Pre-installation Tasks

FreeBSD Handbook
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2.2.1 Inventory Your Computer

Before installing FreeBSD you should attempt to inventory the components in your computer. The FreeBSD installation routines will show you the components (hard disks, network cards, CDROM drives, and so forth) with their model number and manufacturer. FreeBSD will also attempt to determine the correct configuration for these devices, which includes information about IRQ and IO port usage. Due to the vagaries of PC hardware this process is not always completely successful, and you may need to correct FreeBSD's determination of your configuration.

If you already have another operating system installed, such as Windows or Linux, it is a good idea to use the facilities provided by those operating systems to see how your hardware is already configured. If you are really not sure what settings an expansion card is using, you may find it printed on the card itself. Popular IRQ numbers are 3, 5, and 7, and IO port addresses are normally written as hexadecimal numbers, such as 0x330.

We recommend you print or write down this information before installing FreeBSD. It may help to use a table, like this:

Table 2-1. Sample Device Inventory

Device Name	IRQ	IO port(s)	Notes
First hard disk	N/A	N/A	4 GB, made by Seagate, first IDE master
CDROM	N/A	N/A	First IDE slave
Second hard disk	N/A	N/A	2GB, made by IBM, second IDE master
First IDE controller	14	0x1f0
Network card	N/A	N/A	Intel 10/100
Modem	N/A	N/A	3Com 56K faxmodem, on COM1
...

2.2.2 Backup Your Data

If the computer you will be installing FreeBSD on contains valuable data then ensure you have it backed up, and that you have tested the backups before installing FreeBSD. The FreeBSD installation routine will prompt you several times before writing any data to your disk, but once that process has started it cannot be undone.

2.2.3 Decide Where to Install FreeBSD

If you want FreeBSD to use all your disk, then there is nothing more to concern yourself with at this point -- you can skip to the next section.

However, if you need FreeBSD to co-exist with other operating systems then you need to have a rough understanding of how data is laid out on the disk, and how this affects you.

2.2.3.1 Disk Layouts for the i386

A PC disk can be divided into discrete chunks. These chunks are called partitions. By design, the PC only supports four partitions per disk. These partitions are called primary partitions. To work around this limitation and allow more than four partitions, a new partition type was created, the extended partition. A disk may contain only one extended partition. Special partitions, called logical partitions, can be created inside this extended partition.

Each partition has a partition ID, which is a number used to identify the type of data on the partition. FreeBSD partitions have the partition ID 165.

In general, each operating system that you use will identify partitions in a particular way. For example, DOS, and its descendants, like Windows, assign each primary and logical partition a drive letter, starting with C:.

FreeBSD must be installed into a primary partition. FreeBSD can keep all its data, including any files that you create, on this one partition. However, if you have multiple disks, then you can create a FreeBSD partition on all, or some, of them. When you install FreeBSD, you must have one partition available. This might be a blank partition that you have prepared, or it might be an existing partition that contains data that you no longer care about.

If you are already using all the partitions on all your disks, then you will have to free one of them for FreeBSD using the tools provided by the other operating systems you use (e.g., fdisk on DOS or Windows).

If you have a spare partition then you can use that. However, you may need to shrink one or more of your existing partitions first.

A minimal installation of FreeBSD takes as little as 100 MB of disk space. However, that is a very minimal install, leaving almost no space for your own files. A more realistic minimum is 250 MB without a graphical environment, and 350 MB or more if you want a graphical user interface. If you intend to install a lot of third party software as well, then you will need more space.

You can use a commercial tool such as Partition Magic to resize your partitions to make space for FreeBSD. The tools directory on the CDROM contains two free software tools which can carry out this task, FIPS and PResizer. Documentation for both of these is in the same directory.

Warning: Incorrect use of these tools can delete the data on your disk. Be sure that you have recent, working backups before using them.

Example 2-1. Using an existing partition unchanged

Suppose that you have a computer with a single 4 GB disk that already has a version of Windows installed, and you have split the disk into two drive letters, C: and D:, each of which is 2 GB in size. You have 1 GB of data on C:, and 0.5 GB of data on D:.

This means that your disk has two partitions on it, one per drive letter. You can copy all your existing data from D: to C:, which will free up the second partition, ready for FreeBSD.

Example 2-2. Shrinking an existing partition

Suppose that you have a computer with a single 4 GB disk, that already has a version of Windows installed. When you installed Windows you created one large partition, giving you a C: drive that is 4 GB in size. You are currently using 1.5 GB of space, and want FreeBSD to have 2 GB of space.

In order to install FreeBSD you will need to either:

Backup your Windows data, and then reinstall Windows, asking for a 2 GB partition at install time.
Use one of the tools such as Partition Magic, described above, to shrink your Windows partition.

2.2.3.2 Disk Layouts for the Alpha

You will need a dedicated disk for FreeBSD on the Alpha. It is not possible to share a disk with another operating system at this time. Depending on the specific Alpha machine you have, this disk can either be a SCSI disk or an IDE disk, as long as your machine is capable of booting from it.

Following the conventions of the Digital / Compaq manuals all SRM input is shown in uppercase. SRM is case insensitive.

To find the names and types of disks in your machine, use the SHOW DEVICE command from the SRM console prompt:

    >>>show device
    dka0.0.0.4.0               DKA0           TOSHIBA CD-ROM XM-57  3476
    dkc0.0.0.1009.0            DKC0                       RZ1BB-BS  0658
    dkc100.1.0.1009.0          DKC100             SEAGATE ST34501W  0015
    dva0.0.0.0.1               DVA0
    ewa0.0.0.3.0               EWA0              00-00-F8-75-6D-01
    pkc0.7.0.1009.0            PKC0                  SCSI Bus ID 7  5.27
    pqa0.0.0.4.0               PQA0                       PCI EIDE
    pqb0.0.1.4.0               PQB0                       PCI EIDE

This example is from a Digital Personal Workstation 433au and shows three disks attached to the machine. The first is a CDROM drive called DKA0 and the other two are disks and are called DKC0 and DKC100 respectively.

Disks with names of the form DKx are SCSI disks. For example DKA100 refers to a SCSI with SCSI target ID 1 on the first SCSI bus (A), whereas DKC300 refers to a SCSI disk with SCSI ID 3 on the third SCSI bus (C). Devicename PKx refers to the SCSI host bus adapter. As seen in the SHOW DEVICE output SCSI CDROM drives are treated as any other SCSI hard disk drive.

IDE disks have names similar to DQx, while PQx is the associated IDE controller.

2.2.4 Collect Your Network Configuration Details

If you intend to connect to a network as part of your FreeBSD installation (for example, if you will be installing from an FTP site, or an NFS server), then you need to know your network configuration. You will be prompted for this information during the installation so that FreeBSD can connect to the network to complete the install.

2.2.4.1 Connecting to an Ethernet Network, or Cable/DSL Modem

If you connect to an Ethernet network, or you have an Internet connection via cable or DSL, then you will need the following information:

IP address.
IP address of the default gateway.
Hostname.
DNS server IP addresses.

If you do not know this information, then ask your system administrator or service provider. They may say that this information is assigned automatically, using DHCP. If so, make a note of this.

2.2.4.2 Connecting Using a Modem

If you dial up to an ISP using a regular modem then you can still install FreeBSD over the Internet, it will just take a very long time.

You will need to know:

The phone number to dial for your ISP.
The COM: port your modem is connected to.
The username and password for your ISP account.

2.2.5 Check for FreeBSD Errata

Although the FreeBSD project strives to ensure that each release of FreeBSD is as stable as possible, bugs do occasionally creep into the process. On very rare occasions those bugs affect the installation process. As these problems are discovered and fixed they are noted in the FreeBSD Errata, posted on the FreeBSD web site. You should check the errata before installing to make sure that there are no late-breaking problems which you should be aware of.

Information about all the releases, including the errata for each release, can be found on the release information section of the FreeBSD web site.

2.2.6 Obtain the FreeBSD installation files

The FreeBSD installation process can install FreeBSD from files located in the any of the following places:

Local media

A CDROM
A DOS partition on the same computer
A tape
Floppy disks

Network

An FTP site, going through a firewall, or using an HTTP proxy, as necessary
An NFS server
A dedicated parallel or serial connection

If you have purchased FreeBSD on CD or DVD then you already have everything you need, and should proceed to the next section (Preparing the Boot Media).

If you have not obtained the FreeBSD installation files you should skip ahead to Section 2.13 which explains how to prepare to install FreeBSD from any of the above. After reading that section, you should come back here, and read on to Section 2.2.7.

2.2.7 Prepare the Boot Media

The FreeBSD installation process is started by booting your computer into the FreeBSD installer--it is not a program you run within another operating system. Your computer normally boots using the operating system installed on your hard disk, but it can also be configured to use a ``bootable'' floppy disk. It may also be able to boot from a disk in the CDROM drive.

Tip: If you have FreeBSD on CDROM or DVD (either one you purchased, or you prepared yourself), and your computer allows you to boot from the CDROM or DVD (typically a BIOS option called ``Boot Order'' or similar) then you can skip this section. The FreeBSD CDROM and DVD images are bootable and can be used to install FreeBSD without any other special preparation.

To create boot floppy images, follow these steps:

Acquire the Boot Floppy Images

The boot discs are available on your installation media in the floppies/ directory, and can also be downloaded from the floppies directory for the i386 architecture and from this floppies directory for the Alpha architecture.

The floppy images have a .flp extension. The floppies/ directory contains a number of different images, and the ones you will need to use depends on the version of FreeBSD you are installing, and in some cases, the hardware you are installing to. In most cases you will need two files, kern.flp and mfsroot.flp, but check README.TXT in the same directory to be sure.

Important: Your FTP program must use binary mode to download these disk images. Some web browsers have been known to use text (or ASCII) mode, which will be apparent if you cannot boot from the disks.
Prepare the Floppy Disks

You must prepare one floppy disk per image file you had to download. It is imperative that these disks are free from defects. The easiest way to test this is to format the disks for yourself. Do not trust pre-formatted floppies.

Important: If you try to install FreeBSD and the installation program crashes, freezes, or otherwise misbehaves, one of the first things to suspect is the floppies. Try writing the floppy image files to some other disks and try again.
Write the Image Files to the Floppy Disks

The .flp files are not regular files you copy to the disk. Instead, they are images of the complete contents of the disk. This means that you cannot use commands like DOS' copy to write the files. Instead, you must use specific tools to write the images directly to the disk.

If you are creating the floppies on a computer running DOS/Windows, then we provide a tool to do this called fdimage.

If you are using the floppies from the CDROM, and your CDROM is the E: drive, then you would run this:
```
    E:\> tools\fdimage floppies\kern.flp A:
```
Repeat this command for each .flp file, replacing the floppy disk each time, being sure to label the disks with the name of the file that you copied to them. Adjust the command line as necessary, depending on where you have placed the .flp files. If you do not have the CDROM, then fdimage can be downloaded from the tools directory on the FreeBSD FTP site.

If you are writing the floppies on a Unix system (such as another FreeBSD system) you can use the dd(1) command to write the image files directly to disk. On FreeBSD, you would run:
```
    # dd if=kern.flp of=/dev/fd0
```
On FreeBSD, /dev/fd0 refers to the first floppy disk (the A: drive). /dev/fd1 would be the B: drive, and so on. Other Unix variants might have different names for the floppy disk devices, and you will need to check the documentation for the system as necessary.

You are now ready to start installing FreeBSD.