2012-01-14.


Since FreeBSD's latest (9.0-RELEASE) seems to have troubles (unfinished mirrors? strange network behaviour?)
so that the new friendly installer is unintelligible, it seems necessary to learn the direct way of setting
it up without dependence on a TUI installer.

Manual pages for relevant commands can be found at e.g.
  http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=$CMD&sektion=8
where $CMD is e.g. newfs


# fdisk:   PC-"slice" (DOS partition-table) utility
# one could just as well use "linux" fdisk if the idea is simply to provide a single BSD partition
#  -- examples:

fdisk /dev/ad0    # list partition table of primary disk
fdisk -t -v -f conffile /dev/ad0  # test-run of setting partitions from a config file
fdisk -BI /dev/ad0   # initialise (wipe!) partition table, and make new one dedicated to freebsd



# bsdlabel:  labelling of a BSD (dos-id=0xA5 (165)) slice (or dedicated disk) into bsd partitions
# also can install boot-code into the BSD slice

bsdlabel /dev/ad0    # list current labelling
bsdlabel -A -m amd64 /dev/ad0   # list (as above) including "historical" parts of the label and explicit machine-type
-n switch: "pretend" (test-run: no modification)
-f switch: operate on file, not block-device

bsdlabel /dev/ad0 >saved-label   # save details
bsdlabel -R /dev/ad1  saved-label   # restore saved details (to other disk, in this example)

bsdlabel -w /dev/ad0   # set default labelling (single "c" 'overlap' partition, with "a" using all its space)
bsdlabel -e /dev/ad0  # interactive edit of current label, followed by write 

format of file edited during "-e" option of bsdlabel:
	letter:  size  offset  fstype  [fsize bsize bps/cpg]
where: letter is c for the overlap (whole slice), others are a--h (as solaris etc),
	size -- default sectors, else K,M,G prefixes, or % (percent free), or * (remainder)
	offset is start of partition, or * for automatic (previousend+1)
	fstype is "unused" "swap" "4.2BSD" (for ufs) or "vinum" (vol-man)
	others can be used for 4.2BSD partitions, but aren't needed 
         (see "newfs" options for fragment-size, block-size, cyls-per-group)

bsdlabel -B /dev/ad0   # install boot code from default /boot/boot
bsdlabel -B -b myboot /dev/ad0   # install boot code from file "myboot"


# gpart:  disk-partitioning "GEOM" class...
purpose: partitioning, in particular when a partition is to be >2TB (limit of bsdlabel method)


# gmirror:   mirrored devices (raid1, only)
gmirror list
gmirror status
 ... many more

# newfs:  basically, mkfs.ufs
newfs /dev/ad0s1a   # new filesystem on 1st bsd-partition of second dos-slice
newfs -L USR -O 2 -U /dev/ad0s1a  # ufs2(default) with soft-updates, labelled 'USR'
newfs -m 5 -r 256 -o time -g 1024 -b 8192 -E -p a /dev/ad0s1  
  # 5% free, reserve 256 sectors at end, expect 1K mean filesize, set 8K blocks, erase partition, 
  # and use partition 'a' (-p a /dev/ad0s1  is same as /dev/ad0s1a, useful if the latter not shown in /dev)




# from:  http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/articles/remote-install/installation.html
# an example of using these commands for a mirrored pair of disks

fdisk -BI /dev/ad0 
fdisk -BI /dev/ad1

bsdlabel -wB /dev/ad0s1
bsdlabel -wB /dev/ad1s1
bsdlabel -e /dev/ad0s1

bsdlabel /dev/ad0s1 > /tmp/bsdlabel.txt
bsdlabel -R /dev/ad1s1 /tmp/bsdlabel.txt

gmirror label root /dev/ad[01]s1a
gmirror label var /dev/ad[01]s1d
gmirror label usr /dev/ad[01]s1e
gmirror label -F swap /dev/ad[01]s1b

newfs /dev/mirror/root 
newfs /dev/mirror/var
newfs /dev/mirror/usr




# so a basic recipe is:

boot from removal medium (USB, CD, ....)

(fdisk, if not already done from another system to make bsd slice)

bsdlabel -wB <BSDSLICEDEV>

newfs [OPTS] <ROOTPART>
(likewise other partitions)

mount <ROOTPART> /mnt
mkdir /mnt/usr && mount <USRPART> /mnt/usr
(likewise /tmp etc)

cd /mnt/
for f in /usr/freebsd-dist/*.txz; do xz -d <$f | tar -x -v -f - ; done 

(consider the following for an old system -- as of 9.0 there's already a /boot/kernel)
cp -Rp /boot/GENERIC/* /boot/kernel/

(might like to take latest boot-code? cp /mnt/boot/boot /tmp/b, then 
after unmounting all the partitions can run bsdlabel -B -b /tmp/b <BSDSLICEDEV> ; 
this can't run if the slice is in use)

Edit /etc/rc.conf, /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/fstab  (see live-cd/usb system's fstab, and etc/defaults/rc.conf 

Can use  chroot /mnt   to avoid mistakes of editing wrong /etc !
Might care to set root password and users.
(Note: root pw in new system conveniently defaults to empty.)

Then unmount all, and reboot!