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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 Local additions collection.
484 Selects the standard Developer's distribution set.
489 Selects the standard user distribution set.
494 Selects the very minimum distribution set.
498 .It distSetEverything
499 Selects the full whack - all available distributions.
504 Interactively select source subcomponents.
509 Install all currently selected distributions (requires that
510 media device also be selected).
515 Install (if necessary) an HTML documentation browser and go to the
516 HTML documentation submenu.
519 .Bl -tag -width indent
521 The name of the browser package to try and install as necessary.
522 Defaults to latest links package.
524 The name of the browser binary itself (if overriding the
530 Commit any and all pending changes to disk.
532 is essentially shorthand for a number of more granular "commit"
538 Commit any rc.conf changes to disk.
541 .Bl -tag -width indent
543 Preserve existing rc.conf parameters.
544 This is useful if you have a post-install script which modifies rc.conf.
547 Start an "express" installation, asking few questions of
553 Start a "standard" installation, the most user-friendly
554 installation type available.
559 Start an upgrade installation.
563 .It installFixitHoloShell
564 Start up the "emergency holographic shell" over on VTY4
566 This will also happen automatically
567 as part of the installation process unless
573 .It installFixitCDROM
574 Go into "fixit" mode, assuming a live file system CDROM
575 currently in the drive.
579 .It installFixitFloppy
580 Go into "fixit" mode, assuming an available fixit floppy
581 disk (user will be prompted for it).
585 .It installFilesystems
586 Do just the file system initialization part of an install.
590 .It installVarDefaults
591 Initialize all variables to their defaults, overriding any
597 Sort of like an #include statement, it allows you to load one
598 configuration file from another.
601 .Bl -tag -width indent
603 The fully qualified pathname of the file to load.
606 If a media device is set, mount it.
611 If a media device is open, close it.
618 CDROM as the installation media.
623 Select a pre-made floppy installation set as the installation media.
628 Select an existing DOS primary partition as the installation media.
629 The first primary partition found is used (e.g.\& C:).
634 Select an FTP site as the installation media.
637 .Bl -tag -width indent
639 The name of the host being installed (non-optional).
641 The domain name of the host being installed (optional).
643 The default router for this host (non-optional).
645 Which host interface to use
652 If set, bring up the interactive network setup form even
653 if all relevant configuration variables are already set (optional).
655 The IP address for the selected host interface (non-optional).
657 The netmask for the selected host interface (non-optional).
659 The fully qualified URL of the FTP site containing the
661 distribution you are interested in, e.g.\&
662 .Ar ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ .
664 .It mediaSetFTPActive
667 using "active" FTP transfer mode.
672 .It mediaSetFTPPassive
675 using "passive" FTP transfer mode.
689 .Bl -tag -width indent
691 The proxy to use (host:port) (non-optional).
694 Select an existing UFS partition (mounted with the label editor) as
695 the installation media.
698 .Bl -tag -width indent
700 full /path to directory containing the
708 .Bl -tag -width indent
710 The name of the host being installed (non-optional).
712 The domain name of the host being installed (optional).
714 The default router for this host (non-optional).
716 Which host interface to use
723 If set, bring up the interactive network setup form even
724 if all relevant configuration variables are already set (optional).
726 The IP address for the selected host interface (non-optional).
728 The netmask for the selected host interface (non-optional).
730 full hostname:/path specification for directory containing
733 distribution you are interested in.
735 .It mediaSetFTPUserPass
738 .Bl -tag -width indent
740 The username to log in as on the ftp server site.
743 The password to use for this username on the ftp
747 .It mediaSetCPIOVerbosity
750 .Bl -tag -width indent
752 Can be used to set the verbosity of cpio extractions to low, medium or
756 Interactively get the user to specify some type of media.
761 Invoke the interactive options editor.
766 Try to fetch and add a package to the system (requires
767 that a media type be set),
770 .Bl -tag -width indent
772 The name of the package to add, e.g.\& bash-1.14.7 or ncftp-2.4.2.
775 Invoke the interactive group editor.
780 Invoke the interactive user editor.
785 Stop the script, terminate sysinstall and reboot the system.
786 On the sparc64 platform, the system is halted rather than rebooted.
791 Execute an arbitrary command with
795 .Bl -tag -width indent
797 The name of the command to execute.
799 from a boot floppy, very minimal expectations should
800 be made as to what is available until/unless a relatively
801 full system installation has just been done.
804 Configure a network device.
813 .Sh DISTRIBUTION MEDIA
814 The following files can be used to affect the operation of
816 when used during initial system installation.
817 .Bl -tag -width ".Pa packages/INDEX"
819 A text file of properties, listed one per line, that describe the
820 contents of the media in use.
821 The syntax for each line is simply
822 .Dq Ar property No = Ar value .
823 Currently, only the following properties are recognized.
824 .Bl -tag -width ".Va CD_MACHINE_ARCH"
826 This property should be set to the
828 version on the current
831 .Dq Li "CD_VERSION = 5.3" .
832 .It Va CD_MACHINE_ARCH
833 This property should be set to the architecture of the contents on
835 This property is normally only used with
837 products that contain
838 CDs for different architectures, to provide better error messages if
839 users try to install packages built for the wrong architecture.
841 .Dq Li "CD_MACHINE_ARCH = amd64" .
843 In a multi-volume collection (such as the
847 file on each disc should contain the full package index for the set.
848 The last field of the
850 file denotes which volume the package
853 property here defines the volume ID of the current disc.
855 .It Pa packages/INDEX
856 The package index file.
857 Each package is listed on a separate line with additional meta-data
858 such as the required dependencies.
859 This index is generated by
864 When multi-volume support is enabled, an additional field should be
865 added to each line indicating which media volume contains the given
869 For information about building a full release of
874 This utility may edit the contents of
879 as necessary to reflect changes in the network configuration.
881 If you have a reasonably complete source tree online, take
883 .Pa /usr/src/usr.sbin/sysinstall/install.cfg
884 for a sample installation script.
891 .An Jordan K. Hubbard Aq jkh@FreeBSD.org
893 Editing slice and partition tables on disks which are currently mounted by
894 the system is not allowed.
895 This is generally only a problem when
897 is run on a system that is already installed.
904 This utility is a prototype which lasted several years past
905 its expiration date and is greatly in need of death.
907 There are a (great) number of undocumented variables.