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32 .Nd system installation and configuration tool
41 utility is used for installing and configuring
44 It is the first utility invoked by the
47 floppy and is also available as
48 .Pa /usr/sbin/sysinstall
51 systems for use in later configuring the system.
55 utility is generally invoked without arguments for the default
56 behavior, where the main installation/configuration menu is presented.
58 On those occasions where it is deemed necessary to invoke a subsystem
59 of sysinstall directly, however, it is also possible to do so by
60 naming the appropriate function entry points on the command line.
61 Since this action is essentially identical to running an installation
62 script, each command-line argument corresponding to a line of script,
63 the reader is encouraged to read the section on scripting for more
64 information on this feature.
68 utility is essentially nothing more than a monolithic C program with
69 the ability to write MBRs and disk labels (through the services
72 library) and install distributions or packages onto new and
76 It also contains some extra intelligence
77 for running as a replacement for
79 when it is invoked by the
81 installation boot procedure.
83 assumes very little in the way of additional utility support and
84 performs most file system operations by calling the relevant syscalls
91 utility currently uses the
93 library to do user interaction with simple ANSI line graphics, color
94 support for which is enabled by either running on a syscons VTY or some
95 other color-capable terminal emulator (newer versions of xterm will support
100 This product is currently at the end of its life cycle and will
101 eventually be replaced.
105 utility may be either driven interactively through its various internal menus
106 or run in batch mode, driven by an external script.
108 be loaded and executed in one of 3 ways:
110 .It Sy "LOAD_CONFIG_FILE"
113 is compiled with LOAD_CONFIG_FILE set in the environment
114 (or in the Makefile) to some value, then that value will
115 be used as the filename to automatically look for and load
118 starts up and with no user interaction required.
119 This option is aimed primarily at large sites who wish to create a
120 single prototype install for multiple machines with largely identical
121 configurations and/or installation options.
125 is run interactively, that is to say in the default manner, it will
126 bring up a main menu which contains a "load config file" option.
127 Selecting this option will prompt for the name of a script file which
128 it then will attempt to load from a DOS or UFS formatted floppy.
129 .It Sy "COMMAND LINE"
130 Each command line argument is treated as a script directive
133 is run in multi-user mode.
134 Execution ends either by explicit request
137 directive), upon reaching the end of the argument list or on error.
141 /usr/sbin/sysinstall _ftpPath=ftp://ziggy/pub/ mediaSetFTP configPackages
146 for FTP installation media (using the server `ziggy') and then
147 bring up the package installation editor, exiting when finished.
150 A script is a list of one or more directives, each directive taking
162 is the assignment of some internal
164 variable, e.g.\& "ftpPass=FuNkYChiKn", and
166 is the name of an internal
168 function, e.g.\& "mediaSetFTP", and
170 is a single-line comment for documentation purposes (ignored by
172 Each directive must be by itself on a single line,
173 functions taking their arguments by examining known variable names.
174 This requires that you be sure to assign the relevant variables before
175 calling a function which requires them.
179 variable can be assigned before each directive: this will cause any error
180 detected while processing the directive itself to be ignored.
183 will automatically reset to the default "unassigned" every time a directive is
186 When and where a function depends on the settings of one or more variables
187 will be noted in the following table:
189 .Sy "Function Glossary" :
191 .Bl -tag -width indent
193 Invoke the Anonymous FTP configuration menu.
198 Select which routing daemon you wish to use, potentially
199 loading any required 3rd-party routing daemons as necessary.
202 .Bl -tag -width indent
204 can be set to the name of the desired routing daemon,
209 otherwise it is prompted for.
212 Configure host as an NFS server.
217 Configure host as a user of the Network Time Protocol.
220 .Bl -tag -width indent
224 that is to say the name of the server to sync from.
227 Configure host to support PC NFS.
230 .Bl -tag -width indent
232 The name of the PCNFSD package to load if necessary (defaults to hard coded
236 Bring up the interactive package management menu.
241 Add users and/or groups to the system.
245 .It diskPartitionEditor
246 Invokes the disk partition (MBR) editor.
249 .Bl -tag -width findx
251 The disk geometry, as a cyls/heads/sectors formatted string.
252 The word "sane" instructs
254 to calculate a safe (not necessarily optimal) geometry if the
255 current one has more than 65535 cylinders, more than 256 heads or
256 more than 63 sectors per track (255 sectors on the PC98
261 Set to disk partitioning type or size, its value being
263 in order to use only remaining free space for
266 to use the entire disk for
268 but maintain a proper partition
273 partition (first found),
276 .Dq dangerously dedicated
281 blocks of available free space to a new
284 Default: Interactive mode.
288 to signify the installation of a boot manager,
290 to signify installation of a "standard" non-boot MGR DOS
293 to indicate that no change to the boot manager is desired.
296 If set, bring up the interactive disk partition editor.
299 Note: Nothing is actually written to disk by this function, an explicit call to
300 .Ar diskPartitionWrite
301 being required for that to happen.
302 .It diskPartitionWrite
303 Causes any pending MBR changes (typically from the
304 .Ar diskPartitionEditor
305 function) to be written out.
310 Invokes the disk label editor.
311 This is a bit trickier from a script
312 since you need to essentially label everything inside each
314 (type 0xA5) partition created by the
315 .Ar diskPartitionEditor
316 function, and that requires knowing a few rules about how things are
318 When creating a script to automatically allocate disk space
319 and partition it up, it is suggested that you first perform the
320 installation interactively at least once and take careful notes as to
321 what the slice names will be, then and only then hardwiring them into
324 For example, let's say you have a SCSI disk on which you have created a new
326 partition in slice 2 (your DOS partition residing in slice 1).
327 The slice name would be
333 being your DOS primary
335 Now let's further assume that you have 4GB in this
336 partition and you want to sub-partition that space into root, swap,
337 var and usr file systems for
339 Your invocation of the
341 function might involve setting the following variables:
342 .Bl -tag -width findx
343 .It Li "da0s2-1=ufs 2097152 /"
344 A 1GB root file system (all sizes are in 512 byte blocks).
345 .It Li "da0s2-2=swap 1048576 /"
346 A 512MB swap partition.
347 .It Li "da0s2-3=ufs 524288 /var"
348 A 256MB /var file system.
349 .It Li "da0s2-4=ufs 0 /usr 1"
350 With the balance of free space (around 2.25GB) going to the /usr
351 file system and with soft-updates enabled (the argument following
352 the mount point, if non-zero, means to set the soft updates flag).
357 for mounting or erasing existing partitions as well as creating new
359 Using the previous example again, let's say that we also wanted
360 to mount our DOS partition and make sure that an
362 entry is created for it in the new installation.
365 function, we simply add an additional line:
370 This tells the label editor that you want to mount
373 and not to attempt to newfs it (not that
375 would attempt this for a DOS partition in any case, but it could just
376 as easily be an existing UFS partition being named here and the 2nd
377 field is non-optional).
381 variable to request that the disk label editor use an interactive dialog
382 to partition the disk instead of using variables to explicitly layout the
383 disk as described above.
385 Note: No file system data is actually written to disk until an
390 Writes out all pending disklabel information and creates and/or mounts any
391 file systems which have requests pending from the
398 Resets all selected distributions to the empty set (no distributions selected).
403 Allows the selection of a custom distribution set (e.g.\& not just one of the
404 existing "canned" sets) with no user interaction.
407 .Bl -tag -width indent
409 List of distributions to load.
410 Possible distribution values are:
411 .Bl -tag -width indentxx
413 The base binary distribution.
417 A kernel suitable for multiple processor systems.
419 Miscellaneous documentation
423 Manual pages (unformatted)
425 Pre-formatted manual pages
427 Profiled libraries for developers.
429 Dictionary information (for tools like spell).
431 GNU info files and other extra docs.
434 32-bit runtime compatibility libraries.
436 The ports collection.
440 /usr/src/[top level files]
480 X.Org client applications.
486 X.Org protocol and library documentation.
488 X.Org imake distribution.
492 X.Org nested X server.
496 X.Org virtual frame-buffer X server.
498 X.Org miscellaneous font set.
500 X.Org 75DPI font set.
502 X.Org 100DPI font set.
504 X.Org Cyrillic font set.
506 X.Org Type 1 font set.
508 X.Org TrueType font set.
512 Local additions collection.
516 Selects the standard Developer's distribution set.
520 .It distSetXDeveloper
521 Selects the standard X Developer's distribution set.
525 .It distSetKernDeveloper
526 Selects the standard kernel Developer's distribution set.
531 Selects the standard user distribution set.
536 Selects the standard X user's distribution set.
541 Selects the very minimum distribution set.
545 .It distSetEverything
546 Selects the full whack - all available distributions.
551 Interactively select source subcomponents.
556 Interactively select X.Org subcomponents.
561 Install all currently selected distributions (requires that
562 media device also be selected).
567 Install (if necessary) an HTML documentation browser and go to the
568 HTML documentation submenu.
571 .Bl -tag -width indent
573 The name of the browser package to try and install as necessary.
574 Defaults to latest links package.
576 The name of the browser binary itself (if overriding the
582 Commit any and all pending changes to disk.
584 is essentially shorthand for a number of more granular "commit"
590 Start an "express" installation, asking few questions of
596 Start a "standard" installation, the most user-friendly
597 installation type available.
602 Start an upgrade installation.
606 .It installFixitHoloShell
607 Start up the "emergency holographic shell" over on VTY4
609 This will also happen automatically
610 as part of the installation process unless
616 .It installFixitCDROM
617 Go into "fixit" mode, assuming a live file system CDROM
618 currently in the drive.
622 .It installFixitFloppy
623 Go into "fixit" mode, assuming an available fixit floppy
624 disk (user will be prompted for it).
628 .It installFilesystems
629 Do just the file system initialization part of an install.
633 .It installVarDefaults
634 Initialize all variables to their defaults, overriding any
640 Sort of like an #include statement, it allows you to load one
641 configuration file from another.
644 .Bl -tag -width indent
646 The fully qualified pathname of the file to load.
649 If a media device is set, mount it.
654 If a media device is open, close it.
661 CDROM as the installation media.
666 Select a pre-made floppy installation set as the installation media.
671 Select an existing DOS primary partition as the installation media.
672 The first primary partition found is used (e.g.\& C:).
677 Select a tape device as the installation media.
682 Select an FTP site as the installation media.
685 .Bl -tag -width indent
687 The name of the host being installed (non-optional).
689 The domain name of the host being installed (optional).
691 The default router for this host (non-optional).
693 Which host interface to use
700 If set, bring up the interactive network setup form even
701 if all relevant configuration variables are already set (optional).
703 The IP address for the selected host interface (non-optional).
705 The netmask for the selected host interface (non-optional).
707 The fully qualified URL of the FTP site containing the
709 distribution you are interested in, e.g.\&
710 .Ar ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ .
712 .It mediaSetFTPActive
715 using "active" FTP transfer mode.
720 .It mediaSetFTPPassive
723 using "passive" FTP transfer mode.
737 .Bl -tag -width indent
739 The proxy to use (host:port) (non-optional).
742 Select an existing UFS partition (mounted with the label editor) as
743 the installation media.
746 .Bl -tag -width indent
748 full /path to directory containing the
756 .Bl -tag -width indent
758 The name of the host being installed (non-optional).
760 The domain name of the host being installed (optional).
762 The default router for this host (non-optional).
764 Which host interface to use
771 If set, bring up the interactive network setup form even
772 if all relevant configuration variables are already set (optional).
774 The IP address for the selected host interface (non-optional).
776 The netmask for the selected host interface (non-optional).
778 full hostname:/path specification for directory containing
781 distribution you are interested in.
783 .It mediaSetFTPUserPass
786 .Bl -tag -width indent
788 The username to log in as on the ftp server site.
791 The password to use for this username on the ftp
795 .It mediaSetCPIOVerbosity
798 .Bl -tag -width indent
800 Can be used to set the verbosity of cpio extractions to low, medium or
804 Interactively get the user to specify some type of media.
809 Invoke the interactive options editor.
814 Try to fetch and add a package to the system (requires
815 that a media type be set),
818 .Bl -tag -width indent
820 The name of the package to add, e.g.\& bash-1.14.7 or ncftp-2.4.2.
823 Invoke the interactive group editor.
828 Invoke the interactive user editor.
833 Stop the script, terminate sysinstall and reboot the system.
834 On the sparc64 platform, the system is halted rather than rebooted.
839 Execute an arbitrary command with
843 .Bl -tag -width indent
845 The name of the command to execute.
847 from a boot floppy, very minimal expectations should
848 be made as to what is available until/unless a relatively
849 full system installation has just been done.
852 Configure a network device.
861 .Sh DISTRIBUTION MEDIA
862 The following files can be used to affect the operation of
864 when used during initial system installation.
865 .Bl -tag -width ".Pa packages/INDEX"
867 A text file of properties, listed one per line, that describe the
868 contents of the media in use.
869 The syntax for each line is simply
870 .Dq Ar property No = Ar value .
871 Currently, only the following properties are recognized.
872 .Bl -tag -width ".Va CD_MACHINE_ARCH"
874 This property should be set to the
876 version on the current
879 .Dq Li "CD_VERSION = 5.3" .
880 .It Va CD_MACHINE_ARCH
881 This property should be set to the architecture of the contents on
883 This property is normally only used with
885 products that contain
886 CDs for different architectures, to provide better error messages if
887 users try to install Alpha packages on an i386 machine.
889 .Dq Li "CD_MACHINE_ARCH = alpha" .
891 In a multi-volume collection (such as the
895 file on each disc should contain the full package index for the set.
896 The last field of the
898 file denotes which volume the package
901 property here defines the volume ID of the current disc.
903 .It Pa packages/INDEX
904 The package index file.
905 Each package is listed on a separate line with additional meta-data
906 such as the required dependencies.
907 This index is generated by
912 When multi-volume support is enabled, an additional field should be
913 added to each line indicating which media volume contains the given
917 For information about building a full release of
922 This utility may edit the contents of
927 as necessary to reflect changes in the network configuration.
929 If you have a reasonably complete source tree online, take
931 .Pa /usr/src/usr.sbin/sysinstall/install.cfg
932 for a sample installation script.
939 .An Jordan K. Hubbard Aq jkh@FreeBSD.org
941 Editing slice and partition tables on disks which are currently mounted by
942 the system is not allowed.
943 This is generally only a problem when
945 is run on a system that is already installed.
952 This utility is a prototype which lasted several years past
953 its expiration date and is greatly in need of death.