From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Jan 28 13:02:17 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8E87B16A402 for ; Sun, 28 Jan 2007 13:02:17 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from volker@vwsoft.com) Received: from frontmail.ipactive.de (frontmail.maindns.de [85.214.95.103]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 518F513C441 for ; Sun, 28 Jan 2007 13:02:17 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from volker@vwsoft.com) Received: from mail.vtec.ipme.de (unknown [89.53.125.132]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by frontmail.ipactive.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6202412882A for ; Sun, 28 Jan 2007 13:30:02 +0100 (CET) Received: from [192.168.18.3] (unknown [192.168.18.3]) by mail.vtec.ipme.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id 73F372E56B for ; Sun, 28 Jan 2007 13:29:48 +0100 (CET) Message-ID: <45BC973C.9040703@vwsoft.com> Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2007 13:29:48 +0100 From: Volker User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.9 (X11/20070119) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Enigmail-Version: 0.94.0.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-VWSoft-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-MailScanner-From: volker@vwsoft.com X-ipactive-MailScanner-Information: Please contact the ISP for more information X-ipactive-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-ipactive-MailScanner-From: volker@vwsoft.com Subject: installing fbsd from foreign system X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2007 13:02:17 -0000 Hi hackers! Probably I will be proud to have the chance to support one of Europe's major players in root server hosting for deploying FreeBSD as a target platform for their customers. I need to find a way to integrate the FreeBSD install process into their current deployment system. Currently their install process is running from a Linux install system which does the partitioning, make_fs etc. I found several options to integrate: 1) install a FAT partition, copy a bootable install system in it, boot (bsdboot) an install kernel from FAT partition and begin (unattended) installation (including fdisk, labeling, make_fs'ing). Any thoughts on that? I think this might be the best option. 2) fdisk'ing, labeling and make fs from the Linux system if there are any ported label + fs tools for Linux available - are they? 3) create an ext2 partition and copy the fbsd install system into it and boot from there to begin install process (same as 1 except running from ext2fs). Does a FreeBSD kernel support booting from ext2fs (using mdfs for root-fs)? If so, how? Any better thoughts? Any hints on how to proceed with one of the 3 options? PXE or anything else is not an option. I need to integrate the install process into an existing deployment system. I suspect to be the UFS problem to be the biggest one when it comes to deal with that from a running Linux system. Also as anything needs to run unattended, how do I set FreeBSD to try DHCP on any local interface the kernel can find? Greetings, Volker