From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jan 19 12:28:55 2012 Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9137D1065670 for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>; Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:28:55 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from ml@my.gd) Received: from mail-we0-f182.google.com (mail-we0-f182.google.com [74.125.82.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E38D68FC16 for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>; Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:28:54 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail-we0-f182.google.com with SMTP id g1so5562361wer.13 for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>; Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:28:54 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.216.136.156 with SMTP id w28mr428909wei.11.1326976134587; Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:28:54 -0800 (PST) Received: from dfleuriot.local (ip-100.net-82-216-199.nantes.rev.numericable.fr. [82.216.199.100]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id fy5sm65708435wib.7.2012.01.19.04.28.53 (version=SSLv3 cipher=OTHER); Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:28:54 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <4F180C83.9090100@my.gd> Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:28:51 +0100 From: Damien Fleuriot <ml@my.gd> User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:9.0) Gecko/20111222 Thunderbird/9.0.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <BLU160-W54C133B8003EF140C41EF7AE860@phx.gbl> In-Reply-To: <BLU160-W54C133B8003EF140C41EF7AE860@phx.gbl> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Horrible installer (was: Re: FreeBSD 9) X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions <freebsd-questions.freebsd.org> List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>, <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe> List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions> List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=help> List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>, <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe> X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:28:55 -0000 On 1/19/12 3:25 AM, Allan McKinnon wrote: > > I finally got to install FreeBSD 9 onto my computer and noticed that the installer is now different. It seems to me that it forces you into doing extra steps that I was comfortable doing on my own. I really enjoyed the old installer because then I had complete control over how I tweaked my computer during and after the install. I am surprised that there is no gui present while installing FreeBSD because it feels more like Ubuntu or a windows install (somewhat). Please, please, please take this nightmare away and bring the beloved installer that was before FreeBSD 9. > Thank you for listening. > Allan _______________________________________________ Erm, you have to realize the new installer was discussed at length here, when 9.0 was still under development/beta/prerelease. Then would have been the best time to voice your frustration over the new scheme. Alternatively, you could do like me and install entirely by hand: - boot an MFSBSD image (thanks mm@ ) - partition your disks from there (see http://my.gd/bsd.htm for a rough sketch on how to use gpart) - fetch the 9.0 archives in .txz (tar.xz) format - unpack archives with xz -d - untar archived to the mountpoint with your new filesystems (eg: tar xf base.tar -C /mnt) - customize configuration files (rc.conf, fstab, root's password or SSH key, sshd_config to allow root login temporarily) And then most of all, profit ;) I've been doing installs this way first with 8.x (using the install scripts on the CDROM) then now with 9.x unpacking the .txz archives. I'm quite happy with it, the process is simple enough to document and reproduce, and offers suitable customization options. We've developed a tiny web interface here that lets us customize the size, type and label of our GPT partitions, hostname, IP address, root password and SSH accounts/keys to deploy on such newly installed machines. The interface spits the whole wall of commands to paste once logged in to the MFSBSD image to install the new OS and configure it. Works like a charm really.