Index

How to install FreeBSD 90 via PXE from anywhere (i.e. without a NFS server)

February 2012.

The situation


You want to install FreeBSD on another machine. You don't want to use a NFS server, because you are either on a Windows computer or because you simply want to boot the installer using pxeboot or gpxe.

From FreeBSD 9.0, the bootonly CD does not use a mfs file system anymore, so instead of just copying the existing one, you either need to make one yourself or find one on the internet.

We will be using one from mfsbsd, from Martin Matuška.
http://mfsbsd.vx.sk/

[2014-06-15] Update: I've been told by email that mfsbsd now provides images directly from their website:
http://mfsbsd.vx.sk/files/images/
Thanks to Roman Makarov for the information.

Step 1: build the FreeBSD image disk


Create some dirs:

# mkdir /tmp/build
# mkdir /tmp/build/iso.mnt
# mkdir /tmp/build/hd.mnt
# cd /tmp/build

Get the image:

fetch http://mfsbsd.vx.sk/iso/mfsbsd-9.0-amd64.iso
mfsbsd-9.0-amd64.iso                          100% of   28 MB 3904 kBps

Mount the image:

# mdconfig -a -t vnode -f /tmp/build/mfsbsd-9.0-amd64.iso
md0
# mount_cd9660 /dev/md0 /tmp/build/iso.mnt/

Create a hard disk image. Be sure to choose the right size.

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/build/FreeBSD-9.0-RELEASE-amd64-bootonly-mfsbsd.hd bs=1m count=30
30+0 records in
30+0 records out
31457280 bytes transferred in 0.371249 secs (84733651 bytes/sec)
# mdconfig -a -t vnode -f /tmp/build/FreeBSD-9.0-RELEASE-amd64-bootonly-mfsbsd.hd
md1
# fdisk -B -I /dev/md1
******* Working on device /dev/md1 *******
fdisk: invalid fdisk partition table found
fdisk: Class not found
# bsdlabel -B -w /dev/md1
# bsdlabel -e /dev/md1
# /dev/md1:
8 partitions:
#        size   offset    fstype   [fsize bsize bps/cpg]
  a:    61424       16    4.2BSD        0     0
  c:    61440        0    unused        0     0         # "raw" part, don't edit
/tmp/EdDk.LJ3WUbdhRH: 5 lines, 212 characters
# newfs /dev/md1a
/dev/md1a: 30.0MB (61424 sectors) block size 16384, fragment size 2048
        using 4 cylinder groups of 7.50MB, 480 blks, 960 inodes.
super-block backups (for fsck -b #) at:
 160, 15520, 30880, 46240
# mount /dev/md1a /tmp/build/hd.mnt

Copy the boot files from the iso to the disk image:

# cp -r iso.mnt/* hd.mnt/

Umount everything:

# umount /tmp/build/hd.mnt
# mdconfig -d -u 1
# umount /tmp/build/iso.mnt
# mdconfig -d -u 0

You now have a bootable mfsBSD image disk.

Step2: Boot the image disk


Download pxelinux.0.
Download memdisk. You can find it packaged with syslinux: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/

Create pxelinux config file (pxelinux.cfg/default):

DEFAULT fbsd
 
LABEL fbsd
 kernel memdisk
 append initrd=/FreeBSD-9.0-RELEASE-amd64-bootonly-mfsbsd.hd harddisk raw

Setup your DHCP and TFTP servers to serve the directory and you're good.

Once booted, login as root and launch the usual installer:

bsdinstall

Sources



Attachments