Installing FreeBSD 4.x

This guide explains how to install FreeBSD.

For this guide, I will assume that you have the FreeBSD CDROM and a system that supports bootable CDs. If not, you can still install FreeBSD by following the instructions here

  1. Put in the FreeBSD CDROM and (re)boot the system
  2. Select the option Start kernel configuration in full-screen visual mode
  3. In the Active-Drivers/Interactive Drivers Screen resolve any conflicts. In my case, I had 7 conflicts in the Network section. Delete the unnecessary drivers. My NIC was the NE1000, NE2000, 2C503, WD/SMC8xx Ethernet Adapter.
  4. Press Q to save and exit this menu
  5. Press Y when asked Save these parameters before exiting
  6. FreeBSD will start loading
  7. On the /stand/sysinstall Menu choose the Standard Installation
  8. Press OK at the next screen
  9. FDISK Partition Editor: If you have more than one hard disk, select the hard disk(s) you want to use
  10. If there was data on the hard disks, press D (Delete Slice) to remove the old partitions.
  11. Press A to use the entire disk for the installation
  12. Press Q to continue
  13. Install Boot Manager for drive x? - Select the option you want. Choose the Boot Mgr to install the FreeBSD boot manager. Use the arrow keys and the space bar to select the option you want. Then press enter over the OK button.
  14. If you have more than one drive, press enter over the OK button in the Select Drives screen
  15. Message - A message box which tells you about creating partitions. Press OK
  16. The FreeBSD Disklabel Editor screen lets you configure your partitions. To do automatically partition the disk, press A. Otherwise you can press C to create a custom slice. If you choose a custom slice, you will be asked the partition size (MB or blocksize), partition type (filesystem or swap), and the mount point (/ /usr, /web, etc.). I would suggest creating a larger /var partition. The default is 20MB and will get filled up quickly when installing programs. I set /var to 500MB and /usr got the rest.
  17. Press Q to finish
  18. On the Choose Distributions screen, choose 4 - Developer. Use the arrow keys and the space bar to select that option
  19. A confirmation box will pop up asking if you want to install the ports collection, press enter over the Yes button
  20. This will bring you back to the Choose Distributions screen, press enter over the OK button (and Kern-Developer, and User will also be selected)
  21. On the Installation Media screen, highlight the media you will use and press enter over the OK button (for instance, CDROM)
  22. A confirmation box will appear, press enter over the Yes button. If you need to change anything, press enter over the NO button
  23. FreeBSD will now start installing. The installation could take a while if your system is slow.
  24. A message box will appear indicating that FreeBSD is installed, press OK
  25. Would you like to configure any Ethernet or SLIP/PPP network devices? - press enter over the Yes button
  26. Use the up and down arrorws to highlight your NIC card, for instance dc0 - DEC/Intel 21143 (and clones) PCI Fast Ethernet Card, then press enter over the OK button
  27. Do you want to try IPv6 configuration of the interface? - press enter over the No button
  28. Do you want to try DHCP configuration of the interface? - The answer depends on your setup, I use a set of private IP addresses, so I pressed enter over the No button
  29. Network Configuration - enter the correct network information
  30. Would you like to bring the dc0 interface up right now? - press enter over the Yes button
  31. Do you want this machine to function as a network gateway? - press enter over the No button
  32. Do you want to have anonymous FTP access to this machine? - press enter over the No button
  33. Do you want to configure this machine as an NFS server? - press enter over the No button
  34. Do you want to configure this machine as an NFS client? - press enter over the No button
  35. Do you want to select a default security profile for this host (select No for "medium" security)? - press enter over the No button
  36. Security Setting Confirmation - press enter over the OK button
  37. Would you like to customize your system console settings? - press enter over the No button
  38. Would you like to set this machine's time zone now? - press enter over the Yes button
  39. Is this machine's CMOS clock set to UTC? If it is set to local time, or you don't know, please choose NO here! - press enter over the No button
  40. Select the correct timezone
  41. Would you like to enable Linux binary compatibility? - press enter over the Yes button - FreeBSD will install the linux binary compatibility code
  42. Does this system have a USB mouse attached to it? - The answer depends on your system - press enter over the No (in my case)
  43. Please configure your mouse - if you plan on accessing this machine remotely, you can diable the mouse daemon, otherwise you can configure it here - use the arrow keys to highlight 6 Disable Mouse Daemon (in my case) and press enter over the OK button
  44. After you have configured or disabled your mouse, use the arrow keys to highlight X Exit Exit this menu (returning to previous) and press enter over the OK button
  45. Ports Collection: Would you like to browse the collection now? - press enter over the Yes button
  46. Find cvsup in the net section. Press the space bar to select the program. Then exit and install the program.
  47. Would you like to add any initial user accounts to the system? - press enter over the Yes button
  48. User and Group Management - Add users: nsadmin, postgres, you. Make sure you put yourself in the wheel group when making your account.
  49. When you are finished adding users, use the arrow keys to highlight X Exit Exit this menu (returning to previous) - press enter over the OK button
  50. Now you must set the system manager's password. This is the password you'll use to log in as "root". - press enter
  51. Exit the user configuration and set the root password
  52. Visit the general configuration menu for a chance to set any last options? - If you need to change anything, press enter over the Yes button, otherwise press enter over the No button
  53. /stand/sysinstall Main Menu - use the right arrow key to highlight X Exit Install and press enter.
  54. Are you sure you wish to exit? The system will reboot (be sure to remove any floppies/CDROMs from the drives). - press enter over the Yes button
  55. Remove the CD from the CDROM drive as the computer reboots

Now we need to upgrade the ports tree using CVSUP

  1. Login as root
  2. cd /usr/share/examples/cvsup/
  3. edit the ports-supfile and change the cvsup mirror to your nearest mirror. This is the line you need to change: *default host=cvsup2.FreeBSD.org
  4. The mirrors are located here: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/cvsup.html#CVSUP-MIRRORS
  5. cvsup -g -L 2 ports-supfile
  6. This process takes a while. When it is finished, you will have the latest ports collection.

Continue with the next installation: Installing AOLServer
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