Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2003 02:56:30 -0700 From: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> To: Charles Howse <chowse@charter.net> Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Looking for detailed documentation: Install to existing filesystem Message-ID: <3F4C804E.6FAE1D56@mindspring.com> References: <001c01c36a7f$7856a140$04fea8c0@moe>
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Charles Howse wrote: > I'm a hobbyist, and for my personal education, I would like to learn how > to install FBSD from an existing filesystem, rather than from FTP or CD. > > My intention is to copy the files to a directory on the second HDD of my > present FBSD system, and point sysinstall to that partition/directory > during the install. This is fairly easy. What you do it copy the files to a directory on a second disk drive on the machine, and point sysinstall to that partition/directory during the install. 8-). > I can't seem to find any "detailed" instructions. The handbook just > glosses over it, saying follow the instructions on the screen in > sysinstall. I've Googled for days and can only find other people asking > the same question and talking about their failures. The easiest thing to do is follow the instructions in sysinstall. The reason the handbook says this is that the order of dialogs, etc., in sysinstall varies from version to version of FreeBSD. Here is an example of "detailed instructions" for a particular version of FreeBSD. If you have a different version, you will need to use instructions matching the version of sysinstall you happen to be using: C <return> 13*<cursor down> <space> 7*<cursor up> <space> "7" (selects option 6 from "Choose Installation Media" dialog because sysinstall is stupid) <return> Enter the pathname of the directory containing the installation files <return> Q <cursor right> (Cancel) <return> U (for "Upgrade") <return> (disclaimer screen) <return> <return> (to begin upgrade) > I need to know: > > 1) What files do I need to have on the partition from which I will be > installing? Everything from the first CDROM, in the same directory hierarchy. It's easiest if you just mount a CDROM, or mount a vnconfig'ed CDROM ISO image as a cd9660 FS. > 2) ftp address and directory where I can find those files. ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/ The exact subdirectory depends on which particular version you are trying to upgrade to. > 3) Can FBSD install from the .iso files? Yes, if you vnconfig them and mount them up as FS's so that to the system they appear as CDROMs, instead of ISOs. > 4) A link to a tutorial or howto would really be nice. If none exists, I > might consider writing one once I figure out how to do it properly. It's at least slightly different for every version of the system (see above). That's also why you didn't find one. PS: You should also vnconfig the floppy image on the vnconfig'ed ISO image, and pull sysinstall off there, instead of using your local copy. The sysinstall program has some string lists which are hard-coded, and may also vary from version to version. As it is a "crunchgen"'ed file, you will need to name it "sysinstall" for it to work. I suggest copying it to /tmp, and running it from there. PPS: I've posted detailed instructions on doing this at least three times in the past three years, since I needed to upgrade over NFS to a machine without anything but a local copy of FreeBSD that could be booted; start looking around June of 2001 in the -current and -hackers archives. -- Terry
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