depenguin.me mfsbsd-script

depenguin.me installer script for mfsBSD image to install FreeBSD 14.0 (with zfs-on-root) using qemu

Install FreeBSD-14.0 on a dedicated server from a Linux rescue environment

1. Boot into rescue console

You must be logged in as root. Prepare file path or URL of SSH public key.

2. Download and run installer script

Boot your server into rescue mode, then download and run the custom mfsBSD-based installer for FreeBSD-14.0, with root-on-ZFS.

wget https://depenguin.me/run.sh && chmod +x run.sh && \
  ./run.sh [ -d ] [ -r ram ] [ -m <url of own mfsbsd image> ] authorized_keys ...

The "-d" parameter will send the qemu process to the background.

The "-r" parameter allows setting qemu memory for low memory systems, default is 8G for 8GiB.

The "-m" parameter allows using a custom mfsbsd ISO.

You must specify at least one authorized_keys source, both URLs and local files are supported.

note: run.sh on the website is a symlink to the depenguinme.sh script

Example invocations:

./run.sh https://example.org/mypubkey
./run.sh /tmp/my_public_key

3. Connect via SSH

Wait until the script reports SSH to be available (takes a few minutes), then connect:

ssh -i /path/to/privkey -p 1022 mfsbsd@your-host-ip

Once logged in, you can sudo su - to root without a password. You cannot login as root.

If you have trouble with the ssh connection, wait 2 minutes and try again.

4. [Optional] Disable serial ports

FreeBSD hangs on some ASUS boards on boot if serial ports are enabled (see issue 10). To work around this problem, you can either disable serial ports in the BIOS or, more easily, disable them in /boot/loader.conf:

hint.uart.0.disabled="1"
hint.uart.1.disabled="1"

5. Install FreeBSD-14.0 using unattended bsdinstall

Copy the file depenguin_settings.sh.sample to depenguin_settings.sh and edit for your server's details.

cp depenguin_settings.sh.sample depenguin_settings.sh
nano depenguin_settings.sh

Configure your specifics, note that Hetzner DNS is in this example, you might need other servers listed.

conf_hostname="depenguintest"
conf_interface="CHANGEME-igb0-or-em0-etc"
conf_ipv4="1.2.3.4"
conf_ipv6="abcd:xxxx:yyyy:zzzz::p"
conf_gateway="6.7.8.9"
conf_nameserveripv4one="185.12.64.1"
conf_nameserveripv4two="185.12.64.2"
conf_nameserveripv6one="2a01:4ff:ff00::add:1"
conf_nameserveripv6two="2a01:4ff:ff00::add:2"
conf_username="myusername"
conf_pubkeyurl="http://url.host/keys.txt"
conf_disks="ada0 ada1" # or ada0 | or ada0 ada1 ada2 ada3 | or nvme0n1 | or nvme0n1 nvme1n1
conf_disktype="mirror" # or stripe for single disk, or raid10, or raidz1, for four disk systems
run_installer="1" # set to 1 to enable installer

6. Run the depenguin bsdinstall script

This script will update the INSTALLERCONFIG file used by bsdinstall with the values set above.

./depenguin_bsdinstall.sh

When complete the mfsbsd VM will shutdown automatically.

7. Reboot

Switch to the rescue console session and press ctrl-c to end qemu. Then type reboot.

8. Connect to your new server

After a few minutes to boot up, connect to your server via SSH:

ssh YOUR-USER@ip-address

Check DNS is available and then perform initial system configuration such as:

freebsd-update --not-running-from-cron fetch
freebsd-update --not-running-from-cron install

End

Legacy: Install an older FreeBSD on a dedicated server from a Linux rescue environment

You can pass in the -m <url of own mfsbsd image> using one of the following URLs to install a legacy version:

bretton/mfsbsd-script