2.13 PreparingYour Own Installation Media

2.13.1 Creating anInstallation CDROM

As part of each release, the FreeBSD project makes available two CDROM images (``ISOimages''). These images can be written (``burned'') to CDs if you have a CD writer, andthen used to install FreeBSD. If you have a CD writer, and bandwidth is cheap, then thisis the easiest way to install FreeBSD.

2.13.2 Creating a Local FTP Sitewith a FreeBSD Disk

FreeBSD disks are laid out in the same way as the FTP site. This makes it very easyfor you to create a local FTP site that can be used by other machines on your networkwhen installing FreeBSD.

Anyone with network connectivity to your machine can now chose a media type of FTP andtype in ftp://your machineafter picking ``Other'' in the FTP sites menu during the install.

2.13.3 Creating InstallationFloppies

If you must install from floppy disk (which we suggest you do not do), either due to unsupportedhardware or simply because you insist on doing things the hard way, you must firstprepare some floppies for the installation.

At a minimum, you will need as many 1.44 MB or 1.2 MB floppies as it takesto hold all the files in the bin (binary distribution)directory. If you are preparing the floppies from DOS, then they MUST be formatted using the MS-DOS FORMAT command. If you are usingWindows, use Explorer to format the disks (right-click onthe A: drive, and select ``Format''.

Do not trust factorypre-formatted floppies. Format them again yourself, just to be sure. Many problemsreported by our users in the past have resulted from the use of improperly formattedmedia, which is why we are making a point of it now.

If you are creating the floppies on another FreeBSD machine, a format is still not abad idea, though you do not need to put a DOS filesystem on each floppy. You can use thedisklabel and newfs commands to put aUFS filesystem on them instead, as the following sequence of commands (for a 3.5"1.44 MB floppy) illustrates:

# fdformat -f 1440 fd0.1440# disklabel -w -r fd0.1440 floppy3# newfs -t 2 -u 18 -l 1 -i 65536 /dev/fd0

Then you can mount and write to them like any other filesystem.

After you have formatted the floppies, you will need to copy the files to them. Thedistribution files are split into chunks conveniently sized so that five of them will fiton a conventional 1.44 MB floppy. Go through all your floppies, packing as manyfiles as will fit on each one, until you have all of the distributions you want packed upin this fashion. Each distribution should go into a subdirectory on the floppy, e.g.: a:\bin\bin.aa, a:\bin\bin.ab, and soon.

Once you come to the Media screen during the install process, select ``Floppy'' andyou will be prompted for the rest.

2.13.4 Installing from anMS-DOS® Partition

To prepare for an installation from an MS-DOSpartition, copy the files from the distribution into a directory called freebsd in the root directory of the partition. For example, c:\freebsd. The directory structure of the CDROM or FTP site mustbe partially reproduced within this directory, so we suggest using the DOS xcopy command if you are copying it from a CD. For example, toprepare for a minimal installation of FreeBSD:

C:\> md c:\freebsdC:\> xcopy e:\bin c:\freebsd\bin\ /sC:\> xcopy e:\manpages c:\freebsd\manpages\ /s

Assuming that C: is where you have free space and E: is where your CDROM is mounted.

If you do not have a CDROM drive, you can download the distribution from ftp.FreeBSD.org. Each distribution is in its own directory; forexample, the base distribution canbe found in the 5.2.1/base/ directory.

For as many distributions you wish to install from an MS-DOS partition (and you have the free space for), install eachone under c:\freebsd -- the BINdistribution is the only one required for a minimum installation.

2.13.5 Creating an InstallationTape

Installing from tape is probably the easiest method, short of an online FTP install orCDROM install. The installation program expects the files to be simply tarred onto thetape. After getting all of the distribution files you are interested in, simply tar themonto the tape:

# cd /freebsd/distdir# tar cvf /dev/rwt0 dist1 ... dist2

When you perform the installation, you should make sure that you leave enough room insome temporary directory (which you will be allowed to choose) to accommodate the full contents of the tape you havecreated. Due to the non-random access nature of tapes, this method of installationrequires quite a bit of temporary storage. You should expect to require as much temporarystorage as you have data written on tape.

2.13.6 Before Installing over aNetwork

There are three types of network installations available. Serial port (SLIP or PPP),Parallel port (PLIP (laplink cable)), or Ethernet (a standard Ethernet controller(includes some PCMCIA)).

The SLIP support is rather primitive, and limited primarily to hard-wired links, suchas a serial cable running between a laptop computer and another computer. The link shouldbe hard-wired as the SLIP installation does not currently offer a dialing capability;that facility is provided with the PPP utility, which should be used in preference toSLIP whenever possible.

If you are using a modem, then PPP is almost certainly your only choice. Make surethat you have your service provider's information handy as you will need to know itfairly early in the installation process.

If you use PAP or CHAP to connect your ISP (in other words, if you can connect to theISP in Windows without using a script), then all you willneed to do is type in dial at the pppprompt. Otherwise, you will need to know how to dial your ISP using the ``AT commands''specific to your modem, as the PPP dialer provides only a very simple terminal emulator.Please refer to the user-ppp handbook and FAQ entries for further information. If you haveproblems, logging can be directed to the screen using the command setlog local ....

If a hard-wired connection to another FreeBSD (2.0-R or later) machine is available,you might also consider installing over a ``laplink'' parallel port cable. The data rateover the parallel port is much higher than what is typically possible over a serial line(up to 50 kbytes/sec), thus resulting in a quicker installation.

Finally, for the fastest possible network installation, an Ethernet adapter is alwaysa good choice! FreeBSD supports most common PC Ethernet cards; a table of supported cards(and their required settings) is provided in the Hardware Notes for each release ofFreeBSD. If you are using one of the supported PCMCIA Ethernet cards, also be sure thatit is plugged in before the laptopis powered on! FreeBSD does not, 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 youraddress class, and the name of your machine. If you are installing over a PPP connectionand do not have a static IP, fear not, the IP address can be dynamically assigned by yourISP. Your system administrator can tell you which values to use for your particularnetwork setup. If you will be referring to other hosts by name rather than IP address,you will also need a name server and possibly the address of a gateway (if you are usingPPP, it is your provider's IP address) to use in talking to it. If you want to install byFTP via a HTTP proxy, you will also need the proxy's address. If you do not know theanswers to all or most of these questions, then you should really probably talk to yoursystem administrator or ISP beforetrying this type of installation.