FreeBSD 9.0 manual installation

This describes the process I follow to manually install FreeBSD 9.0 with a ZFS root. I mimic Solaris' ZFS dataset layout (pool0/ROOT/freebsd) and do not use the root dataset of the pool for data, like most of the FreeBSD ZFS root guides do.

Contents 1 Boot into shell environment 2 Partition disks 3 Create zpool 4 Create ZFS datasets and mount root dataset 5 Extract FreeBSD distribution to new root 6 Make new system bootable 7 Configure system

Boot into shell environment

At the FreeBSD Installer Welcome screen press 's' to run a shell.

Partition disks

Partition disks using GPT scheme, aligning partitions to 4KB sector offsets (not necessary for older disks, but worth doing for future proofing)

# gpart create -s gpt ada0
ada0 created
# gpart add -t freebsd-boot -b 64k -s 64k ada0
ada0p1 added
# gpart add -t freebsd-zfs ada0
ada0p2 added

Duplicate partition layout onto second disk:

# gpart backup ada0 | gpart restore ada1

Write bootcode to both disks:

# gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptzfsboot -i 1 ada0
bootcode written to ada0
# gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptzfsboot -i 1 ada1
bootcode written to ada1

Create zpool

Create a small memory disk, mounted at /boot/zfs to hold the zpool.cache file that is written when the pool is created, as the root filesystem is mounted read-only.

# mdmfs -M -S -s 1m md2 /boot/zfs

Create pool, without a mountpoint

# zpool create -m none pool0 mirror ada0p2 ada1p2

Create ZFS datasets and mount root dataset

# zfs create pool0/ROOT
# zfs create pool0/ROOT/freebsd
# zfs set canmount=noauto mountpoint=/ pool0/ROOT/freebsd
# mount -t zfs pool0/ROOT/freebsd /mnt

Extract FreeBSD distribution to new root

# cd /mnt
# tar Jxpf /usr/freebsd-dist/base.txz
# tar Jxpf /usr/freebsd-dist/kernel.txz

Make new system bootable

# cp /boot/zfs/zpool.cache /mnt/boot/zfs/
# zpool set bootfs=pool0/ROOT/freebsd pool0
# echo 'zfs_load="YES"' > /mnt/boot/loader.conf
# echo 'vfs.root.mountfrom="zfs:pool0/ROOT/freebsd"' >> /mnt/boot/loader.conf

Configure system

At this point you can reboot into the newly installed system, but it is completely unconfigured. The following should be done:

• Set root password
• Create /etc/rc.conf, remembering to:
  • Set hostname
  • Configure network interface
  • Set keyboard map
  • Run sshd on boot
• Set the timezone (using tzsetup)
• Generate an aliases file (using newaliases)
• Create an empty fstab file (to silence error messages on boot