From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Dec 27 19:11:28 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B6BB716A4D3 for ; Sat, 27 Dec 2003 19:11:28 -0800 (PST) Received: from tx2.oucs.ox.ac.uk (tx2.oucs.ox.ac.uk [163.1.2.163]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 218B843D45 for ; Sat, 27 Dec 2003 19:11:24 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from colin.percival@wadham.ox.ac.uk) Received: from scan2.oucs.ox.ac.uk ([163.1.2.162] helo=localhost) by tx2.oucs.ox.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 4.20) id 1AaRKt-0008P8-JZ for freebsd-current@freebsd.org; Sun, 28 Dec 2003 03:11:23 +0000 Received: from rx2.oucs.ox.ac.uk ([163.1.2.161]) by localhost (scan2.oucs.ox.ac.uk [163.1.2.162]) (amavisd-new, port 25) with ESMTP id 31914-07 for ; Sun, 28 Dec 2003 03:11:22 +0000 (GMT) Received: from gateway.wadham.ox.ac.uk ([163.1.161.253]) by rx2.oucs.ox.ac.uk with smtp (Exim 4.20) id 1AaRKs-0008P3-9O for freebsd-current@freebsd.org; Sun, 28 Dec 2003 03:11:22 +0000 Received: (qmail 30184 invoked by uid 0); 28 Dec 2003 03:11:22 -0000 Received: from colin.percival@wadham.ox.ac.uk by gateway by uid 71 with qmail-scanner-1.16 (sweep: 2.14/3.71. spamassassin: 2.53. Clear:. Processed in 1.469383 secs); 28 Dec 2003 03:11:22 -0000 X-Qmail-Scanner-Mail-From: colin.percival@wadham.ox.ac.uk via gateway X-Qmail-Scanner: 1.16 (Clear:. Processed in 1.469383 secs) Received: from dhcp1131.wadham.ox.ac.uk (HELO piii600.wadham.ox.ac.uk) (163.1.161.131) by gateway.wadham.ox.ac.uk with SMTP; 28 Dec 2003 03:11:21 -0000 Message-Id: <5.0.2.1.1.20031228030024.02d59dd8@popserver.sfu.ca> X-Sender: cperciva@popserver.sfu.ca X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.0.2 Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2003 03:10:57 +0000 To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org From: Colin Percival Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Subject: FreeBSD remote install X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2003 03:11:28 -0000 As you are all aware, many computer systems around the world are possessed by evil penguins. It would be nice to exorcize these evil spirits, but this can be difficult if we don't have physical access to the machines in question. I've put together some code for remotely installing FreeBSD over existing i386 Linux systems. In short, I use NetBSD's makefs tool to build a FreeBSD disk image which boots entirely into memory, sets up the network, and sets a root password. Providing that the beginning of the machine's drive is quiescent (ie, if the first partition is swap, and you've disabled swapping), you can write this image to disk with dd, reboot, and ssh into FreeBSD. Once you've got a complete FreeBSD filesystem running in memory, you can slice and partition your drives and install FreeBSD however you like; this has the added side effect of making vinum installations much easier. For the code and more details, see http://www.daemonology.net/depenguinator/ Colin Percival