First, check the system BIOS and see if there is an option to change the USB emulation from CD/DVD/floppy to hard drive. If it still will not boot, check to see if the card/drive is UDMA compliant. If the system BIOS does not support EFI with BIOS emulation, see. Once the FreeBSD installer has been downloaded in the last step, open VirtualBox to start hard disk configuration. Select the “New” button on the top left of the window to open the configuration window. Name your operating system as “FreeBSD”, then select FreeBSD from the dropdown menu as well as the version (32 or 64 bit). Take A Sneak Peak At The Movies Coming Out This Week (8/12) The Top 8 Hollywood Dog Movies To Get You Through The Week; Amazon Prime Day 2021: 8 Small Biz Deals that Kristen Bell Loves Too.
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The FreeBSD Project
Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005The FreeBSD Documentation Project
This article gives some brief instructions on installingFreeBSD/i386 6.0-RELEASE, with particular emphasis given toobtaining a FreeBSD distribution. Some notes on troubleshooting andfrequently-asked questions are also given.
1 InstallingFreeBSD
This section documents the process of installing a newdistribution of FreeBSD. These instructions pay particular emphasisto the process of obtaining the FreeBSD 6.0-RELEASE distributionand to beginning the installation procedure. The “Installing FreeBSD” chapter of the FreeBSD Handbook provides more in-depthinformation about the installation program itself, including aguided walkthrough with screenshots.
If you are upgrading from a previous release of FreeBSD, pleasesee Section 3 for instructions onupgrading.
1.1 Getting Started
Probably the most important pre-installation step that can betaken is that of reading the various instruction documents providedwith FreeBSD. A roadmap of documents pertaining to this release ofFreeBSD can be found in README.TXT, whichcan usually be found in the same location as this file; most ofthese documents, such as the release notes and the hardwarecompatibility list, are also accessible in the Documentation menuof the installer.
Note that on-line versions of the FreeBSD FAQ and Handbook are also available from the FreeBSD Project Website, if you have an Internet connection.
This collection of documents may seem daunting, but the timespent reading them will likely be saved many times over. Beingfamiliar with what resources are available can also be helpful inthe event of problems during installation.
The best laid plans sometimes go awry, so if you run intotrouble take a look at Section 4, whichcontains valuable troubleshooting information. You should also readan updated copy of ERRATA.TXT beforeinstalling, since this will alert you to any problems which havereported in the interim for your particular release.
Important: While FreeBSD does its best to safeguardagainst accidental loss of data, it's still more than possible towipe out your entiredisk with this installation if you make a mistake.Please do not proceed to the final FreeBSD installation menu unlessyou've adequately backed up any important data first.
1.2 HardwareRequirements
FreeBSD for the i386 requires a 486 or better processor and atleast 24 MB of RAM. You will need at least 150MB of free harddrive space for the most minimal installation. See below for waysof shrinking existing DOS partitions in order to installFreeBSD.
If you are not familiar with configuring hardware for FreeBSD,you should be sure to read the HARDWARE.TXT file; it contains importantinformation on what hardware is supported by FreeBSD.
1.3 Floppy DiskImage Instructions
Depending on how you choose to install FreeBSD, you may need tocreate a set of floppy disks (usually three) to begin theinstallation process. This section briefly describes how to createthese disks, either from a CDROM installation or from the Internet.Note that in the common case of installing FreeBSD from CDROM, on amachine that supports bootable CDROMs, the steps outlined in thissection will not be needed and can be skipped.
For most CDROM or network installations, all you need to copyonto actual floppies from the floppies/directory are the boot.flp and kernX.flpimages (for 1.44MB floppies).
Getting these images over the network is easy. Simply fetch therelease/floppies/boot.flp, and all of the release/floppies/kernX.flp files from ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/or one of the many mirrors listed at FTP Sites section of the Handbook, or on thehttp://mirrorlist.FreeBSD.org/ Web pages.
Get several blank, freshly formatted floppies and image copyboot.flp onto one and the kernX.flp filesonto the others. These images are not DOS files. You cannot simply copy them toa DOS or UFS floppy as regular files, you need to “image” copy themto the floppy with fdimage.exe under DOS(see the tools directory on your CDROM orFreeBSD FTP mirror) or the dd(1) command in UNIX.
For example, to create the kernel floppy image from DOS, you'ddo something like this:
Assuming that you'd copied fdimage.exeand boot.flp into a directory somewhere.You would do the same for the kernX.flp files, of course.
If you're creating the boot floppy from a UNIX machine, you mayfind that:
or
or
work well, depending on your hardware and operating systemenvironment (different versions of UNIX have different names forthe floppy drive).
1.4 Installing FreeBSD from CDROM or theInternet
The easiest type of installation is from CDROM. If you have asupported CDROM drive and a FreeBSD installation CDROM, there are 2ways of starting the installation from it:
- If your system supports the “CDBOOT” standard for bootable CDROMmedia and you have booting from CD enabled, simply put the FreeBSDinstallation CD in your CDROM drive and boot the system to begininstallation.
- Build a set of FreeBSD boot floppies from the floppies/ directory in every FreeBSD distribution.Read Section 1.3 for more information oncreating the bootable floppies under different operating systems.Then you simply boot from the first floppy and you should soon bein the FreeBSD installation.
If you don't have a CDROM (or your computer does not supportbooting from CDROM) and would like to simply install over the netusing PPP, SLIP or a dedicated connection, you should start theinstallation by building a set of FreeBSD boot floppies from thefiles floppies/boot.flp and floppies/kernX.flp using the instructions foundin Section 1.3. Restart your computer usingthe boot.flp disk; when prompted, insertthe other disks as required. Then, please go to Section 1.5.5 for additional tips on installing viaFTP or NFS.
1.5 Detail onvarious installation types
Once you've gotten yourself to the initial installation screensomehow, you should be able to follow the various menu prompts andgo from there. If you've never used the FreeBSD installationbefore, you are also encouraged to read some of the documentationin the Documentation submenu as well as the general “Usage”instructions on the first menu.
Note: If you get stuck at a screen, press the F1 key for online documentation relevant to thatspecific section.
If you've never installed FreeBSD before, or even if you have,the “Standard” installation mode is the most recommended since itmakes sure that you'll visit all the various important checklistitems along the way. If you're much more comfortable with theFreeBSD installation process and know exactly what you want todo, use the “Express” or “Custom” installation options. If you'reupgrading an existing system, use the “Upgrade” option.
The FreeBSD installer supports the direct use of floppy, DOS,tape, CDROM, FTP, NFS and UFS partitions as installation media;further tips on installing from each type of media are listedbelow.
1.5.1 Installingfrom a Network CDROM
If you simply wish to install from a local CDROM drive then seeSection 1.4. If you don't have aCDROM drive on your system and wish to use a FreeBSD distributionCD in the CDROM drive of another system to which you have networkconnectivity, there are also several ways of going about it:
- If you would be able to FTP install FreeBSD directly from theCDROM drive in some FreeBSD machine, it's quite easy: You ensure anFTP server is running and then simply add the following line to thepassword file (using the vipw(8) command):On the machine on which you are running the install, go to theOptions menu and set Release Name to any.You may then choose a Media type of FTPand type in ftp://machine after picking “URL” in theftp sites menu.Warning: This may allow anyone on the local network (orInternet) to make “anonymous FTP” connections to this machine,which may not be desirable.
- If you would rather use NFS to export the CDROM directly to themachine(s) you'll be installing from, you need to first add anentry to the /etc/exports file (on themachine with the CDROM drive). The example below allows the machineziggy.foo.com to mount the CDROM directlyvia NFS during installation:The machine with the CDROM must also be configured as an NFSserver, of course, and if you're not sure how to do that then anNFS installation is probably not the best choice for you unlessyou're willing to read up on rc.conf(5) and configure thingsappropriately. Assuming that this part goes smoothly, you should beable to enter: cdrom-host:/cdrom as the path for anNFS installation when the target machine is installed, e.g.wiggy:/cdrom.
1.5.2 Installingfrom Floppies
If you must install from floppy disks, either due to unsupportedhardware or just because you enjoy doing things the hard way, youmust first prepare some floppies for the install.
First, make your boot floppies as described in Section 1.3.
Second, peruse Section 2 and pay specialattention to the “Distribution Format” section since it describeswhich files you're going to need to put onto floppy and which youcan safely skip.
Next you will need, at minimum, as many 1.44MB floppies as ittakes to hold all files in the bin(binary distribution) directory. If you're preparing these floppiesunder DOS, then these floppies must be formatted using the MS-DOS FORMAT command. If you're using Windows, use theWindows File Manager format command.
Important: Frequently, floppy disks come “factorypreformatted”. While convenient, many problems reported by users inthe past have resulted from the use of improperly formatted media.Re-format them yourself, just to make sure.
If you're creating the floppies from another FreeBSD machine, aformat is still not a bad idea though you don't need to put a DOSfilesystem on each floppy. You can use the disklabel(8) and newfs(8) commands to put a UFSfilesystem on a floppy, as the following sequence of commandsillustrates:
After you've formatted the floppies for DOS or UFS, you'll needto copy the files onto them. The distribution files are sized sothat a floppy disk will hold a single file. Each distributionshould go into its own subdirectory on the floppy, e.g.: a:binbin.inf, a:binbin.aa, a:binbin.ab, ..
Important: The bin.inf filealso needs to go on the first floppy of the bin set since it is read by the installationprogram in order to figure out how many additional pieces to lookfor when fetching and concatenating the distribution. When puttingdistributions onto floppies, the distname.inf file must occupy the first floppy of eachdistribution set.
Once you come to the Media screen of the install, select“Floppy” and you'll be prompted for the rest.
1.5.3 Installingfrom a DOS partition
To prepare for installation from an MS-DOS partition you shouldsimply copy the files from the distribution into a directory calledFREEBSD on the Primary DOS partition(C:). For example, to do a minimalinstallation of FreeBSD from DOS using files copied from the CDROM,you might do something like this:
Assuming that E: was where your CDwas mounted.
For as many distributions as you wish to install from DOS (andyou have free space for), install each one in a directory underC:FREEBSD - the BIN dist is only the minimal requirement.
Once you've copied the directories, you can simply launch theinstallation from floppies as normal and select “DOS” as your mediatype when the time comes.
1.5.4 Installingfrom QIC/SCSI Tape
When installing from tape, the installation program expects thefiles to be simply tar'ed onto it, so after fetching all of thefiles for the distributions you're interested in, simply usetar(1) to get them onto the tapewith a command something like this:
When you go to do the installation, you should also make surethat you leave enough room in some temporary directory (whichyou'll be allowed to choose) to accommodate the full contents of the tapeyou've created. Due to the non-random access nature of tapes, thismethod of installation requires quite a bit of temporary storage.You should expect to require as much temporary storage as you havestuff written on tape.
Note: When going to do the installation, the tape must bein the drive before booting from the boot floppies. Theinstallation “probe” may otherwise fail to find it.
Now create a boot floppy as described in Section 1.3 and proceed with the installation.
1.5.5 Installingover a Network using FTP or NFS
After making the boot floppies as described in the firstsection, you can load the rest of the installation over a networkusing one of 3 types of connections: serial port, parallel port, orEthernet.
1.5.5.1 SerialPort
SLIP support is rather primitive, and is limited primarily tohard-wired links, such as a serial cable running between twocomputers. The link must be hard-wired because the SLIPinstallation doesn't currently offer a dialing capability. If youneed to dial out with a modem or otherwise dialog with the linkbefore connecting to it, then the PPP utility should be usedinstead.
If you're using PPP, make sure that you have your InternetService Provider's IP address and DNS information handy as you'llneed to know it fairly early in the installation process. You mayalso need to know your own IP address, though PPP supports dynamicaddress negotiation and may be able to pick up this informationdirectly from your ISP if they support it.
You will also need to know how to use the various “AT commands”for dialing out with your particular brand of modem as the PPPdialer provides only a very simple terminal emulator.
1.5.5.2 ParallelPort
If a hard-wired connection to another FreeBSD or Linux machineis available, you might also consider installing over a “laplink”style parallel port cable. The data rate over the parallel port ismuch higher than what is typically possible over a serial line (upto 50k/sec), thus resulting in a quicker installation. It's nottypically necessary to use “real” IP addresses when using apoint-to-point parallel cable in this way and you can generallyjust use RFC 1918 style addresses for the ends of the link (e.g.10.0.0.1, 10.0.0.2,etc).
Important: If you use a Linux machine rather than aFreeBSD machine as your PLIP peer, you will also have to specify
link0
in the TCP/IP setup screen's“extra options for ifconfig” field in order to be compatible withLinux's slightly different PLIP protocol.1.5.5.3Ethernet
FreeBSD supports most common Ethernet cards; a table ofsupported cards is provided as part of the FreeBSD Hardware Notes(see HARDWARE.TXT in the Documentationmenu on the boot floppy or the top level directory of the CDROM).If you are using one of the supported PCMCIA Ethernet cards, alsobe sure that it's plugged in before the laptop is powered on. FreeBSD doesnot, unfortunately, currently support “hot insertion” of PCMCIAcards during installation.
You will also need to know your IP address on the network, the
netmask
value for your subnet and thename of your machine. Your system administrator can tell you whichvalues are appropriate to your particular network setup. If youwill be referring to other hosts by name rather than IP address,you'll also need a name server and possibly the address of agateway (if you're using PPP, it's your provider's IP address) touse in talking to it. If you want to install by FTP via an HTTPproxy (see below), you will also need the proxy's address.If you do not know the answers to these questions then youshould really probably talk to your system administratorfirst beforetrying this type of installation. Using a randomly chosen IPaddress or netmask on a live network is almost guaranteed not towork, and will probably result in a lecture from said systemadministrator.
Once you have a network connection of some sort working, theinstallation can continue over NFS or FTP.
1.5.5.4 NFSinstallation tips
NFS installation is fairly straight-forward: Simply copy theFreeBSD distribution files you want onto a server somewhere andthen point the NFS media selection at it.
If this server supports only “privileged port” access (this isgenerally the default for Sun and Linux workstations), you may needto set this option in the Options menu before installation canproceed.
If you have a poor quality Ethernet card which suffers from veryslow transfer rates, you may also wish to toggle the appropriateOptions flag.
In order for NFS installation to work, the server must alsosupport “subdir mounts”, e.g. if your FreeBSD distributiondirectory lives on wiggy:/usr/archive/stuff/FreeBSD, then wiggy will have to allow the direct mounting of/usr/archive/stuff/FreeBSD, not just/usr or /usr/archive/stuff.
In FreeBSD's /etc/exports file this iscontrolled by the
-alldirs
option.Other NFS servers may have different conventions. If you aregetting Permission Denied messages fromthe server then it's likely that you don't have this properlyenabled.1.5.5.5 FTPInstallation tips
FTP installation may be done from any mirror site containing areasonably up-to-date version of FreeBSD. A full menu of reasonablechoices for almost any location in the world is provided in the FTPsite menu during installation.
If you are installing from some other FTP site not listed inthis menu, or you are having troubles getting your name serverconfigured properly, you can also specify your own URL by selectingthe “URL” choice in that menu. A URL can contain a hostname or anIP address, so something like the following would work in theabsence of a name server:
There are three FTP installation modes you can use:
- FTP: This method uses the standard “Active” mode for transfers,in which the server initiates a connection to the client. This willnot work through most firewalls but will often work best with olderFTP servers that do not support passive mode. If your connectionhangs with passive mode, try this one.
- FTP Passive: This sets the FTP 'Passive' mode which prevents theserver from opening connections to the client. This option is bestfor users to pass through firewalls that do not allow incomingconnections on random port addresses.
- FTP via an HTTP proxy: This option instructs FreeBSD to use HTTPto connect to a proxy for all FTP operations. The proxy willtranslate the requests and send them to the FTP server. This allowsthe user to pass through firewalls that do not allow FTP at all,but offer an HTTP proxy. You must specify the hostname of the proxyin addition to the FTP server.In the rare case that you have an FTP proxy that does not gothrough HTTP, you can specify the URL as something like:In the URL above, port isthe port number of the proxy FTP server.
1.5.6 Tips forSerial Console Users
Freebsd Install Software
If you'd like to install FreeBSD on a machine using just aserial port (e.g. you don't have or wish to use a VGA card), pleasefollow these steps:
- Connect some sort of ANSI (vt100) compatible terminal orterminal emulation program to the COM1port of the PC you are installing FreeBSD onto.
- Unplug the keyboard (yes, that's correct!) and then try to bootfrom floppy or the installation CDROM, depending on the type ofinstallation media you have, with the keyboard unplugged.
- If you don't get any output on your serial console, plug thekeyboard in again. If you are booting from the CDROM, proceed tostep 5 as soon as you hear the beep.
- If booting from floppies, when access to the disk stops, insertthe first of the kernX.flp disks and press Enter. When access to this disk finishes, insert thenext kernX.flp disk and press Enter, and repeat until all kernX.flp diskshave been inserted. When disk activity finishes, reinsert theboot.flp floppy disk and press Enter.
- Once a beep is heard, hit the number 6,then enterand you should now definitely be seeing everything on the serialport. If that still doesn't work, check your serial cabling as wellas the settings on your terminal emulation program or actualterminal device. It should be set for 9600 baud, 8 bits, noparity.
1.6 Question andAnswer Section for i386 Architecture Users
- 1.6.1. Help! I have no space! Do I need todelete everything first?
- 1.6.2. Can I use compressed DOS filesystemsfrom FreeBSD?
- 1.6.3. Can I mount my DOS extendedpartitions?
- 1.6.4. Can I run DOS binaries underFreeBSD?
- 1.6.5. Can I run Microsoft® Windows® applications under FreeBSD?
- 1.6.6. Can I run other Operating Systemsunder FreeBSD?
1.6.1. Help! I have nospace! Do I need to delete everything first?
If your machine is already running DOS and has little or no freespace available for FreeBSD's installation, all is not lost! Youmay find the FIPS utility, provided inthe tools/ subdirectory on the FreeBSDCDROM or on the various FreeBSD ftp sites, to be quite useful.
FIPS allows you to split an existingDOS partition into two pieces, preserving the original partitionand allowing you to install onto the second free piece. You first“defrag” your DOS partition, using the DOS 6.xx DEFRAG utility or the NortonDisk Tools, then run FIPS. It will prompt you for the rest ofthe information it needs. Afterwards, you can reboot and installFreeBSD on the new partition. Also note that FIPS will create thesecond partition as a “clone” of the first, so you'll actually seethat you now have two DOS Primary partitions where you formerly hadone. Don't be alarmed! You can simply delete the extra DOS Primarypartition (making sure it's the right one by examining itssize).
FIPS does NOT currently work withNTFS style partitions. To split up such a partition, you will needa commercial product such as PartitionMagic. Sorry, but this is just the breaks if you've got aWindows partition hogging your whole disk and you don't want toreinstall from scratch.
FIPS does not work on extended DOSpartitions. Windows 95/98/ME FAT32 primary partitions aresupported.
1.6.2. Can I usecompressed DOS filesystems from FreeBSD?
No. If you are using a utility such as Stacker(tm) or DoubleSpace(tm), FreeBSD will only be able to usewhatever portion of the filesystem you leave uncompressed. The restof the filesystem will show up as one large file (thestacked/dblspaced file!). Do not remove that file as you will probablyregret it greatly!
It is probably better to create another uncompressed DOSextended partition and use this for communications between DOS andFreeBSD if such is your desire.
Yes. DOS extended partitions are mapped in at the end of theother “slices” in FreeBSD, e.g. your D:drive might be /dev/da0s5, yourE: drive /dev/da0s6, and so on. This example assumes, ofcourse, that your extended partition is on SCSI drive 0. For IDEdrives, substitute ad for da appropriately. You otherwise mount extendedpartitions exactly like you would mount any other DOS drive,e.g.:
Ongoing work with BSDI's doscmd(1) utility will suffice inmany cases, though it still has some rough edges. The emulators/doscmd port/package can befound in the FreeBSD Ports Collection. If you're interested inworking on this, please send mail to the FreeBSD-emulation mailing list and indicate thatyou're interested in joining this ongoing effort!
The emulators/pcemu port/package in theFreeBSD Ports Collection which emulates an 8088 and enough BIOSservices to run DOS text mode applications. It requires the XWindow System (XFree86) to operate.
1.6.5. Can I runMicrosoft® Windows® applications under FreeBSD?
There are several ports/packages in the FreeBSD Ports Collectionwhich can enable the use of many Windows applications. The emulators/wine port/package providesa compatibility layer on top of FreeBSD which allow manyWindows applications to be runwithin X Windows (XFree86).
1.6.6. Can I run otherOperating Systems under FreeBSD?
Again, there are several ports/packages in the FreeBSD PortsCollection which simulate 'virtual machines' and allow otheroperating systems to run on top of FreeBSD. The emulators/bochs port/package allowsMicrosoftWindows, Linux and even other copies of FreeBSDto be run within a window on the FreeBSD desktop. The emulators/vmware2 and emulators/vmware3 ports/packagesallow the commercial VMware virtual machine software to be run onFreeBSD.
2 DistributionFormat
A typical FreeBSD distribution directory looks something likethis (exact details may vary depending on version, architecture,and other factors):
These same files are contained in the first CDROM of amulti-disk set, but they are laid out slightly differently on thedisk. On most architectures, the installation CDROM also contains a“live filesystem” in addition to the distribution files. The livefilesystem is useful when repairing or troubleshooting an existingFreeBSD installation (see Section 4 for howto use this).
The floppies directory will be ofparticular interest to users who are unable to boot from the CDROMmedia (but are able to read the CDROM by other means). It is easyto generate a set of 1.44MB boot floppies from the floppies directory (see Section1.3 for instructions on how to do this) and use these to startan installation from CDROM, FTP, or NFS. The rest of the dataneeded during the installation will be obtained automatically basedon your selections. If you've never installed FreeBSD before, youalso want to read the entirety of this document (the installationinstructions) file.
If you're trying to do some other type of installation or aremerely curious about how a distribution is organized, what followsis a more thorough description of some of these items in moredetail:
- The *.TXT and *.HTM files contain documentation (for example,this document is contained in both INSTALL.TXT and INSTALL.HTM) and should be read before starting aninstallation. The *.TXT files are plaintext, while the *.HTM files are HTMLfiles that can be read by almost any Web browser. Somedistributions may contain documentation in other formats as well,such as PDF or PostScript.
- docbook.css is a Cascading Style Sheet(CSS) file used by some Web browsers for formatting the HTMLdocumentation.
- The base, catpages, crypto,dict, doc,games, info,manpages, proflibs, and srcdirectories contain the primary distribution components of FreeBSDitself and are split into smaller files for easy packing ontofloppies (should that be necessary).
- The compat1x, compat20, compat21,compat22, compat3x, and compat4xdirectories contain distributions for compatibility with olderreleases and are distributed as single gzip'd tar files - they canbe installed during release time or later by running theirinstall.sh scripts.
- The floppies/ subdirectory containsthe floppy installation images; further information on using themcan be found in Section 1.3.
- The packages and ports directories contain the FreeBSD Packages andPorts Collections. Packages may be installed from the packagesdirectory by running the command:Packages can also be installed by feeding individual filenamesin packages/ to the pkg_add(1) command.The Ports Collection may be installed like any otherdistribution and requires about 190MB unpacked. More information onthe ports collection may be obtained from http://www.FreeBSD.org/ports/ or locally from /usr/share/doc/handbook if you've installed thedoc distribution.
- Last of all, the tools directorycontains various DOS tools for discovering disk geometries,installing boot managers and the like. It is purely optional andprovided only for user convenience.
A typical distribution directory (for example, the info distribution) looks like this internally:
The CHECKSUM.MD5 file contains MD5signatures for each file, should data corruption be suspected, andis purely for reference. It is not used by the actual installationand does not need to be copied with the rest of the distributionfiles. The info.a* files are split,gzip'd tar files, the contents of which can be viewed by doing:
During installation, they are automatically concatenated andextracted by the installation procedure.
The info.inf file is also necessarysince it is read by the installation program in order to figure outhow many pieces to look for when fetching and concatenating thedistribution. When putting distributions onto floppies, the.inf file must occupy the firstfloppy of each distribution set!
The info.mtree file is anothernon-essential file which is provided for user reference. Itcontains the MD5 signatures of the unpacked distribution files and can be laterused with the mtree(8) program to verify theinstallation permissions and checksums against any possiblemodifications to the file. When used with the base distribution, this can be an excellent way ofdetecting trojan horse attacks on your system.
Finally, the install.sh file is foruse by those who want to install the distribution afterinstallation time. To install the info distribution from CDROMafter a system was installed, for example, you'd do:
3 UpgradingFreeBSD
These instructions describe a procedure for doing a binaryupgrade from an older version of FreeBSD.
Warning: While the FreeBSD upgrade procedure does itsbest to safeguard against accidental loss of data, it is still morethan possible to wipeout your entire disk with this installation! Please donot accept the final confirmation request unless you haveadequately backed up any important data files.
Important: These notes assume that you are using theversion of sysinstall(8) supplied with theversion of FreeBSD to which you intend to upgrade. Using amismatched version of sysinstall(8) is almostguaranteed to cause problems and has been known to leave systems inan unusable state. The most commonly made mistake in this regard isthe use of an old copy of sysinstall(8) from an existinginstallation to upgrade to a newer version of FreeBSD. This isnotrecommended.
Warning: Binary upgrades to FreeBSD 6.0-RELEASE fromFreeBSD 4-STABLE are not supported at this time. There are somefiles present in a FreeBSD 4-STABLE whose presence can bedisruptive, but are not removed by a binary upgrade. One notableexample is that an old /usr/include/g++directory will cause C++ programs to compile incorrectly (or not atall).
These upgrade instructions are provided for the use of usersupgrading from relatively recent FreeBSD 6-STABLE snapshots.
3.1Introduction
The upgrade procedure replaces distributions selected by theuser with those corresponding to the new FreeBSD release. Itpreserves standard system configuration data, as well as user data,installed packages and other software.
Administrators contemplating an upgrade are encouraged to studythis section in its entirety before commencing an upgrade. Failureto do so may result in a failed upgrade or loss of data.
3.1.1 UpgradeOverview
Upgrading of a distribution is performed by extracting the newversion of the component over the top of the previous version.Files belonging to the old distribution are not deleted.
System configuration is preserved by retaining and restoring theprevious version of the following files:
Xaccel.ini, XF86Config, adduser.conf,aliases, aliases.db, amd.map,crontab, csh.cshrc, csh.login,csh.logout, cvsupfile, dhclient.conf,disktab, dm.conf, dumpdates,exports, fbtab,fstab, ftpusers, gettytab,gnats, group,hosts, hosts.allow, hosts.equiv,hosts.lpd, inetd.conf, localtime,login.access, login.conf, mail,mail.rc, make.conf, manpath.config, master.passwd, motd,namedb, networks, newsyslog.conf,nsmb.conf, nsswitch.conf, pam.conf,passwd, periodic, ppp, printcap, profile,pwd.db, rc.conf, rc.conf.local,rc.firewall, rc.local, remote,resolv.conf, rmt, sendmail.cf,sendmail.cw, services, shells,skeykeys, spwd.db, ssh, syslog.conf, ttys,uucp
The versions of these files which correspond to the new versionare moved to /etc/upgrade/. The systemadministrator may peruse these new versions and merge components asdesired. Note that many of these files are interdependent, and thebest merge procedure is to copy all site-specific data from thecurrent files into the new.
During the upgrade procedure, the administrator is prompted fora location into which all files from /etc/ are saved. In the event that localmodifications have been made to other files, they may besubsequently retrieved from this location.
3.2Procedure
External Hard Drive
This section details the upgrade procedure. Particular attentionis given to items which substantially differ from a normalinstallation.
3.2.1Backup
User data and system configuration should be backed up beforeupgrading. While the upgrade procedure does its best to preventaccidental mistakes, it is possible to partially or completelydestroy data and configuration information.
3.2.2 MountFilesystems
The disklabel editor is entered with the nominated disk'sfilesystem devices listed. Prior to commencing the upgrade, theadministrator should make a note of the device names andcorresponding mountpoints. These mountpoints should be enteredhere. Do notset the “newfs flag” for any filesystems, as this will cause dataloss.
3.2.3 SelectDistributions
When selecting distributions, there are no constraints on whichmust be selected. As a general rule, the base distribution should be selected for an update,and the man How to install left 4 dead 2 free. distribution if manpages arealready installed. Other distributions may be selected beyond thoseoriginally installed if the administrator wishes to add additionalfunctionality.
3.2.4 AfterInstallation
Once the installation procedure has completed, the administratoris prompted to examine the new configuration files. At this point,checks should be made to ensure that the system configuration isvalid. In particular, the /etc/rc.confand /etc/fstab files should bechecked.
3.3 Upgrading fromSource Code
Those interested in an upgrade method that allows moreflexibility and sophistication should take a look at The Cutting Edge in the FreeBSD Handbook. Thisprocedure involves rebuilding all of FreeBSD from source code. Itrequires reliable network connectivity, extra disk space, and time,but has advantages for networks and other more complexinstallations. This is roughly the same procedure as is used fortrack the -STABLE or -CURRENT development branches.
/usr/src/UPDATING contains importantinformation on updating a FreeBSD system from source code. It listsvarious issues resulting from changes in FreeBSD that may affect anupgrade.
4Troubleshooting
4.1 Repairingan Existing FreeBSD Installation
FreeBSD features a “fixit” option in the top menu of thesysinstall(8) installationprogram. It provides a shell with common programs from the FreeBSDbase system; this environment is useful for repairing ortroubleshooting an existing FreeBSD installation. To use fixitmode, you will also need either the fixit.flp floppy, generated in the same fashion asthe boot floppies, or the “live filesystem” CDROM. In multi-diskFreeBSD distributions, the live filesystem image is typicallylocated on the installation disk. Note that some UNIX systemadministration experience is required to use the fixit option.
Generally, there are two ways of invoking fixit mode. Users whocan boot from the FreeBSD installation CDROM, should do so and thenchoose the “fixit” item from the main sysinstall(8) menu. Then selectthe “CDROM/DVD” option from the fixit menu.
Users who cannot boot from CDROM, but can boot from floppy disk,require a few more steps. In addition to the boot.flp and kernX.flp disks required forinstallation, create the fixit.flp floppydisk, in the same way as the other floppy disks. Follow theinstructions for booting the installation program from floppy diskuntil reaching the main sysinstall(8) menu. At thatpoint, choose the “fixit” item from the main sysinstall(8) menu. Then selectthe “Floppy” option from the fixit menu, and insert the fixit.flp floppy disk when prompted to do so.
The CDROM and floppy fixit environments are similar, but notidentical. Both offer a shell with a variety of commands availablefor checking, repairing and examining filesystems and theircontents. The CDROM version of fixit provides all of the commandsand programs available in the FreeBSD base system, through the livefilesystem. By contrast, the floppy fixit environment can onlyoffer a subset of commands due to space constraints.
In the floppy version of fixit, some standalone utilities can befound in /stand or /mnt2/stand. In the CDROM version of fixit, thesesame programs can be found in /stand or/mnt2/rescue (as well as the rest of theprograms from the live filesystem, which can be found under/mnt).
4.2 CommonInstallation Problems for i386 Architecture Users
- 4.2.1. My system hangs while probinghardware during boot, or it behaves strangely during install, orthe floppy drive isn't probed.
- 4.2.3. My legacy ISA device used to berecognized in previous versions of FreeBSD, but now it's not. Whathappened?
- 4.2.4. I go to boot from the hard disk forthe first time after installing FreeBSD, the kernel loads andprobes my hardware, but stops with messages like:
- 4.2.5. I go to boot from the hard disk forthe first time after installing FreeBSD, but the Boot Managerprompt just prints F? at the boot menueach time but the boot won't go any further.
- 4.2.6. The mcd(4)driver keeps thinking that it has found a device and this stops myIntel EtherExpress card from working.
- 4.2.7. The system finds my ed(4)network card, but I keep getting device timeout errors.
- 4.2.8. I booted the install floppy on my IBMThinkPad (tm) laptop, and the keyboard is all messed up.
- 4.2.9. My system can not find my IntelEtherExpress 16 card.
- 4.2.10. When installing on an EISA HPNetserver, my on-board AIC-7xxx SCSI controller isn'tdetected.
- 4.2.11. I have a Panasonic AL-N1 or RiosChandler Pentium machine and I find that the system hangs beforeever getting into the installation now.
- 4.2.12. I have this CMD640 IDE controllerthat is said to be broken.
- 4.2.13. On a Compaq Aero notebook, I getthe message “No floppy devices found! Please check ..” when tryingto install from floppy.
- 4.2.14. When installing on a Dell PoweredgeXE, Dell proprietary RAID controller DSA (Dell SCSI Array) isn'trecognized.
- 4.2.15. I have an IBM EtherJet PCI card, itis detected by the fxp(4) driver correctly, but thelights on the card don't come on and it doesn't connect to thenetwork.
- 4.2.16. When I configure the network duringinstallation on an IBM Netfinity 3500, the system freezes.
- 4.2.17. When I install onto a drive managedby a Mylex PCI RAID controller, the system fails to boot (eg. witha read error message).
4.2.1. My system hangswhile probing hardware during boot, or it behaves strangely duringinstall, or the floppy drive isn't probed.
FreeBSD 5.0 and above makes extensive use of the system ACPIservice on the i386, amd64 and ia64 platforms to aid in systemconfiguration if it's detected during boot. Unfortunately, somebugs still exist in both the ACPI driver and within systemmotherboards and BIOS. The use of ACPI can be disabled by settingthe “hint.acpi.0.disabled” hint in the third stage boot loader:
This is reset each time the system is booted, so it is necessaryto add hint.acpi.0.disabled='1' to thefile /boot/loader.conf. More informationabout the boot loader can be found in the FreeBSD Handbook.
4.2.3. My legacy ISAdevice used to be recognized in previous versions of FreeBSD, butnow it's not. What happened?
Some device drivers, like matcd, were removed over time due tolack of maintainership or other reasons. Others still exist but aredisabled because of their intrusive hardware probe routines. Thefollowing ISA device drivers fall into this category and canre-enabled from the third stage boot loader: aha, ahv, aic, bt, ed,cs, sn, ie, fe, le, and lnc. To do this, stop the loader duringit's 10 second countdown and enter the following at the prompt:
where foo is the name of thedriver to re-enable. This can be set permanently by editing thefile /boot/device.hints and removing theappropriate “disabled” entry.
4.2.4. I go to bootfrom the hard disk for the first time after installing FreeBSD, thekernel loads and probes my hardware, but stops with messageslike:
What is wrong? What can I do?
What is this bios_drive:interface(unit,partition)kernel_namething that is displayed with the boot help?
There is a longstanding problem in the case where the boot diskis not the first disk in the system. The BIOS uses a differentnumbering scheme to FreeBSD, and working out which numberscorrespond to which is difficult to get right.
In the case where the boot disk is not the first disk in thesystem, FreeBSD can need some help finding it. There are two commonsituations here, and in both of these cases, you need to tellFreeBSD where the root filesystem is. You do this by specifying theBIOS disk number, the disk type and the FreeBSD disk number forthat type.
The first situation is where you have two IDE disks, eachconfigured as the master on their respective IDE busses, and wishto boot FreeBSD from the second disk. The BIOS sees these as disk 0and disk 1, while FreeBSD sees them as ad0 and ad2.
FreeBSD is on BIOS disk 1, of type adand the FreeBSD disk number is 2, so you would say:
Note that if you have a slave on the primary bus, the above isnot necessary (and is effectively wrong).
The second situation involves booting from a SCSI disk when youhave one or more IDE disks in the system. In this case, the FreeBSDdisk number is lower than the BIOS disk number. If you have two IDEdisks as well as the SCSI disk, the SCSI disk is BIOS disk 2, typeda and FreeBSD disk number 0, so you wouldsay:
To tell FreeBSD that you want to boot from BIOS disk 2, which isthe first SCSI disk in the system. If you only had one IDE disk,you would use '1:' instead.
Once you have determined the correct values to use, you can putthe command exactly as you would have typed it in the /boot.config file using a standard text editor.Unless instructed otherwise, FreeBSD will use the contents of thisfile as the default response to the boot:prompt.
4.2.5. I go to bootfrom the hard disk for the first time after installing FreeBSD, butthe Boot Manager prompt just prints F? atthe boot menu each time but the boot won't go any further.
The hard disk geometry was set incorrectly in the Partitioneditor when you installed FreeBSD. Go back into the partitioneditor and specify the actual geometry of your hard disk. You mustreinstall FreeBSD again from the beginning with the correctgeometry.
If you are failing entirely in figuring out the correct geometryfor your machine, here's a tip: Install a small DOS partition atthe beginning of the disk and install FreeBSD after that. Theinstall program will see the DOS partition and try to infer thecorrect geometry from it, which usually works.
The following tip is no longer recommended, but is left here forreference:
If you are setting up a truly dedicated FreeBSD server orworkstation where you don't care for (future) compatibility withDOS, Linux or another operating system, you've also got the optionto use the entire disk (`A' in the partition editor), selecting thenon-standard option where FreeBSD occupies the entire disk from thevery first to the very last sector. This will leave all geometryconsiderations aside, but is somewhat limiting unless you're nevergoing to run anything other than FreeBSD on a disk.
4.2.6. Themcd(4) driver keeps thinking that ithas found a device and this stops my Intel EtherExpress card fromworking.
Set the hints “hint.mcd.0.disabled='1'” and“hint.mcd.1.disabled='1'” in the third stage boot loader to disablethe probing of the mcd0 and mcd1 devices. Generally speaking, you should onlyleave the devices that you will be using enabled in yourkernel.
4.2.7. The systemfinds my ed(4) network card, but I keepgetting device timeout errors.
Your card is probably on a different IRQ from what is specifiedin the /boot/device.hints file. The eddriver does not use the `soft' configuration by default (valuesentered using EZSETUP in DOS), but it will use the softwareconfiguration if you specify -1 in thehints for the interface.
Either move the jumper on the card to a hard configurationsetting (altering the kernel settings if necessary), or specify theIRQ as -1 by setting the hint“hint.ed.0.irq='-1'” This will tell the kernel to use the softconfiguration.
Another possibility is that your card is at IRQ 9, which isshared by IRQ 2 and frequently a cause of problems (especially whenyou have a VGA card using IRQ 2!). You should not use IRQ 2 or 9 ifat all possible.
4.2.8. I booted theinstall floppy on my IBM ThinkPad (tm) laptop, and the keyboard isall messed up.
What Is Hard Drive
Older IBM laptops use a non-standard keyboard controller, so youmust tell the keyboard driver (atkbd0) to go into a special modewhich works on the ThinkPads. Set the hint “hint.atkbd.0.flags='4'”and it should work fine.
4.2.9. My system cannot find my Intel EtherExpress 16 card.
You must set your Intel EtherExpress 16 card to be memory mappedat address 0xD0000, and set the amount of mapped memory to 32Kusing the Intel supplied softset.exeprogram.
Freebsd Usb Install
4.2.10. Wheninstalling on an EISA HP Netserver, my on-board AIC-7xxx SCSIcontroller isn't detected.
This is a known problem, and will hopefully be fixed in thefuture. In order to get your system installed at all, set the hint“hw.eisa_slots='12'” in the third stage loader.
Install Freebsd 11
4.2.11. I have aPanasonic AL-N1 or Rios Chandler Pentium machine and I find thatthe system hangs before ever getting into the installation now.
Your machine doesn't like the new i586_copyout and i586_copyin code for some reason. To disable this,set the hint “hint.npx.0.flags='1'”
4.2.12. I have thisCMD640 IDE controller that is said to be broken.
4.2.13. On a CompaqAero notebook, I get the message “No floppy devices found! Pleasecheck ..” when trying to install from floppy.
With Compaq being always a little different from other systems,they do not announce their floppy drive in the CMOS RAM of an Aeronotebook. Therefore, the floppy disk driver assumes there is nodrive configured. Set the hint “hint.fdc.0.flags='1'” This pretendsthe existence of the first floppy drive (as a 1.44 MB drive) to thedriver without asking the CMOS at all.
4.2.14. Wheninstalling on a Dell Poweredge XE, Dell proprietary RAID controllerDSA (Dell SCSI Array) isn't recognized.
Hard Drive Amazon
Configure the DSA to use AHA-1540 emulation using EISAconfiguration utility. After that FreeBSD detects the DSA as anAdaptec AHA-1540 SCSI controller, with irq 11 and port 340. Underemulation mode system will use DSA RAID disks, but you cannot useDSA-specific features such as watching RAID health.
Freebsd Install Ports
4.2.15. I have anIBM EtherJet PCI card, it is detected by the fxp(4)driver correctly, but the lights on the card don't come on and itdoesn't connect to the network.
We don't understand why this happens. Neither do IBM (we askedthem). The card is a standard Intel EtherExpress Pro/100 with anIBM label on it, and these cards normally work just fine. You maysee these symptoms only in some IBM Netfinity servers. The onlysolution is to install a different Ethernet adapter.
4.2.16. When Iconfigure the network during installation on an IBM Netfinity 3500,the system freezes.
There is a problem with the onboard Ethernet in the Netfinity3500 which we have not been able to identify at this time. It maybe related to the SMP features of the system being misconfigured.You will have to install another Ethernet adapter and avoidattempting to configure the onboard adapter at any time.
4.2.17. When Iinstall onto a drive managed by a Mylex PCI RAID controller, thesystem fails to boot (eg. with a readerror message).
There is a bug in the Mylex driver which results in it ignoringthe “8GB” geometry mode setting in the BIOS. Use the 2GB modeinstead.
This file, and other release-relateddocuments, can be downloaded from ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/.
For questions about FreeBSD, read thedocumentation beforecontacting <[email protected]>.
For questions about this documentation,e-mail <[email protected]>.