FreeBSD Man Pages

sysinstall(8)

NAME

     sysinstall -- system installation and configuration tool

SYNOPSIS

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

DESCRIPTION

     The sysinstall utility is used for installing and configuring FreeBSD
     systems.  It is the first utility invoked by the FreeBSD installation
     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 arguments for the
     default behavior, where the main installation/configuration menu is pre-
     sented.

     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 command-
     line 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 ser-
     vices 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 oper-
     ations 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 color when using
     the ``xterm-color'' termcap entry).

     This product is currently at the end of its life cycle and will eventu-
     ally 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 envi-
	     ronment (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 iden-
	     tical configurations and/or installation options.

     MAIN MENU
	     sysinstall is run in multi-user mode.  Execution ends either by
	     explicit request (e.g. calling the shutdown directive), upon
	     reaching the end of the argument list or on error.

	     For example:

	     /usr/sbin/sysinstall _ftpPath=ftp://ziggy/pub/ mediaSetFTP configPackages

	     Would initialize sysinstall for FTP installation media (using the
	     server `ziggy') and then bring up the package installation edi-
	     tor, 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 direc-
     tive 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 itself 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 vari-
     ables 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, potentially loading
	     any required 3rd-party routing daemons as necessary.

	     Variables:

	     router  can be set to the name of the desired routing daemon,
		     e.g. ``routed'' or ``gated'', otherwise it is prompted
		     for.

     configNFSServer
	     Configure host as an NFS server.
	     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 main-
		    tain a proper partition table, existing to use an existing
		    FreeBSD partition (first found), exclusive to use the disk
		    in ``dangerously dedicated'' mode or, finally, 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 installation of a
		    boot manager, standard to signify installation of a "stan-
		    dard" non-boot MGR DOS MBR or none to indicate that no
		    change to the boot manager is desired.  Default: none.

	     diskInteractive
		    If set, bring up the interactive disk partition 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.
	     are laid out.  When creating a script to automatically 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 primary 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 enabled (the argu-
		    ment 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 pre-
	     vious 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 additional 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 parti-
	     tion being named here and the 2nd field is non-optional).

	     You can also set the diskInteractive variable to request that the
	     disk label editor use an interactive dialog to partition 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
	     Variables: None

     distSetCustom
	     Allows the selection of a custom distribution set (e.g. not just
	     one of the existing "canned" sets) with no user interaction.

	     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.

		     compat1x  Compatibility with FreeBSD 1.x

		     compat20  Compatibility with FreeBSD 2.0

		     compat21  Compatibility with FreeBSD 2.1

		     compat22  FreeBSD 2.2 and FreeBSD 3.0 a.out binary com-
			       patibility

		     compat3x  Compatibility with FreeBSD 3.x (available for
			       FreeBSD 4.0 systems only)

		     compat4x  Compatibility with FreeBSD 4.x (available for
			       FreeBSD 5.0 systems only)

		     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

		     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 documentation.

		     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 server.

		     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

	     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 distributions.

	     Variables: None

     distSetSrc
	     Interactively select source subcomponents.

	     Variables: None

     distSetXOrg
	     Interactively select X.Org subcomponents.

	     Variables: None

     distExtractAll
	     Install all currently selected distributions (requires 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 package.

	     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 questions of the
	     user.

     installUpgrade
	     Start an upgrade installation.

	     Variables: None

     installFixitHoloShell
	     Start up the "emergency holographic shell" over on VTY4 if run-
	     ning 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, overriding any previ-
	     ous 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.

     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 installation
	     media.

     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-optional).

	     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 interface (non-
		     optional).

	     netmask
		     The netmask for the selected host interface (non-
		     optional).

	     _ftpPath
		     The fully qualified URL of the FTP site containing 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
     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-optional).

	     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 interface (non-
		     optional).

	     netmask
		     The netmask for the selected host interface (non-
		     optional).

	     nfs     full hostname:/path specification for directory contain-
		     ing the FreeBSD distribution you are interested 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 extractions to
		     low, medium or high.

     mediaGetType
	     Interactively get the user to specify some type of media.

	     Variables: None

     optionsEditor
	     Invoke the interactive options editor.

	     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 relatively full sys-
		     tem 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 pro-
				      vide better error messages if users try
				      to install Alpha packages on an i386
				      machine.	For example, ``CD_MACHINE_ARCH
				      the CD_VOLUME property here defines the
				      volume ID of the current disc.

     packages/INDEX  The package index file.  Each package is listed on a sep-
		     arate line with additional meta-data such as the required
		     dependencies.  This index is generated by ``make index''
		     from the ports(7) collection.  When multi-volume support
		     is enabled, an additional 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 network configu-
     ration.

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 installation
     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 expira-
     tion date and is greatly in need of death.

FreeBSD 5.4			August 9, 1997			   FreeBSD 5.4

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