Full GBSD Installation from Terminal?

[Monti]

Hi,

I am wondering if it is possible to install from terminal using the 'c' option at Live-DVD boot instead of using the full GUI interface?

I have had some troubles installing from the GUI, and have been trying to find some workarounds where my last try was to manually build up the disk with gpart making a GPT partition table. Meaning adding boot partition, installing bootstrap code, then "gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -l ssdrootfs -b 1m -s 24025M ada0" and so on. I have even mounted the partitions to /mnt after doing "newfs -U -t /dev/gpt/ssdrootfs" (and so on) before starting gbi with sudo, but when coming to Partition Manager only the partitions themselves shows up. No finished setup with mount points are shown even if all partitions are ready to go. So I would now like to try installation from terminal, if possible that is.

Thanks

[ASX]

Hi,

no, there is no support to perform a full manual installation, may be in future, but not now.

~~~~

viewtopic.php?f=59&t=361
about your previously failed installation, be sure the first three partitions are as follow (for GPT):

BOOT
/
SWAP

The above setup is required from our installer tools and related backends, and should be checked from the installer ...
but there has been a few cases where the incorrect layout was not properly detected.

[Monti]

Thank you very much for your reply ASX, and sorry for mine being late.

Regarding manual installation; good to know.

Regarding manual partitioning I have been following this SSD guide provided and written by wblock@ over at FreeBSD: http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/ssd.html

In short I did this:

Code: Select all

# gpart create -s gpt ada0
# gpart add -t freebsd-boot -s 512k -a4k -l ssdboot ada0
# gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptboot -i1 ada0
# gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -l ssdrootfs -b 1m -s 20025M ada0
# gpart add -t freebsd-ufs -l ssdhome -a 1m -s 32G ada0

Then:

Code: Select all

# newfs -U -t /dev/gpt/ssdrootfs
# newfs -U -t /dev/gpt/ssdhome

Instead of using /tmp and SWAP partitions I followed wblock@'s SSD recommendations thinking of using this with a successful installation:
For SWAP:

Code: Select all

# mkdir /usr/swap
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/usr/swap/swap bs=128k count=32768

And for both /tmp and SWAP in fstab:

Code: Select all

tmpfs                   /tmp            tmpfs   rw,mode=01777   0       0
md99            none            swap    sw,file=/usr/swap/swap  0       0

The question though, is if the GBSD installation will accept a partition setup where no SWAP partition is present? If you have something to comment on what I did I would very much appreciate your advice.

I have tried the above with Expert Mode for a PC-BSD installation which worked very well, but of course, then I found out that PC-BSD don't even allow UFS with regular updates So this is one of the reasons I would very much like to have GBSD up and running. Clean MATE with Gtk are the other reasons...

Thanks

[Monti]

OK. I found this thread viewtopic.php?f=59&t=337 where ASX mentions limitations of the partition-editor. So I guess I got my answer there. Because of the "4.0" I have previously overlooked the thread.

The reason for asking so specific is that there is some work to do, so I needed to be sure before I am doing another round.

[ASX]

Hi Monti,

yes, we still have installer/partition editor problems, partly because there is an excess of checks, which are preventing the install even when a legitimate partition layout is requested.

We are working on it, this my primary activity these days, in fact I'm building 2/3 test ISO per day and performing the related tests, it is a rather time consuming process. Hopefully we will get there soon.

About your request and the link you posted:

- GhostBSD installer allow you to choose the filesystem type (UFS, UFS+SU, UFS+J, UFS+SUJ)

- Alignment: I already request a minimum alignment of 4K, but after reading your post I'm now inclined to provide a definitive solution by asking the alignment value directly in partition editor, that should fit each own requirements.

- Trim: trim function is enabled by default, in GhostBSD (and in freebsd too, IIRC)

- Swap: yes, you can avoid a swap partition and it should work.

Due to the limitation in partition editor/installer, right now a separate /home would not work, additionally, considering the limited sizes you proposed for your SSD configuration, I would suggest to make a single '/' partition and avoid the separate /home.

The above doesn't fit 100% your requirements, but it should be close enough, leaving out only the "alignments".

[Monti]

Hello ASX!

Thank you very much for your follow up and the additional details. I really appreciate it.

Regarding asking about alignment value in the partition editor I think it is a great idea.

I understand how time consuming your work must be. I would like to add that the more I have come to understand what GhostBSD is compared to other distributions, the more I appreciate the project. So thank you big time for your efforts.

Monti