From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jul 12 17:12:02 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C0BC9106566B for ; Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:12:02 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from amvandemore@gmail.com) Received: from mail-yw0-f54.google.com (mail-yw0-f54.google.com [209.85.213.54]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6B5268FC08 for ; Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:12:02 +0000 (UTC) Received: by ywf9 with SMTP id 9so325535ywf.13 for ; Mon, 12 Jul 2010 10:12:01 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:received:in-reply-to :references:date:message-id:subject:from:to:cc:content-type; bh=xfd/6hSqkTgx9beWM840xxI0aGVb2QrO6ceZmFXFhDI=; b=RFs6unZCWHFkJY8A1Q3yZBsr+D5ptvoX4A53dNx89RS36TPLdK2wCH0J8CekTj9xBC UJqNhR/xb+0NkJ2O9RcFsiRiewnF7OdOLwErjCltNd7ljfOo81LTsil5n0dInM+QCQoG wVwpOLXBZRkcGrlnnKF12KbzxYQCGUQrfKkgU= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type; b=ZohtYRabhs4ODWs/hEMbXDi2oWTKR6mvM1wY+8ogG7gTi50slzf4KgM1sLbdiesoYI 7FI+8pJzMwMyTt88Uqsszc7rgqYnaqB/+5i+Gnj4FS0RJaX6DZxt3WUrYSqDTbdkG90T RrnxmhyGuahp+iSXWlVjhe5Q1ArUq3dFeJi9g= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.229.182.5 with SMTP id ca5mr8548584qcb.98.1278954721316; Mon, 12 Jul 2010 10:12:01 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.229.86.12 with HTTP; Mon, 12 Jul 2010 10:11:48 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <4C3618B9.8010202@aldan.algebra.com> References: <4C34C5DE.7040007@aldan.algebra.com> <4C34CA31.7010804@aldan.algebra.com> <4C34E39A.7090905@aldan.algebra.com> <20100708135353.GA43460@icarus.home.lan> <4C35E9D4.8080007@aldan.algebra.com> <20100708164022.GA46433@icarus.home.lan> <4C3618B9.8010202@aldan.algebra.com> Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:11:48 -0500 Message-ID: From: Adam Vande More To: "Mikhail T." Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Cc: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org, Jeremy Chadwick Subject: Re: net-booting the install disks (Re: 8.x grudges) X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:12:02 -0000 On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 1:28 PM, Mikhail T. > wrote: > > RedHat's "kickstart < > http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-7.3-Manual/custom-guide/ch-kickstart2.html>" > can do an entire install based on pre-configured rules. Implementing > something like that for FreeBSD would, probably, take quite a bit of effort. > But being able to just boot straight into install from a CD (or CD-image) > across the LAN doesn't seem very complicated, considering, how close we > already are... > Automated installations have existed on FreeBSD for a long time. You can do this either via netboot or CD based media. Also rolling your own FreeBSD media with custom changes is trivial compared the linux distro's I'm familar with. I haven't used kickstart but I will say the FreeBSD method is easier to work with than the Debian FIA method. Plus there are many post-install configuration utilites like puppet to further automate stuff. This page is pretty well out of date, but the concepts remain the same. You can look at the work MFSBSD has done if you interested and there are more up to date howto floating around the www. http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/articles/pxe/article.html You can find a sample install.cfg at /usr/src/usr.sbin/sysinstall/install.cfg Roll it into your media and make sure sysinstall is configed to use it. It's really that simple. There may certain aspects of this type of thing which make it more complicated, like installing custom packages, FW setup, etc. but the framework is simpler than many other OS's IMO. -- Adam Vande More