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4 - OpenBSD 3.7 Installation Guide


Table of Contents


4.1 - Overview of the OpenBSD installation procedure

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).

On most platforms, the OpenBSD installation 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. There are several ways to boot this install kernel:

Not every platform supports all boot options: All platforms can also use a bsd.rd to reinstall or upgrade.

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.

4.2 - Pre-installation checklist

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:

4.3 - Creating bootable OpenBSD install media

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:

Yes, there may be situations where one install disk is required to support your SCSI adapter and another disk is required to support your network adapter. Fortunately, this is a rare event, and can usually be worked around.

The sparc platform has three separate installation disk images to choose from:

4.3.1 - Creating floppies on Unix

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=floppy37.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 floppy37.fs

4.3.2 - Creating floppies on Windows or DOS

This section describes how to write the installation images to floppy disk under Windows or DOS. You can get the tools mentioned below from the tools directory on any of the FTP mirrors, or from the 3.7/tools directory on CD1 of the OpenBSD CD set.

To prepare a floppy in MS-DOS or Windows, first use the native formatting tools to format the disk.

To write the installation image to the prepared floppy you can use rawrite, fdimage, or ntrw. rawrite will not work on Windows NT, 2000 or XP.

Note that FDIMAGE.EXE and RAWRITE.EXE are both MS-DOS applications, and thus are limited to MS-DOS's "8.3" file naming convention. As floppyB37.fs and floppyC37.fs have longer file names, you will have to find out how your system stored the file in "8.3 format" before using FDIMAGE.EXE or RAWRITE.EXE to make your boot floppies.

Example usage of rawrite:
  C:\> rawrite
  RaWrite 1.2 - Write disk file to raw floppy diskette

  Enter source file name: floppy37.fs
  Enter destination drive: a
  Please insert a formatted diskette into drive A: and press -ENTER- : Enter

Example usage of fdimage:
  C:\> fdimage -q floppy37.fs a:

Example usage of ntrw:
  C:\> ntrw floppy37.fs a:
  3.5", 1.44MB, 512 bytes/sector
  bufsize is 9216
  1474560 bytes written

4.3.3 - Making a CD-ROM

You can create a CD-ROM using either the cd37.iso file or, in the case of the i386 platform, you can also use the cdrom37.fs as the bootable floppy image that is used to boot an i386 system from CD-ROM. 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:

4.4 - Booting OpenBSD install media

Booting i386

Booting an install image on the i386 PC platform is nothing new to most people. If you are using a floppy disk, simply insert the floppy into the floppy drive and boot the system. The install image will then load, provided floppy boot is enabled in your BIOS. If you want to boot from CD, you must go into your system's BIOS and set the boot options to allow booting from CD. Some older BIOSes 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.

You can also install by booting bsd.rd from an existing OpenBSD partition, or over the network using the PXE boot process.

Booting sparc/sparc64

NOTE: On the sparc64 platform, only the SBus machines (Ultra 1, Ultra 2) are bootable from floppy.

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. 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-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

4.5 - Performing an install

4.5.1 - Starting the install

Whatever your means of booting is, it is now time to use it. During the boot process, the kernel and all of the programs used to install OpenBSD are loaded into memory. The most common problem when booting is a bad floppy disk or a drive alignment problem. The boot floppy is quite tightly packed -- any bad spot will cause problems.

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. On some architectures, SHIFT+PGUP will let you examine text that has scrolled off the screen.

Then, you will see the following:

  rootdev=0x1100 rrootdev=0x2f00 rawdev=0x2f02
  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:

On occasion, you will not see the "Upgrade" option listed. After a flag day event, it is not possible to directly upgrade; one must reinstall the system from scratch.

In this example, we will do an install, but the upgrade process is similar.

  Welcome to the OpenBSD/i386 3.7 install program.

  This program will help you install OpenBSD in a simple and rational way. At
  any prompt except password prompts you can run a shell command by typing
  '!foo', or 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 and then RETURN, but quitting during an install can leave
  your system in an inconsistent state.

  Specify terminal type: [vt220] Enter
  Do you wish to select a keyboard encoding table? [no] 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.

4.5.2 - Setting up disks

Setting up disks in OpenBSD varies a bit between platforms. For i386 and macppc, 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 several 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 can coexist with other Operating Systems on the IBM AT descended machines. 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.

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.

Important Note: Users with a large hard disk (larger than 8G on a newer i386, though on older machines and different platforms, often much smaller) will want to see this section before going any further.

  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: 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: 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:

It is worth pointing out once again, an error here will result in significant data loss. If you are going to do this on a drive with important data, it might be worth practicing on a "disposable" drive, in addition to having a good backup.

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 202 on the drive. So, we are going to allocate the rest of the disk to OpenBSD, starting at cylinder 203. You could also calculate OpenBSD's starting sector of 3069360 by adding the existing partition's starting sector (63) and its size (3069297).

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 - 2585]: [0] 203
  BIOS Starting head [0 - 239]: [0] Enter
  BIOS Starting sector [1 - 63]: [0] 1
  BIOS Ending cylinder [0 - 2585]: [0] 2585
  BIOS Ending head [0 - 239]: [0] 239
  BIOS Ending sector [1 - 63]: [0] 63
  fdisk:*1> p
  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
  fdisk:*1> p m
  Disk: wd0       geometry: 2586/240/63 [19092 Megabytes]
  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:        1499M] Win95 FAT-32
   1: A6  203   0  1 - 2585 239 63 [     3069360:       17593M] 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> 

It is important that the first partition skips the first track of the disk, in this case, starting on sector 63. 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: 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
  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

Creating a disklabel

The next step is to use disklabel(8) to slice up the OpenBSD partition. More details on using disklabel(8) can be found in FAQ 14, disklabel.

  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.

  disklabel: no disk label
  WARNING: Disk wd0 has no label. You will be creating a new one.
  
  # using MBR partition 1: type A6 off 3069360 (0x2ed5b0) size 36030960 (0x225c9f0)

  Treating sectors 3069360-39100320 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:
          ? [cmnd]  - this message or command specific help.
          a [part]  - add new partition.
          b         - set OpenBSD disk boundaries.
          c [part]  - change partition size.
          D         - set label to default.
          d [part]  - delete partition.
          e         - edit drive parameters.
          g [b|d|u] - use [b]ios, [d]isk or [u]ser geometry.
          M         - show entire OpenBSD man page for disklabel.
          m [part]  - modify existing partition.
          n [part]  - set the mount point for a partition.
          p [unit]  - print label.
          q         - quit and save changes.
          r         - recalculate free space.
          s [path]  - save label to file.
          u         - undo last change.
          w         - write label to disk.
          X         - toggle expert mode.
          x         - exit without saving changes.
          z         - zero out partition table.
  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).
          '%' for percent of total disk size, '&' for percent of free space.
          Non-sector units will be rounded to the nearest cylinder.
  Entering '?' at most prompts will give you (simple) context sensitive help.
  > 

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, the two partitions 'a' and 'b' must be created. The installation process will not proceed until these two partitions are available. 'a' will be used for the root filesystem (/) and 'b' will be used as swap space.

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:

Now, if you add those up, you will see over 10G of space is unused! Unused space won't hurt anything, and it gives us flexibility to enlarge things in the future if need be. Need more /tmp? No problem, create a new one in the unused space, change /etc/fstab and problem solved.

  > p m
  device: /dev/rwd0c
  type: ESDI
  disk: ESDI/IDE disk
  label: ST320011A
  bytes/sector: 512
  sectors/track: 63
  tracks/cylinder: 16
  sectors/cylinder: 1008
  cylinders: 16383
  total sectors: 39102336
  free sectors: 36030960
  rpm: 3600
  
  16 partitions:
  #             size        offset  fstype [fsize bsize  cpg]
    a:      17593.2M       1498.7M  unused      0     0      
    c:      19092.9M          0.0M  unused      0     0      
    i:       1498.7M          0.0M  MSDOS                   
  > d a
  > a a
  offset: [3069360] Enter
  size: [36030960] 150M
  Rounding to nearest cylinder: 307440
  FS type: [4.2BSD] Enter
  mount point: [none] /
  > a b
  offset: [3376800] Enter
  size: [35723520] 300M
  Rounding to nearest cylinder: 614880
  FS type: [swap] Enter
  > a d
  offset: [3991680] Enter
  size: [35108640] 120m
  Rounding to nearest cylinder: 245952
  FS type: [4.2BSD] Enter
  mount point: [none] /tmp
  > a e
  offset: [4237632] Enter
  size: [34862688] 80m
  Rounding to nearest cylinder: 164304
  FS type: [4.2BSD] Enter
  mount point: [none] /var
  > a g
  offset: [4401936] Enter
  size: [34698384] 2g
  Rounding to nearest cylinder: 4194288
  FS type: [4.2BSD] Enter
  mount point: [none] /usr
  > a h
  offset: [8596224] Enter
  size: [30504096] 4g
  Rounding to nearest cylinder: 8388576
  FS type: [4.2BSD] Enter
  mount point: [none] /home
  > p m
  device: /dev/rwd0c
  type: ESDI
  disk: ESDI/IDE disk
  label: ST320011A
  bytes/sector: 512
  sectors/track: 63
  tracks/cylinder: 16
  sectors/cylinder: 1008
  cylinders: 16383
  total sectors: 39102336
  free sectors: 22115520
  rpm: 3600
  
  16 partitions:
  #             size        offset  fstype [fsize bsize  cpg]
    a:        150.1M       1498.7M  4.2BSD   2048 16384   16 # /
    b:        300.2M       1648.8M    swap                   
    c:      19092.9M          0.0M  unused      0     0      
    d:        120.1M       1949.1M  4.2BSD   2048 16384   16 # /tmp
    e:         80.2M       2069.2M  4.2BSD   2048 16384   16 # /var
    g:       2048.0M       2149.4M  4.2BSD   2048 16384   16 # /usr
    h:       4096.0M       4197.4M  4.2BSD   2048 16384   16 # /home
    i:       1498.7M          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.

If you look closely at the output of the disklabel, you will note that your drive RPM rating is probably wrong. This is historical; the drive speed is not used in any way by the system. Do not worry about it.

Configuring your mount points and formatting your filesystems

Now comes the final configuration of your mount points. If you configured the mount points through disklabel(8), this step consists of just verifying your selections; otherwise, you can specify them now.

  The root filesystem will be mounted on wd0a.
  wd0b will be used for swap space.
  Mount point for wd0d (size=122976k), none or done? [/tmp] Enter
  Mount point for wd0e (size=82152k), none or done? [/var] Enter
  Mount point for wd0g (size=2097144k), none or done? [/usr] Enter
  Mount point for wd0h (size=4194288k), none or done? [/home] Enter
  Mount point for wd0d (size=122976k), 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
  /dev/rwd0a:     307440 sectors in 305 cylinders of 16 tracks, 63 sectors
          150.1MB in 1 cyl groups (306 c/g, 150.61MB/g, 19328 i/g)
  /dev/rwd0d:     245952 sectors in 244 cylinders of 16 tracks, 63 sectors
          120.1MB in 1 cyl groups (244 c/g, 120.09MB/g, 15360 i/g)
  /dev/rwd0e:     164304 sectors in 163 cylinders of 16 tracks, 63 sectors
          80.2MB in 1 cyl groups (164 c/g, 80.72MB/g, 10368 i/g)
  /dev/rwd0g:     4194288 sectors in 4161 cylinders of 16 tracks, 63 sectors
          2048.0MB in 13 cyl groups (328 c/g, 161.44MB/g, 20608 i/g)
  /dev/rwd0h:     8388576 sectors in 8322 cylinders of 16 tracks, 63 sectors
          4096.0MB in 26 cyl groups (328 c/g, 161.44MB/g, 20608 i/g)
  /dev/wd0a on /mnt type ffs (rw, asynchronous, local, ctime=Mon May  9 22:47:18 2
  005)
  /dev/wd0h on /mnt/home type ffs (rw, asynchronous, local, nodev, nosuid, ctime=M
  on May  9 22:47:18 2005)
  /dev/wd0d on /mnt/tmp type ffs (rw, asynchronous, local, nodev, nosuid, ctime=Mo
  n May  9 22:47:18 2005)
  /dev/wd0g on /mnt/usr type ffs (rw, asynchronous, local, nodev, ctime=Mon May  9
   22:47:18 2005)
  /dev/wd0e on /mnt/var type ffs (rw, asynchronous, local, nodev, nosuid, ctime=Mo
  n May  9 22:47:18 2005)

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.

4.5.3 - Setting the system hostname

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.

  Enter system hostname (short form, e.g. 'foo'): puffy

4.5.4 - Configuring the network

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.

  Configure the network? [yes] Enter
  Available interfaces are: fxp0.
  Which one do you wish to initialize? (or 'done') [fxp0] Enter
  Symbolic (host) name for fxp0? [puffy] Enter
  The default media for fxp0 is
          media: Ethernet autoselect (100baseTX full-duplex)
  Do you want to change the default media? [no] Enter
  IP address for fxp0? (or 'dhcp') 199.185.137.55
  Netmask? [255.255.255.0] Enter
  Done - no available interfaces found.
  DNS domain name? (e.g. 'bar.com') [my.domain] example.com
  DNS nameserver? (IP address or 'none') [none] 199.185.137.1
  Use the nameserver now? [yes] Enter
  Default route? (IP address, 'dhcp' or 'none') 199.185.137.128
  add net default: gateway 199.185.137.128
  Edit hosts with ed? [no] Enter 
  Do you want to do any manual network configuration? [no] Enter

In the above example, we use a static IP address. As indicated, you can use "dhcp" instead on most platforms (not Alpha), assuming your environment supports it. In the case of DHCP, most of the information will be grabbed from the remote DHCP server; you will be given a chance to confirm it. Here is a sample of the network configuration part of the install, this time done with DHCP:

  Configure the network? [yes] Enter
  Available interfaces are: fxp0.
  Which one do you wish to initialize? (or 'done') [fxp0] Enter
  Symbolic (host) name for fxp0? [puffy] Enter
  The default media for fxp0 is
          media: Ethernet autoselect (100baseTX full-duplex)
  Do you want to change the default media? [no] Enter
  IP address for fxp0? (or 'dhcp') dhcp
  Issuing hostname-associated DHCP request for fxp0.
  Sending on   Socket/fallback/fallback-net
  DHCPDISCOVER on fxp0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 1
  DHCPOFFER from 199.185.137.128
  DHCPREQUEST on fxp0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
  DHCPACK from 199.185.137.128 
  New Network Number: 199.185.137.0
  New Broadcast Address: 199.185.137.255
  bound to 199.185.137.55 -- renewal in 43200 seconds.
  Done - no available interfaces found.
  DNS domain name? (e.g. 'bar.com') [example.org] Enter
  DNS nameserver? (IP address or 'none') [199.185.137.1] Enter
  Use the nameserver now? [yes] Enter
  Default route? (IP address, 'dhcp' or 'none') [199.185.137.128] 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 have to manually configure the additional 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.

4.5.5 - Choosing installation media

After your network is set up, the install script will give you a chance to make manual adjustments to the configuration. Then the filesystems you created will be mounted and a root password set. This will get your local disks ready for the OpenBSD filesets to be installed upon them.

Next, you will get a chance to choose your installation media. The options are listed below.

  You will now specify the location and names of the install sets you want to
  load. You will be able to repeat this step until all of your sets have been
  successfully loaded. If you are not sure what sets to install, refer to the
  installation notes for details on the contents of each.
 
  Sets can be located on a (m)ounted filesystem; a (c)drom, (d)isk or (t)ape
  device; or a (f)tp, (n)fs or (h)ttp server.
  Where are the install sets? c
  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: All possible sources for install sets are listed, but not all may be available on your system. e.g. "(n)fs" is shown but not all architectures allow NFS installations. If you choose a source that is not available, you will get an error message and be given the chance to choose another source for your installation sets.

  Available CD-ROMs are: cd0.
  Which one contains the install media? (or 'done') [cd0] Enter
  Pathname to the sets?  (or 'done') [3.7/i386] Enter

Here, you are prompted for which directory the installation files are, which is 3.7/i386/ on the official CD-ROM.

4.5.6 - Choosing filesets.

Now it's time to choose which filesets 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 filesets are selected; however, some people may wish to limit this to the bare minimum required to run OpenBSD, which would be base37.tgz, etc37.tgz and bsd. Others will wish to install all filesets. The example below is that of a full install.

  The following sets are available. Enter a filename, 'all' to select
  all the sets, or 'done'. You may de-select a set by prepending a '-'
  to its name.

          [X] bsd
          [X] bsd.rd
          [ ] bsd.mp
          [X] base37.tgz
          [X] etc37.tgz
          [X] misc37.tgz
          [X] comp37.tgz
          [X] man37.tgz
          [X] game37.tgz
          [ ] xbase37.tgz
          [ ] xetc37.tgz
          [ ] xshare37.tgz
          [ ] xfont37.tgz
          [ ] xserv37.tgz

  File Name? (or 'done') [bsd.mp] all

  The following sets are available. Enter a filename, 'all' to select
  all the sets, or 'done'. You may de-select a set by prepending a '-'
  to its name.

          [X] bsd
          [X] bsd.rd
          [X] bsd.mp
          [X] base37.tgz
          [X] etc37.tgz
          [X] misc37.tgz
          [X] comp37.tgz
          [X] man37.tgz
          [X] game37.tgz
          [X] xbase37.tgz
          [X] xetc37.tgz
          [X] xshare37.tgz
          [X] xfont37.tgz
          [X] xserv37.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 filesets you want, you will be prompted to make sure you want to extract these filesets 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 filesets installed, and the speed of the source media. This part may take from a few minutes to several hours.
  File Name? (or 'done') [done] Enter
  Ready to install sets? [yes] Enter
  Getting bsd ...
  100% |**************************************************|  5030 KB    00:08
  Getting bsd.rd ...
  100% |**************************************************|  4478 KB    00:02
  Getting bsd.mp ...
  100% |**************************************************|  5072 KB    00:03
  Getting base37.tgz ...
  100% |**************************************************| 34337 KB    00:24
  Getting etc37.tgz ...
  100% |**************************************************|  1636 KB    00:01
  Getting misc37.tgz ...
  100% |**************************************************|  2222 KB    00:01
  Getting comp37.tgz ...
  100% |**************************************************| 21606 KB    00:17
  Getting man37.tgz ...
  100% |**************************************************|  7199 KB    00:05
  Getting game37.tgz ...
  100% |**************************************************|  2539 KB    00:01
  Getting xbase37.tgz ...
  100% |**************************************************| 10526 KB    00:08
  Getting xetc37.tgz ...
  100% |**************************************************| 96303       00:00
  Getting xshare37.tgz ...
  100% |**************************************************|  1981 KB    00:02
  Getting xfont37.tgz ...
  100% |**************************************************| 32412 KB    00:23
  Getting xserv37.tgz ...
  100% |**************************************************| 18322 KB    00:14

  Sets can be located on a (m)ounted filesystem; a (c)drom, (d)isk or (t)ape
  device; or a (f)tp, (n)fs or (h)ttp server.
  Where are the install sets? (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.

4.5.7 - Finishing up

Next, you get asked a few questions about settings for your installed system. First is whether sshd(8) should be started on boot. Usually, you will want sshd(8) running, but occasionally you may not. If your application has no need for sshd(8), there is a small theoretical security advantage to not having it running.

  Start sshd(8) by default? [yes] y

You will be given the option to run OpenNTPD on boot. OpenNTPD is a low-impact way to keep your computer's clock accurately syncronized, and the default configuration is sufficient for many people's use. However, if your network is not properly configured, it may significantly slow your system's first boot, you can reactivate it later, by altering the startup scripts. However, as we properly configured our network earlier, we'll turn this on.

  Start ntpd(8) by default? [no] y

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.

  Do you expect to run the X Window System? [yes] 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      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          posix/
  CST6CDT      Factory      Indian/      Mideast/     Singapore    posixrules
  Canada/      GB           Iran         NZ           SystemV/     right/
  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 3069360; inode block 152, offset 4136
  using MBR partition 1: type 166 (0xa6) offset 3069360 (0x2ed5b0)
  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...

Before you reboot

At this point, your system is installed and ready to be rebooted and configured for service. Before doing this, however, it would be wise to check out the Errata page to see if there are any bugs that would immediately impact you.

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.

After you reboot

One of your first things to read after you install your system is afterboot(8).

You may also find the following links useful:

One last thing...

The OpenBSD developers ask you to Send in a copy of your dmesg. This is really appreciated by the developers, and ultimately, all users.

4.6 - What files are needed for installation?

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:

The etc37.tgz and xetc37.tgz sets are not installed as part of an upgrade, only as part of a complete install, so any customizations you make will not be lost. You will have to update your /etc, /dev and /var directories manually.

4.7 - How much space do I need for an OpenBSD installation?

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:

(root)             100MB
/usr               250MB (no X) or 400MB (with X)
/var               25MB
/tmp               50MB
swap               32MB
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.

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:

4.8 - Multibooting OpenBSD/i386

Multibooting is having several operating systems on one computer, and some means of selecting the which OS is to boot. It is not a trivial task! If you don't understand what you are doing, you may end up deleting large amounts of data from your computer. New OpenBSD users are strongly encouraged to start with a blank hard drive on a dedicated machine, and then practice your desired configuration on a non-production system before attempting a multiboot configuration on a production machine. FAQ 14 has more information about the OpenBSD boot process.

Here are several options to multibooting:

Setting active partitions

This is probably the most overlooked, and yet, sometimes the best solution for multibooting. Simply set the active partition in whatever OS you are currently using to be the one you want to boot by default when you next boot. Virtually every OS offers a program to do this; OpenBSD's is fdisk(8), similar named programs are in Windows 9x and DOS, and many other operating systems. This can be highly desirable for OSs or systems which take a long time to shut down and reboot -- you can set it and start the reboot process, then walk away, grab a cup of coffee, and come back to the system booted the way you want it -- no waiting for the Magic Moment to select the next OS.

Boot floppy

If you have a system that is used to boot OpenBSD infrequently (or don't wish other users of the computer to note anything has changed), consider using a boot floppy. Simply use one of the standard OpenBSD install floppies, and create an /etc/boot.conf file (yes, you will also have to create an /etc directory on the floppy) with the contents:
     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.

Windows NT/2000/XP NTLDR

To multiboot OpenBSD and Windows NT/2000/XP, you can use NTLDR, the boot loader that NT uses. To multi-boot with NT, you need a copy of your OpenBSD Partition Boot Record (PBR). After running installboot, you can copy it to a file using dd(1):
	# dd if=/dev/rsd0a 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 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

The OpenBSD install and upgrade process will re-install the OpenBSD boot loader, which has its location coded in the PBR, so if you re-install or update your OpenBSD installation, you need to repeat the above process to fetch a new copy of the OpenBSD PBR.

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.

Other boot loaders

Some other bootloaders OpenBSD users have used successfully include GAG, OS-BS, The Ranish Partition Manager and GRUB.

OpenBSD and Linux (i386)

Please refer to INSTALL.linux, which gives in depth instructions on getting OpenBSD working with Linux.

4.9 - Sending your dmesg to dmesg@openbsd.org after the install

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).  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.dom
and then forward that message to
 dmesg@openbsd.org
where 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 dmesgs. Custom kernels that have device drivers removed are not helpful.

Also note that the dmesgs are received on a computer using the spamd spam rejection system. This may cause your dmesg to not be accepted by the mail servers for a period of time. Be patient, after half an hour to an hour or so, it will get through.

4.10 - Adding a file set after install

"Oh no! I forgot to add a file set when I did the install!"

Sometimes, you realize you really DID need comp37.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:

Using the upgrade process

Simply boot your install media (CD-ROM or Floppy), and choose Upgrade (rather than Install). When you get to the lists of file sets to install, choose the sets you neglected to install first time around, select your source, and let it install them for you.

Using tar(1)

The install file sets are simply compressed tar files, and you can expand them manually from the root of the filesystem:

  # cd /
  # tar xzvpf comp37.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 a missing file sets. This does not work. pkg_add(1) is for package files, not generic tar files like the install sets.

4.11 - What is 'bsd.rd'?

bsd.rd is a "RAM Disk" kernel. This file can be very useful; many developers are careful to keep it on the root of their system at all times.

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 2.02
  boot> boot hd0a:/bsd.rd
. . . normal boot to install . . .
As indicated, you will be brought to the install program, but you can also drop to the shell to do maintenance on your system.

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.


4.12 - Common installation problems

4.12.1 - My Compaq only recognizes 16M RAM

Some Compaq systems have an issue where the full system RAM is not detected by the OpenBSD second stage boot loader properly, and only 16M may be detected and used by OpenBSD. This can be corrected either by creating/editing /etc/boot.conf file, or by entering commands at the "boot>" prompt before OpenBSD loads. If you had a machine with 64M RAM, but OpenBSD was only detecting the first 16M, the command you would use would be:
     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.

4.12.2 - My i386 won't boot after install

Your install seemed to go fine, but on first boot, you see no sign of OpenBSD attempting to boot. There are a few common reasons for this problem:

4.12.3 - My (older, slower) machine booted, but hung at the ssh-keygen steps

It is very likely your machine is running fine, just taking a while to do the ssh key generation process. A SPARCStation2 or a Macintosh Quadra may take 45 minutes or more to complete the three ssh-keygen(1) steps, some machines will take even longer. Just let it finish; it is only done once per install.

4.12.4 - I got the message "Failed to change directory" when doing an install

When doing an FTP install of a snapshot during the -beta stage of the OpenBSD development cycle, you may see this:

  Do you want to see a list of potential FTP servers?  [yes] Enter
  Getting the list from 192.128.5.191 (ftp.openbsd.org)... FAILED
  Failed to change directory.
  Server IP address or hostname? 
This is normal and expected behavior during this pre-release part of the cycle. The install program looks for the FTP list on the primary FTP server in a directory that won't be available until the release date, so you get the above message.

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.

4.12.5 - When I login, I get "login_krb4-or-pwd: Exec format error"

Kerberos IV has been removed from OpenBSD 3.4, but if you did an upgrade, the old Kerberos IV binaries still will be on your system. This is a problem on the i386 platform, as the old Kerberos files are in a.out, format and thus unable to run on the standard ELF kernel (which has a.out emulations disabled, as mentioned here). If you have encountered this problem, you need to override the krb4 authentication method when you log in:
    OpenBSD/i386 (puffy.openbsd.org) (ttyC0)

    login: joeuser:passwd
    password:
You can use the same "username:passwd" syntax with an ssh connection and with su(1) to access your system. Now edit /etc/login.conf, and remove the krb4 references.

4.12.6 - My fdisk partition table is trashed or blank!

Occasionally, a user will find a system will work, but when doing an fdisk wd0, they see a completely blank (or sometimes, garbage) partition table. This is usually caused by having created a partition in fdisk(8) which had an offset of zero sectors, rather than the one track offset it should have (note: this is assuming the i386 or amd64 platform. Other platforms have different offset requirements, some need NO offset). The system then boots using the PBR, not using the MBR.

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).

4.13 - Customizing the install process

siteXX.tgz file

The OpenBSD install/upgrade scripts allow the selection of a user-created set called "siteXX.tgz", where XX is the release version (e.g. 37). The siteXX.tgz file set is, like the other file sets, a gzip(1) compressed tar(1) archive rooted in '/' and is un-tarred like the other sets with the options xzpf. This set will be installed last, after all other file sets.

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.

Some example uses of a siteXX.tgz file:

install.site/upgrade.site scripts

As the last step in the install/upgrade process, the scripts look in the root directory of the newly installed/upgraded system for install.site or upgrade.site, as appropriate to the current process, and runs this script in an environment chrooted to the installed/upgraded system's root. Remember, the upgrade is done from a booted file system, so your target file system is actually mounted on /mnt. However, your script can be written as if it is running in the "normal" root of your file system. Since this script is run after all the files are installed, you have almost full functionality of your system (though, in single user mode) when your script runs.

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.

4.14 - How can I install a number of similar systems?

Here are some tools you can use when you have to deploy a number of similar OpenBSD systems.

siteXX.tgz and install/upgrade.site files

See the above article.

Restore from dump(8)

On most platforms, the boot media includes the restore(8) program, which can be used to restore a backup made by dump(8). Thus, you could boot from a floppy, CD, or bsd.rd file, then fdisk, disklabel, and restore the desired configuration from tape or other media, and install the boot blocks. More details here.

Disk imaging

Unfortunately, there are no known disk imaging packages which are FFS-aware and can make an image containing only the active file space. Most of the major disk imaging solutions will treat an OpenBSD partition as a "generic" partition, and can make an image of the whole disk. This often accomplishes your goal, but usually with huge amounts of wasted space -- an empty, 10G /home partition will require 10G of space in the image, even if there isn't a single file in it. While you can typically install a drive image to a larger drive, you would not be able to directly use the extra space, and you would not be able to install an image to a smaller drive.

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.

4.15 - How can I get a dmesg(8) to report an install problem?

When reporting a problem, it is critical to include the complete system dmesg(8). However, often when you need to do this, it is because the system is working improperly or won't install so you may not have disk, network, or other resources you need to get the dmesg to the appropriate mail list. There are other ways, however:

4.16 - Upgrading/reinstalling OpenBSD/i386 using bsd.rd-a.out

It is normally possible to perform upgrades and installs using the bsd.rd kernel. However, with OpenBSD 3.4, the i386 platform switched executable format from a.out to ELF, so older boot loaders (OpenBSD 3.3 and before) are unable to run the new-format bsd.rd kernel.

To circumvent this problem, and allow upgrades to be performed using bsd.rd, an a.out version of bsd.rd was made available as part of the OpenBSD/i386 v3.5 FTP distribution. This file, bsd.rd-a.out, can be booted by OpenBSD 3.3 and below, but is a genuine OpenBSD 3.5 kernel, including the new ELF boot loader, so can be used to bootstrap OpenBSD/i386 3.5 from an older system.

Simply download bsd.rd-a.out and place it in your machine's root directory. Boot it instead of the normal bsd or bsd.rd kernels as shown here (specifying bsd.rd-a.out as your boot kernel, of course).

After installing a minimal 3.5 installation (base35.tgz, etc35.tgz, bsd), download the 3.7 (or -snapshot) bsd.rd file and install from that.

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