Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2003 09:42:52 +0100 From: Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk> To: whizkid@valuedj.com Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Noob FreeBSD 5.1 install question Message-ID: <20031021084252.GC92274@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <10690.208.253.246.93.1066684927.squirrel@www.valuedj.com> References: <10690.208.253.246.93.1066684927.squirrel@www.valuedj.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
--pZs/OQEoSSbxGlYw Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Mon, Oct 20, 2003 at 05:22:07PM -0400, whizkid@valuedj.com wrote: > A) I have reinstall freeBSD many times over and over. I work with W2k > machine at work and do a Unattended install when I don't want to select > the same options over and over again on multiple machines. Is there a way > I can create a install Config file to select all my options for me? Is > there a way I can take a snapshot of the way the OS is currently > configured and make a Install Config File? Maybe something that will auto > set my TimeZone, Partition / Slice sizes, just to get the Base OS > installed without any ports (except for maybe Lynx Text Web Browser) sysinstall(8) is scriptable -- as described in that man page you can generate a configuration file which supplies answers to the questions that sysinstall asks. As far as I know, there's no way of automatically generating such a config file. Note too that the setting you make in sysinstall are usually just the beginning: most people will use sysinstall in order to get the system able to boot up from it's own disks, and then carry on configuring the system by adding ports/packages and so forth just using the standard system tools. However, it is possible to auto-install a pretty much completely configured system: this is a standard action for people that netboot systems via PXE. Googling for FreeBSD and PXE will get you plenty of examples, for instance see http://seattle.simerson.net/computing/freebsd.netboot.shtml =20 > B) after installing Various ports on the system, do I have to do a Make > Clean after each install or can I run Make Clean after installing all of > my required Ports? No, you can save the 'make clean' step until you're ready. As running 'make clean' in a port directory will run 'make clean' recursively in the directories of all of the dependencies, this can be a lot more time consuming than is really necessary. Here's a couple of things that can help: *) When cleaning for a single port, you can do: # make clean NOCLEANDEPENDS=3Dyes which will just clean that port directory, and not the dependencies. *) If you want to clean out the whole ports tree wholesale, you can do it by: # cd /usr/ports # ls -d */*/work | xargs rm -rf or if you install the portupgrade(1) tools, # portsclean -C will achieve the same effect with less potential for accidentally removing more than you intend by having 'rm -rf' run wild... =20 > Just as FYI I am running FreeBSD 5.1, I have downloaded and Burned the 2 > ISO's (Full Install and Repair / Fix It) I run the install from the cd, > then I choose to NOT install the ports, download the 19.x meg file from > FreeBSD.org/ports and un Tar it into the /usr folder. Well, there's no law that says you *have* to use the ports system, but it's pretty strange not to take advantage of something so good... There are pre-compiled packages available, but these generally don't track the latest upstream updates to the ported software very efficiently. The ports tree does: updates to popular packages like apache generally go into the ports tree within a day or so of them being published. Rather than installing the ports and system sources by downloading tarballs from the FTP sites, there are arguments in favour of installing by running cvsup(1) to populate an empty directory. --=20 Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 26 The Paddocks Savill Way PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Marlow Tel: +44 1628 476614 Bucks., SL7 1TH UK --pZs/OQEoSSbxGlYw Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQE/lPGMdtESqEQa7a0RAmeDAJ9J6/6f8ab6Uzmxm8oS+i9K3CqRwQCfZGyG zzFlCdQmnOQfs2T/3Nozg9A= =QIca -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --pZs/OQEoSSbxGlYw--
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20031021084252.GC92274>