sysinstall(8)

NAME

sysinstall - system installation and configuration tool

SYNOPSIS

sysinstall [var=value] [function] [...]

DESCRIPTION

The sysinstall utility is used for installing and configur
ing FreeBSD
systems. It is the first utility invoked by the FreeBSD in
stallation
boot floppy and is also available as /usr/sbin/sysinstall on
newly
installed FreeBSD systems for use in later configuring the
system.
The sysinstall utility is generally invoked without argu
ments for the
default behavior, where the main installation/configuration
menu is presented.
On those occasions where it is deemed necessary to invoke a
subsystem of
sysinstall directly, however, it is also possible to do so
by naming the
appropriate function entry points on the command line.
Since this action
is essentially identical to running an installation script,
each commandline argument corresponding to a line of script, the reader
is encouraged
to read the section on scripting for more information on
this feature.

NOTES

The sysinstall utility is essentially nothing more than a
monolithic C
program with the ability to write MBRs and disk labels
(through the services of the libdisk(3) library) and install distributions
or packages
onto new and existing FreeBSD systems. It also contains
some extra
intelligence for running as a replacement for init(8) when
it is invoked
by the FreeBSD installation boot procedure. It assumes very
little in
the way of additional utility support and performs most file
system operations by calling the relevant syscalls (such as mount(2))
directly.
The sysinstall utility currently uses the dialog(3) library
to do user
interaction with simple ANSI line graphics, color support
for which is
enabled by either running on a syscons VTY or some other
color-capable
terminal emulator (newer versions of xterm will support col
or when using
the ``xterm-color'' termcap entry).
This product is currently at the end of its life cycle and
will eventually be replaced.

RUNNING SCRIPTS

The sysinstall utility may be either driven interactively
through its
various internal menus or run in batch mode, driven by an
external
script. Such a script may be loaded and executed in one of
3 ways:
LOAD_CONFIG_FILE
If sysinstall is compiled with LOAD_CONFIG_FILE set
in the environment (or in the Makefile) to some value, then
that value will
be used as the filename to automatically look for
and load when
sysinstall starts up and with no user interaction
required. This
option is aimed primarily at large sites who wish to
create a
single prototype install for multiple machines with
largely identical configurations and/or installation options.
MAIN MENU
If sysinstall is run interactively, that is to say
in the default
manner, it will bring up a main menu which contains
a "load config file" option. Selecting this option will prompt
for the name
of a script file which it then will attempt to load
from a DOS or
UFS formatted floppy.
COMMAND LINE
Each command line argument is treated as a script
directive when
sysinstall is run in multi-user mode. Execution
ends either by
explicit request (e.g. calling the shutdown direc
tive), upon
reaching the end of the argument list or on error.
For example:
/usr/sbin/sysinstall _ftpPath=ftp://ziggy/pub/ medi
aSetFTP configPackages
Would initialize sysinstall for FTP installation me
dia (using the
server `ziggy') and then bring up the package in
stallation editor, exiting when finished.

SCRIPT SYNTAX

A script is a list of one or more directives, each directive
taking the
form of:
var=value
function
or #somecomment
Where var=value is the assignment of some internal
sysinstall variable,
e.g. "ftpPass=FuNkYChiKn", and function is the name of an
internal
sysinstall function, e.g. "mediaSetFTP", and #comment is a
single-line
comment for documentation purposes (ignored by sysinstall).
Each directive must be by itself on a single line, functions taking
their arguments
by examining known variable names. This requires that you
be sure to
assign the relevant variables before calling a function
which requires
them.
The noError variable can be assigned before each directive:
this will
cause any error detected while processing the directive it
self to be
ignored. The value of noError will automatically reset to
the default
"unassigned" every time a directive is processed.
When and where a function depends on the settings of one or
more variables will be noted in the following table:
Function Glossary:
configAnonFTP
Invoke the Anonymous FTP configuration menu.
Variables: None
configRouter
Select which routing daemon you wish to use, poten
tially loading
any required 3rd-party routing daemons as necessary.
Variables:
router can be set to the name of the desired rout
ing daemon,
e.g. ``routed'' or ``gated'', otherwise it
is prompted
for.
configNFSServer
Configure host as an NFS server.
Variables: None
configNTP
Configure host as a user of the Network Time Proto
col.
Variables:
ntpdate_flags
The flags to ntpdate(8), that is to say the
name of the
server to sync from.
configPCNFSD
Configure host to support PC NFS.
Variables:
pcnfsd_pkg
The name of the PCNFSD package to load if
necessary
(defaults to hard coded version).
configPackages
Bring up the interactive package management menu.
Variables: None
configUsers
Add users and/or groups to the system.
Variables: None
diskPartitionEditor
Invokes the disk partition (MBR) editor.
Variables:
geometry
The disk geometry, as a cyls/heads/sectors
formatted
string. Default: no change to geometry.
partition
Set to disk partitioning type or size, its
value being
free in order to use only remaining free
space for
FreeBSD, all to use the entire disk for
FreeBSD but maintain a proper partition table, existing to
use an existing
FreeBSD partition (first found), exclusive to
use the disk
in ``dangerously dedicated'' mode or, final
ly, somenumber
to allocate somenumber blocks of available
free space to a
new FreeBSD partition. Default: Interactive
mode.
bootManager
is set to one of boot to signify the instal
lation of a
boot manager, standard to signify installa
tion of a "standard" non-boot MGR DOS MBR or none to indi
cate that no
change to the boot manager is desired. De
fault: none.
diskInteractive
If set, bring up the interactive disk parti
tion editor.
Note: Nothing is actually written to disk by this
function, an
explicit call to diskPartitionWrite being required
for that to
happen.
diskPartitionWrite
Causes any pending MBR changes (typically from the
diskPartitionEditor function) to be written out.
Variables: None
diskLabelEditor
Invokes the disk label editor. This is a bit trick
ier from a
script since you need to essentially label every
thing inside each
FreeBSD (type 0xA5) partition created by the
diskPartitionEditor
function, and that requires knowing a few rules
about how things
are laid out. When creating a script to automati
cally allocate
disk space and partition it up, it is suggested that
you first
perform the installation interactively at least once
and take
careful notes as to what the slice names will be,
then and only
then hardwiring them into the script.
For example, let's say you have a SCSI disk on which
you have
created a new FreeBSD partition in slice 2 (your DOS
partition
residing in slice 1). The slice name would be da0s2
for the
whole FreeBSD partition (da0s1 being your DOS prima
ry partition).
Now let's further assume that you have 500MB in this
partition
and you want to sub-partition that space into root,
swap, var and
usr file systems for FreeBSD. Your invocation of
the
diskLabelEditor function might involve setting the
following
variables:
da0s2-1=ufs 40960 /
A 20MB root file system (all sizes are in 512
byte
blocks).
da0s2-2=swap 131072 /
A 64MB swap partition.
da0s2-3=ufs 204800 /var
A 100MB /var file system.
da0s2-4=ufs 0 /usr 1
With the balance of free space (around 316MB)
going to the
/usr file system and with soft-updates en
abled (the argument following the mount point, if non-zero,
means to set
the soft updates flag).
One can also use the diskLabelEditor for mounting or
erasing
existing partitions as well as creating new ones.
Using the previous example again, let's say that we also wanted
to mount our
DOS partition and make sure that an /etc/fstab entry
is created
for it in the new installation. Before calling the
diskLabelEditor function, we simply add an addition
al line:

da0s1=/dos_c N
before the call. This tells the label editor that
you want to
mount the first slice on /dos_c and not to attempt
to newfs it
(not that sysinstall would attempt this for a DOS
partition in
any case, but it could just as easily be an existing
UFS partition being named here and the 2nd field is non-op
tional).
You can also set the diskInteractive variable to re
quest that the
disk label editor use an interactive dialog to par
tition the disk
instead of using variables to explicitly layout the
disk as
described above.
Note: No file system data is actually written to
disk until an
explicit call to diskLabelCommit is made.
diskLabelCommit
Writes out all pending disklabel information and
creates and/or
mounts any file systems which have requests pending
from the
diskLabelEditor function.
Variables: None
distReset
Resets all selected distributions to the empty set
(no distributions selected).
Variables: None
distSetCustom
Allows the selection of a custom distribution set
(e.g. not just
one of the existing "canned" sets) with no user in
teraction.
Variables:
dists List of distributions to load. Possible
distribution
values are:
base The base binary distribution.
doc Miscellaneous documentation
games Games
manpages Manual pages (unformatted)
catpages Pre-formatted manual pages
proflibs Profiled libraries for developers.
dict Dictionary information (for tools
like spell).
info GNU info files and other extra
docs.
lib32 (amd64 only) 32-bit runtime com
patibility
libraries.
ports The ports collection.
ssecure /usr/src/secure
sbase /usr/src/[top level files]
scontrib /usr/src/contrib
sgnu /usr/src/gnu
setc /usr/src/etc
sgames /usr/src/games
sinclude /usr/src/include
skrb5 /usr/src/kerberos5
slib /usr/src/lib
slibexec /usr/src/libexec
srelease /usr/src/release
srescue /usr/src/rescue
sbin /usr/src/bin
ssbin /usr/src/sbin
sshare /usr/src/share
ssys /usr/src/sys
subin /usr/src/usr.bin
susbin /usr/src/usr.sbin
ssmailcf /usr/src/usr.sbin/sendmail/cf
Xbin X.Org client applications.
Xlib X.Org libraries.
Xman X.Org manual pages.
Xdoc X.Org protocol and library docu
mentation.
Xprog X.Org imake distribution.
Xsrv X.Org X server.
Xnest X.Org nested X server.
Xprt X.Org print server.
Xvfb X.Org virtual frame-buffer X serv
er.
Xfmsc X.Org miscellaneous font set.
Xf75 X.Org 75DPI font set.
Xf100 X.Org 100DPI font set.
Xfcyr X.Org Cyrillic font set.
Xft1 X.Org Type 1 font set.
Xftt X.Org TrueType font set.
Xfs X.Org font server.
distSetDeveloper
Selects the standard Developer's distribution set.
Variables: None
distSetXDeveloper
Selects the standard X Developer's distribution set.
Variables: None
distSetKernDeveloper
Selects the standard kernel Developer's distribution
set.
Variables: None
distSetUser
Selects the standard user distribution set.
Variables: None
distSetXUser
Selects the standard X user's distribution set.
Variables: None
distSetMinimum
Selects the very minimum distribution set.
Variables: None
distSetEverything
Selects the full whack - all available distribu
tions.
Variables: None
distSetSrc
Interactively select source subcomponents.
Variables: None
distSetXOrg
Interactively select X.Org subcomponents.
Variables: None
distExtractAll
Install all currently selected distributions (re
quires that media
device also be selected).
Variables: None
docBrowser
Install (if necessary) an HTML documentation browser
and go to
the HTML documentation submenu.
Variables:
browserPackage
The name of the browser package to try and
install as
necessary. Defaults to latest links pack
age.
browserBinary
The name of the browser binary itself (if
overriding the
browserPackage variable). Defaults to
links.
installCommit
Commit any and all pending changes to disk. This
function is
essentially shorthand for a number of more granular
"commit"
functions.
Variables: None
installExpress
Start an "express" installation, asking few ques
tions of the
user.
Variables: None
installStandard
Start a "standard" installation, the most user
friendly installation type available.
Variables: None
installUpgrade
Start an upgrade installation.
Variables: None
installFixitHoloShell
Start up the "emergency holographic shell" over on
VTY4 if running as init. This will also happen automatically
as part of the
installation process unless noHoloShell is set.
Variables: None
installFixitCDROM
Go into "fixit" mode, assuming a live file system
CDROM currently
in the drive.
Variables: None
installFixitFloppy
Go into "fixit" mode, assuming an available fixit
floppy disk
(user will be prompted for it).
Variables: None
installFilesystems
Do just the file system initialization part of an
install.
Variables: None
installVarDefaults
Initialize all variables to their defaults, overrid
ing any previous settings.
Variables: None
loadConfig
Sort of like an #include statement, it allows you to
load one
configuration file from another.
Variables:
configFile
The fully qualified pathname of the file to
load.
mediaOpen
If a media device is set, mount it.
Variables: None
mediaClose
If a media device is open, close it.
Variables: None
mediaSetCDROM
Select a FreeBSD CDROM as the installation media.
Variables: None
mediaSetFloppy
Select a pre-made floppy installation set as the in
stallation
media.
Variables: None
mediaSetDOS
Select an existing DOS primary partition as the in
stallation
media. The first primary partition found is used
(e.g. C:).
Variables: None
mediaSetTape
Select a tape device as the installation media.
Variables: None
mediaSetFTP
Select an FTP site as the installation media.
Variables:
hostname
The name of the host being installed (non
optional).
domainname
The domain name of the host being installed
(optional).
defaultrouter
The default router for this host (non-op
tional).
netDev Which host interface to use (ed0 or ep0, for
example.
Non-optional).
netInteractive
If set, bring up the interactive network
setup form even
if all relevant configuration variables are
already set
(optional).
ipaddr The IP address for the selected host inter
face (non
optional).
netmask
The netmask for the selected host interface
(nonoptional).
_ftpPath
The fully qualified URL of the FTP site con
taining the
FreeBSD distribution you are interested in,
e.g.
ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/.
mediaSetFTPActive
Alias for mediaSetFTP using "active" FTP transfer
mode.
Variables: Same as for mediaSetFTP.
mediaSetFTPPassive
Alias for mediaSetFTP using "passive" FTP transfer
mode.
Variables: Same as for mediaSetFTP.
mediaSetHTTP
Alias for mediaSetFTP using an HTTP proxy.
Variables: See mediaSetFTP, plus
_httpPath
The proxy to use (host:port) (non-optional).
mediaSetUFS
Select an existing UFS partition (mounted with the
label editor)
as the installation media.
Variables:
ufs full /path to directory containing the
FreeBSD distribu
tion you are interested in.
mediaSetNFS

Variables:
hostname
The name of the host being installed (non
optional).
domainname
The domain name of the host being installed
(optional).
defaultrouter
The default router for this host (non-op
tional).
netDev Which host interface to use (ed0 or ep0, for
example.
Non-optional).
netInteractive
If set, bring up the interactive network
setup form even
if all relevant configuration variables are
already set
(optional).
ipaddr The IP address for the selected host inter
face (non
optional).
netmask
The netmask for the selected host interface
(nonoptional).
nfs full hostname:/path specification for direc
tory contain
ing the FreeBSD distribution you are inter
ested in.
mediaSetFTPUserPass

Variables:
ftpUser
The username to log in as on the ftp server
site.
Default: ftp
ftpPass
The password to use for this username on the
ftp server
site. Default: user@host
mediaSetCPIOVerbosity

Variables:
cpioVerbose
Can be used to set the verbosity of cpio ex
tractions to
low, medium or high.
mediaGetType
Interactively get the user to specify some type of
media.
Variables: None
optionsEditor
Invoke the interactive options editor.
Variables: None
packageAdd
Try to fetch and add a package to the system (re
quires that a
media type be set),
Variables:
package
The name of the package to add, e.g.
bash-1.14.7 or
ncftp-2.4.2.
addGroup
Invoke the interactive group editor.
Variables: None
addUser
Invoke the interactive user editor.
Variables: None
shutdown
Stop the script and terminate sysinstall.
Variables: None
system Execute an arbitrary command with system(3)

Variables:
command
The name of the command to execute. When
running from a
boot floppy, very minimal expectations
should be made as
to what is available until/unless a rela
tively full system installation has just been done.
tcpMenuSelect
Configure a network device.
Variables: Same as for mediaSetFTP except that
_ftpPath is not
used.

DISTRIBUTION MEDIA

The following files can be used to affect the operation of
sysinstall
when used during initial system installation.
cdrom.inf A text file of properties, listed one
per line, that
describe the contents of the media in
use. The syntax for each line is simply ``property =
value''.
Currently, only the following properties
are recognized.
CD_VERSION This property
should be set to
the FreeBSD version
on the current media volume.
For example,
``CD_VERSION =
5.3''.
CD_MACHINE_ARCH This property
should be set to
the architecture of
the contents
on this volume.
This property
is normally only
used with
FreeBSD products
that contain
CDs for different
architectures,
to provide better
error messages
if users try to in
stall Alpha
packages on an i386
machine.
For example,
``CD_MACHINE_ARCH =
alpha''.
CD_VOLUME In a multi-volume
collection
(such as the FreeB
SD 4-CD set),
the ports/INDEX
file on each
disc should contain
the full
package index for
the set. The
last field of the
INDEX file
denotes which vol
ume the package
appears on, and the
CD_VOLUME
property here de
fines the volume
ID of the current
disc.
packages/INDEX The package index file. Each package is
listed on a
separate line with additional meta-data
such as the
required dependencies. This index is
generated by
``make index'' from the ports(7) collec
tion. When
multi-volume support is enabled, an ad
ditional field
should be added to each line indicating
which media
volume contains the given package.
For information about building a full release of FreeBSD,
please see
release(7).

FILES

This utility may edit the contents of /etc/rc.conf,
/etc/hosts, and
/etc/resolv.conf as necessary to reflect changes in the net
work configuration.

SEE ALSO

If you have a reasonably complete source tree online, take a
look at
/usr/src/usr.sbin/sysinstall/install.cfg for a sample in
stallation
script.

HISTORY

This version of sysinstall first appeared in FreeBSD 2.0.

AUTHORS

Jordan K. Hubbard <jkh@FreeBSD.org>

BUGS

This utility is a prototype which lasted several years past
its expiration date and is greatly in need of death.
BSD June 14, 2005
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