sparc64
These machines will automatically use a serial console if started without a keyboard present. If you have a keyboard and monitor attached, you can still force the system to use a serial console with the following invocation at the ok prompt.
ok setenv input-device ttya ok setenv output-device ttya ok reset
[FAQ Index] [To Section 3 - Getting started with OpenBSD] [To Section 5 - Building the System from Source]
![[back]](../images/back.gif){kind=small}
www@openbsd.org