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BSDINSTALL(8) System Manager's Manual BSDINSTALL(8) NAME bsdinstall -- system installer SYNOPSIS bsdinstall [options] [target] [...] DESCRIPTION bsdinstall is used for installation of new systems, both for system setup from installation media, such as discs, USBs, or network boot en- vironments, and for use on live systems to prepare jails and virtual machine images. Much like make(1), bsdinstall takes a target and possible parameters of the target as arguments. If invoked with no arguments, it will invoke the auto target, which provides a standard interactive installation, invoking the others in sequence. To perform a scripted installation, these subtargets can be invoked separately by an installation script. OPTIONS bsdinstall supports the following options, global to all targets: -D file Provide a path for the installation log file (overrides BSDINSTALL_LOG). See "ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES" for more infor- mation on BSDINSTALL_LOG. TARGETS Most of the following targets are only useful for scripting the in- staller. For interactive use, most users will be interested only in the auto, jail, and script targets. auto Run the standard interactive installation, including disk par- titioning. jail destination Sets up a new chroot system at destination, suitable for use with jail(8). Behavior is generally similar to auto, except that disk partitioning and network setup are skipped and a kernel is not installed into the new system. script script Runs the installation script at script. See "SCRIPTING" for more information on this target. keymap If the current controlling TTY is a syscons(4) or vt(4) con- sole, asks the user to set the current keymap, and saves the result to the new system's rc.conf. hostname Prompts the user for a host name for the new system and saves the result to the new system's rc.conf. If BSDINSTALL_CONFIGCURRENT is set, also sets the host name of the current system. netconfig Interactively configures network interfaces (first invoking wlanconfig on wireless interfaces), saving the result to the new system's rc.conf and resolv.conf. If BSDINSTALL_CONFIGCURRENT is set, also configures the network interfaces of the current system to match. autopart Provides the installer's interactive guided disk partitioner for single-disk installations. Defaults to UFS. bootconfig Detects an appropriate partition and installs UEFI boot loader files. zfsboot Provides a ZFS-only automatic interactive disk partitioner. Creates a single zpool with separate datasets for /home, /tmp, /usr, /usr/ports, /usr/src, and /var. Optionally can set up geli(8) to encrypt the disk. partedit Provides the installer's interactive manual disk partitioner with an interface identical to sade(8). Supports multiple disks as well as UFS, ZFS, and FAT file systems. ZFS is set up with one pool and dataset per partition. scriptedpart parameters Sets up disks like autopart and partedit, but non-interac- tively according to the disk setup specified in parameters. Each disk setup is specified by a three-part argument: disk [scheme] [{partitions}] Multiple disk setups are separated by semicolons. The disk argument specifies the disk on which to operate (which will be erased), or the special value DEFAULT, which will result in either a selection window (as in autopart) for the destination disk or, if there is only one possible disk, will automati- cally select it. The scheme argument specifies the gpart(8) partition scheme to apply to the disk. If scheme is unspeci- fied, scriptedpart will apply the default bootable scheme on your platform. The partitions argument is also optional and specifies how to partition disk. It consists of a comma-sepa- rated list of partitions to create enclosed in curly braces. Each partition declaration takes the form size type [mount point] size specifies the partition size to create in bytes (K, M, and G suffixes can be appended to specify kilobytes, megabytes, and gigabytes respectively), while the auto keyword causes the partition to take all the remaining space on the disk. The type option chooses the gpart(8) filesystem type, e.g., freebsd-ufs, freebsd-zfs, or freebsd-swap. The optional mount point argument sets where the created partition is to be mounted in the installed system. As an example, a typical in- vocation looks like: bsdinstall scriptedpart ada0 { 20G freebsd-ufs /, 4G freebsd- swap, 20G freebsd-ufs /var, auto freebsd-ufs /usr } Note that the list of partitions should not include boot par- titions (e.g. EFI system partitions), which will be created automatically on whatever disk includes /. A shorter invocation to use the default partitioning (as autopart would have used) on the same disk: bsdinstall scriptedpart ada0 or, even shorter: bsdinstall scriptedpart DEFAULT mount Mounts the file systems previously configured by autopart, partedit, or scriptedpart under BSDINSTALL_CHROOT. distfetch Fetches the distributions in DISTRIBUTIONS to BSDINSTALL_DISTDIR from BSDINSTALL_DISTSITE. checksum Verifies the checksums of the distributions listed in DISTRIBUTIONS against the distribution manifest. distextract Extracts the distributions listed in DISTRIBUTIONS into BSDINSTALL_CHROOT. pkgbase [--jail] Fetch and install base system packages to BSDINSTALL_CHROOT. Packages are fetched according to repository configuration in BSDINSTALL_PKG_REPOS_DIR if set, or pkg.freebsd.org otherwise. If the --jail option is passed, no kernel is installed, and the "jail" variant of each package set will be selected where applicable. firmware executes fwget(8) inside the BSDINSTALL_CHROOT to install any needed and available firmware for the new system. rootpass Interactively invokes passwd(1) in the new system to set the root user's password. adduser Interactively invokes adduser(8) in the new system. time Interactively sets the time, date, and time zone of the new system. services Queries the user for the system daemons to begin at system startup, writing the result into the new system's rc.conf. entropy Reads a small amount of data from /dev/random and stores it in a file in the new system's root directory. config Installs the configuration files destined for the new system, e.g., rc.conf(5) fragments generated by netconfig, etc.) onto the new system. ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES The following environment variables control various aspects of the in- stallation process. Many are used internally during installation and have reasonable default values for most installation scenarios. Others are set by various interactive user prompts, and can be usefully over- ridden when making scripted or customized installers. TMPDIR The directory to use for temporary files. Default: "/tmp" DISTRIBUTIONS The set of distributions to install, e.g., "base.txz ker- nel.txz ports.txz". Default: unset PARTITIONS The partitioning of the disk onto which the system is being installed. See scriptedpart of the "TARGETS" section for for- mat details. If this variable is unset, the installer will use the default partitioning as in autopart. Default: unset BSDINSTALL_DISTDIR The directory in which the distribution files can be found (or to which they should be downloaded). Default: "/usr/freebsd-dist" BSDINSTALL_DISTSITE URL from which the distribution files should be downloaded if they are not already present in the directory defined by BSDINSTALL_DISTDIR. This should be a full path to the files, including architecture and release names. Most targets, e.g., auto and jail, that prompt for a FreeBSD mirror will skip that step if this variable is already defined in the environment. Example: https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/powerpc/powerpc64/13.1-RELEASE/ or http://ftp-archive.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD-Archive/old-releases/amd64/12.2-RELEASE/. BSDINSTALL_PKG_REPOS_DIR Directory containing pkg(8) repository configuration files used by the pkgbase target. See "REPOSITORY CONFIGURATION" in pkg.conf(5). Default: unset BSDINSTALL_CHROOT The directory into which the distribution files should be un- packed and the directory at which the root file system of the new system should be mounted. Default: "/mnt" BSDINSTALL_LOG Path to a log file for the installation. Default: "$TMPDIR/bsdinstall_log" BSDINSTALL_SKIP_FIRMWARE If not empty, the auto target will not invoke the firmware target. BSDINSTALL_SKIP_HARDENING If not empty, the auto target will not invoke the hardening target. BSDINSTALL_SKIP_HOSTNAME If not empty, the auto target will not invoke the hostname target. BSDINSTALL_SKIP_KEYMAP If not empty, the auto target will not invoke the keymap tar- get. BSDINSTALL_SKIP_MANUAL If not empty, the auto target will not offer to open a shell in the new system for final manual modifications. BSDINSTALL_SKIP_SERVICES If not empty, the auto target will not invoke the services target. BSDINSTALL_SKIP_TIME If not empty, the auto target will not invoke the time target. BSDINSTALL_SKIP_USERS If not empty, the auto target will not invoke the adduser tar- get. BSDINSTALL_SKIP_FINALCONFIG If not empty, the auto target will not show the final configu- ration dialog, where earlier configuration choices can be re- visited. BSDINSTALL_TMPETC Directory where files destined for the new system's /etc will be stored until the config target is executed. If this direc- tory does not already exist, it will be created. Default: "$TMPDIR/bsdinstall_etc" BSDINSTALL_TMPBOOT Directory where files destined for the new system's /boot will be stored until the config target is executed. If this direc- tory does not already exist, it will be created. Default: "$TMPDIR/bsdinstall_boot" ROOTPASS_ENC Encrypted string to set the root password to in the format ex- pected by pw(8) -H 0. This option is used if both it and ROOTPASS_PLAIN are set. ROOTPASS_PLAIN Plain text string to set the root password to. ZFSBOOT_POOL_NAME Name for the pool containing the base system. Default: "zroot" ZFSBOOT_POOL_CREATE_OPTIONS Options to be used when creating the base system's pool. Each option must be preceded by the -O flag to be taken into con- sideration or the pool will not be created due to errors using the command zpool. Default: "-O compression=on -O atime=off" ZFSBOOT_BEROOT_NAME Name for the boot environment parent dataset. This is a non- mountable dataset meant to be a parent dataset where different boot environment are going to be created. Default: "ROOT" ZFSBOOT_BOOTFS_NAME Name for the primary boot environment, which will be the de- fault boot environment for the system. Default: "default" ZFSBOOT_VDEV_TYPE The type of pool to be created for the base system. This variable can take one of this values: stripe (No redundancy), mirror (n-Way mirroring), raid10 (RAID 1+0 - n x 2-Way Mir- rors), raidz1 (RAID-Z1 - Single Redundancy RAID), raidz2 (RAID-Z2 - Double Redundancy RAID) or raidz3 (RAID-Z3 Triple Redundancy RAID). Default: "stripe" ZFSBOOT_FORCE_4K_SECTORS Controls the minimum sector size of the pool. If this vari- able is not empty, the minimum sector size is 4K. If this variable is empty, the minimum sector size is 512. Note that the sector size of the pool will always be at least the sector size of the backing disks. Default: "1" ZFSBOOT_GELI_ENCRYPTION If this variable is not empty, it will use geli(8) to encrypt the root pool, enabling automatically the ZFSBOOT_BOOT_POOL variable. Default: "" ZFSBOOT_GELI_KEY_FILE Path to the geli(8) keyfile used to encrypt the pool where the base system is stored. Default: "/boot/encryption.key" ZFSBOOT_BOOT_POOL If set, a separated boot pool will be created for the kernel of the system and loader(8). Default: unset ZFSBOOT_BOOT_POOL_CREATE_OPTIONS Options to use when creating the boot pool, when enabled (See ZFSBOOT_BOOT_POOL ). Default: unset ZFSBOOT_BOOT_POOL_NAME Name for the optional boot pool when it is enabled, (See ZFSBOOT_BOOT_POOL ). Default: "bootpool" ZFSBOOT_BOOT_POOL_SIZE Size of the boot pool when it is enabled (See ZFSBOOT_BOOT_POOL ). Default: "2g" ZFSBOOT_DISKS Disks to be used for the base system, including the boot pool. This variable must only be used on a scripted installation. See "SCRIPTING" for more information. Default: unset ZFSBOOT_SWAP_SIZE Size of the swap partition on each block device. This vari- able will be passed to gpart(8); which supports SI unit suf- fixes. Default: "2g" ZFSBOOT_SWAP_ENCRYPTION If set, enables the encryption of the swap partition using geli(8). Default: "" ZFSBOOT_SWAP_MIRROR If set, enables a swap mirroring using gmirror(8). Default: unset ZFSBOOT_DATASETS ZFS datasets to be created on the root zpool, it requires the following datasets: /tmp, /var/tmp, /$ZFSBOOT_BEROOT_NAME/$ZFSBOOT_BOOTFS_NAME. See "ZFS DATASETS" for more information about how to populate this variable and its default value. ZFSBOOT_CONFIRM_LAYOUT If set and the installation is interactive, allow the user to confirm the layout before continuing with the installation. Default: "1" SCRIPTING bsdinstall supports unattended, or minimally-attended, installations using scripting. This can be used with either modified physical in- stallation media or with diskless(8) installations over the network; information on preparing such media can be found in "BUILDING AUTOMATIC INSTALL MEDIA" Scripted installations follow an essentially identical path to interac- tive installations, though with some minor feature differences (for ex- ample, scripted installations do not support fetching of remote distri- bution files since scripted installations normally install the same files and the distributions can be added directly to the installation media). bsdinstall scripts consist of two parts: a preamble and a setup script. The preamble sets up the options for the installation (how to partition the disk[s], which distributions to install, etc.) and the optional second part is a shell script run under chroot(8) in the newly installed system before bsdinstall exits. The two parts are separated by the usual script header (#!), which also sets the inter- preter for the setup script. A typical bsdinstall script, using the default filesystem layout and the UFS filesystem, looks like this: PARTITIONS=DEFAULT DISTRIBUTIONS="kernel.txz base.txz" #!/bin/sh sysrc ifconfig_DEFAULT=DHCP sysrc sshd_enable=YES pkg install puppet For a scripted installation involving a ZFS pool spanning multiple disks, the script instead looks like this: DISTRIBUTIONS="kernel.txz base.txz" export ZFSBOOT_VDEV_TYPE=stripe export ZFSBOOT_DISKS="ada0 ada1" export nonInteractive="YES" #!/bin/sh echo "ifconfig_DEFAULT=DHCP" >> /etc/rc.conf echo "sshd_enable=YES" >> /etc/rc.conf pkg install puppet On FreeBSD release media, such a script placed at /etc/installerconfig will be run at boot time and the system will be rebooted automatically after the installation has completed. This can be used for unattended network installation of new systems; see diskless(8) for details. PREAMBLE The preamble consists of installer settings. These control global in- stallation parameters (see "ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES") as well as disk partitioning. The preamble is interpreted as a sh(1) script run at the very beginning of the install. If more complicated behavior than set- ting these variables is desired, arbitrary commands can be run here to extend the installer. In addition to the variables in "ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES", in particular DISTRIBUTIONS, the preamble can contain a variable PARTITIONS which is passed to the scriptedpart target to con- trol disk setup. Alternatively, to use zfsboot instead of partedit, the preamble can contain the variable ZFSBOOT_DATASETS instead of PARTITIONS (see be- low). If using zfsboot, the variables ZFSBOOT_DISKS and ZFSBOOT_VDEV_TYPE must be set to create the pool of disks for the base system. Usually, for a mirrored booting disk, these two variables look like this: ZFSBOOT_DISKS="ada0 ada1" ZFSBOOT_VDEV_TYPE=mirror Remember to export all the variables for the zfsboot command, otherwise installation will fail. SETUP SCRIPT Following the preamble is an optional shell script, beginning with a #! declaration. This script will be run at the end of the installation process inside a chroot(8) environment in the newly installed system and can be used to set up configuration files, install packages, etc. Note that newly configured system services, e.g., networking have not been started in the installed system at this time and only installation host services are available. ZFS DATASETS If using zfsboot in an installation script, the zfsboot partitioning tool takes the ZFSBOOT_DATASETS variable to create the ZFS datasets on the base system. This variable definition can become large if the pool contains many datasets. The default value of ZFSBOOT_DATASETS is: # DATASET OPTIONS (comma or space separated; or both) # Boot Environment [BE] root and default boot dataset /$ZFSBOOT_BEROOT_NAME mountpoint=none /$ZFSBOOT_BEROOT_NAME/$ZFSBOOT_BOOTFS_NAME mountpoint=/ # Home directories separated so they are common to all BEs /home mountpoint=/home # Create /tmp and allow exec but not setuid /tmp mountpoint=/tmp,exec=on,setuid=off # Do not mount /usr so that 'base' files go to the BEROOT /usr mountpoint=/usr,canmount=off # Ports tree /usr/ports setuid=off # Source tree /usr/src # Create /var and friends /var mountpoint=/var,canmount=off /var/audit exec=off,setuid=off /var/crash exec=off,setuid=off /var/log exec=off,setuid=off /var/mail atime=on /var/tmp setuid=off The first column is the name of the dataset to be created as part of the ZFSBOOT_POOL_NAME pool and the remainder of each line contains the options to be set on each dataset. If multiple options are given, they can be separated by either commas or whitespace; everything following a pound/hash character is ignored as a comment. BUILDING AUTOMATIC INSTALL MEDIA If building automatic install media, use tar to extract a release ISO: mkdir release-media tar -C release-media -xvf FreeBSD-13.0-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso Then place a script as above in etc/installerconfig This directory can then be used directly as an NFS root for diskless(8) installations or it can be rebuilt into an ISO image using the release scripts in /usr/src/release. For example, on amd64: sh /usr/src/release/amd64/mkisoimages.sh -b '13_0_RELEASE_AMD64_CD' output.iso release-media HISTORY This version of bsdinstall first appeared in FreeBSD 9.0. AUTHORS Nathan Whitehorn <nwhitehorn@FreeBSD.org> Devin Teske <dteske@FreeBSD.org> Allan Jude <allanjude@FreeBSD.org> FreeBSD 15.0 October 3, 2025 BSDINSTALL(8)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | TARGETS | ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES | SCRIPTING | HISTORY | AUTHORS
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