# need help installing on difficult system



## wonslung (Jan 4, 2010)

I have a unique issue.

I have a system which i need to install FreeBSD to but i'm having problems...it's a remote system which complicates things.  The company which hosts the server has an automated install system but it doesn't work with the options i need, mainly due to their installed being based around linux.  

I have 2 750 gb hard drives, and what i'd LIKE to do is create a small software raid1 for the main os, and then use the rest for raid0

i'd like something like this:

2 slices
10g 740g

raid1 on 10g slice raid0 on 740g slice
512m /
512m /tmp
2048m  swap
3g    /usr
4g    /var

(that's the raid1)
then use the raid0 for storage

I CAN access the machine via a freebsd netboot option...I tried to use sysinstall from this but it would not work, i'm SURE it's because i'm doing something wrong.


Also, with sysinstall and sade from netboot, it seems i can create slices but NOT partitions....again, i may be doing something wrong.  I've tried dealing with the support team for the hosting company but they are very little help.  so anyways....
this from netboot it seems i CAN create slices
i can ssh into the machine
(which leaves scp)

I tried to create partions in netboot, but like i said, it wouldn't work.....i'm not really familar with any other method so any suggestions would be helpful


----------



## aragon (Jan 4, 2010)

What is "netboot"?


----------



## wonslung (Jan 4, 2010)

aragon said:
			
		

> What is "netboot"?



it is basically booting over the network.

i'm not sure what the correct term is but it boots with a freebsd kernel via the onboard network interface and i have a full working FreeBSD "rescue mode"


----------



## aragon (Jan 4, 2010)

Cool.  What version of FreeBSD is netbooting and how complete is it?  To do what you want you will need:

* ftp
* tar+g(un)zip
* bourne shell
* mount+umount
* mdconfig
* newfs
* bsdlabel+fdisk / gpart
* whatever geom raid bits you want to use
* other basic utils like ls, cd, cp, mv, chmod, etc.
* complete source tree + csup might be nice

And finally, how much RAM do you have?


----------



## wonslung (Jan 4, 2010)

aragon said:
			
		

> Cool.  What version of FreeBSD is netbooting and how complete is it?  To do what you want you will need:
> 
> * ftp
> * tar+g(un)zip
> ...




it's pretty complete.  everything you listed is there.

What is really odd is....they have an automated system and i can install via software raid 1 which gives me gmirror no problem....

BUT when i try to install to a single disk it won't work.

SO yah.....
it's annnoying.


4 gb ram.


----------



## aragon (Jan 4, 2010)

Ok, there's any guess as to what's wrong with their automated system.  You should do everything manually, and it's pretty straight forward.  Before you can install anything you need to get your disks setup.

You never mentioned what version of FreeBSD you're netbooting, so I'll assume you have gpart.

What does `# gpart show` show you?


----------



## wonslung (Jan 4, 2010)

aragon said:
			
		

> Ok, there's any guess as to what's wrong with their automated system.  You should do everything manually, and it's pretty straight forward.  Before you can install anything you need to get your disks setup.
> 
> You never mentioned what version of FreeBSD you're netbooting, so I'll assume you have gpart.
> 
> What does `# gpart show` show you?



ok, let me get back into netboot on the other machine.  I had to install raid1 currently to get one machine up for now....couldn't wait any longer (been working on it for hours trying to figure this out myself before posting)

when i get netboot back up i'll post the results...


----------



## J65nko (Jan 4, 2010)

I would suggest to create a 3d FreeBSD slice in the MBR, 1 or 2 GB would be more than enough.
You do a minimal install in this slice. By booting this mini FreeBSD,  you can ssh in and do a manual FreeBSD install in the other 2 slices as you originally planned.

A manual install is not that difficult and is described in FreeBSD Install Without Sysinstall.

Of course, practicing this on a local machine never hurts


----------



## wonslung (Jan 4, 2010)

current gpart show shows this:

```
rescue-bsd# gpart show
=>        63  1465149105  ad6  MBR  (750.2GB)
          63  1465149105    1  freebsd  (750.2GB)

=>         0  1465149105  ad6s1  BSD  (750.2GB)
           0     1048576      1  freebsd-ufs  (536.9MB)
     1048576     1048576      2  freebsd-ufs  (536.9MB)
     2097152     8388608      4  freebsd-swap  (4.3GB)
    10485760     2097152      5  freebsd-ufs  (1073.7MB)
    12582912  1452566193      6  freebsd-ufs  (743.7GB)

=>        63  1465149105  ad8  MBR  (750.2GB)
          63    10485698       - free -  (5.4GB)
    10485761  1453606912    2  !253  (744.2GB)
  1464092673     1051392    3  !130  (538.3MB)
  1465144065        5103       - free -  (2.6MB)
```

granted this is rescue mode from a mirrored install...for some reason mirrored installs work when done via the auto-installer they have set up but when i try to install to a single disk it fails (even though it allows me to try)


I know i can slice the disks differently np though because i did it before


----------



## aragon (Jan 4, 2010)

Ok, currently your disk slicing is entirely what you don't want.  So you know how to use gpart and setup a gmirror volume of two slices?  You need to do that, newfs your file systems and mount them.

I don't recommend putting swap in your gmirror volume - create a separate 1 gig slice at the start of each drive for that.


----------

