FreeBSD Remote Installation

Sometimes we don’t want to do the installation in front of the console

Before Started

Writable Filesystem

mkdir /tmp/etc
mount_unionfs /tmp/etc /etc

Connectivity

ifconfig em0 140.113.102.184 netmask 255.255.255.224
route add default 140.113.102.190
echo 'nameserver 8.8.8.8' > /tmp/etc/resolv.conf

SSHD on Duty

passwd
echo 'PermitRootLogin yes' >> /etc/ssh/sshd_config
service sshd onestart

Remote Installation

gpart destroy -F /dev/da0
gpart create -s GPT /dev/da0
gpart add -s 128 -t freebsd-boot -l gptboot /dev/da0
gpart add -s 1G -t freebsd-swap -l gptswap /dev/da0
gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -l gptroot /dev/da0
gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptboot -i 1 /dev/da0
swapon /dev/gpt/gptswap
newfs -U /dev/gpt/gptroot
mount /dev/gpt/gptroot /mnt

tar Jxf /usr/freebsd-dist/base.txz   -C /mnt
tar Jxf /usr/freebsd-dist/kernel.txz -C /mnt
tar Jxf /usr/freebsd-dist/doc.txz    -C /mnt
tar Jxf /usr/freebsd-dist/src.txz    -C /mnt
tar Jxf /usr/freebsd-dist/lib32.txz  -C /mnt

chroot /mnt

passwd
echo 'nameserver 8.8.8.8' > /etc/resolv.conf
mkdir -p /usr/compat/linux/proc
ln -s /usr/compat /compat
ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Taipei /etc/localtime

Edit /etc/rc.conf

hostname="chcbsd.zespre.com"
ifconfig_em0="inet 140.113.102.184 netmask 255.255.255.224"
defaultrouter="140.113.102.190"

dumpdev="NO"
background_fsck="NO"
fsck_y_enable="YES"

sshd_enable="YES"
sendmail_enable="NO"
ntpd_enable="YES"
ntpd_sync_on_start="YES"
#pf_enable="YES"
#pflog_enable="YES"

Edit /etc/fstab

# Device            Mountpoint          FStype      Options Dump    Pass#
/dev/gpt/gptswap    none                swap        sw      0       0
/dev/gpt/gptroot    /                   ufs         rw      1       1
linproc             /compat/linux/proc  linprocfs   rw,late 0       0
fdesc               /dev/fd             fdescfs     rw      0       0
proc                /proc               procfs      rw      0       0

Remove install media then reboot.

After Installation

You need to console login using root if you did not create normal user before you reboot the machine

pw useradd starbops -G wheel -m -s /bin/sh

Download ports tree if you want to install software through ports

portsnap fetch extract

Conclusion

From now on you have a basic FreeBSD server. You can do anything you want. But be careful, this is a very basic installation guide. My point is to do the installation remotely, so many settings are very rough.