All users are encouraged to consult the release errata beforeinstalling FreeBSD. The errata document is updated with"late-breaking" information discovered late in the release cycle orafter the release. Typically, it contains information on knownbugs, security advisories, and corrections to documentation. Anup-to-date copy of the errata for FreeBSD 12.0-RELEASE can be foundon the FreeBSD Web site.
The legacy gdb(1) utility included in the base system is now installed to/usr/libexec for use with crashinfo(8) . The gdbserver and gdbtui utilities are no longerinstalled. For interactive debugging, lldb(1) or a modern version of gdb(1) from devel/gdb should be used. A newsrc.conf(5) knob, WITHOUT_GDB_LIBEXEC has beenadded to disable building gdb(1) . The gdb(1) utility is still installed in /usr/bin onsparc64. [r317416]
How to Install FreeBSD 12.0 with ZFS Filesystem
The FreeBSD/i386 memory stick installation images have beenchanged to use the MBR partitioning scheme instead of GPT toaddress boot issues with some BIOSes. [r332446] (Sponsored by The FreeBSDFoundation)
The FreeBSD/amd64 memory stick installation images have beenchanged to use the MBR partitioning scheme instead of GPT toaddress boot issues with some BIOSes. [r334337] (Sponsored by The FreeBSDFoundation)
Virtual Machine disk images, such as qcow2, vmdk, vhd, and raw device images. These are not installation images, but images that have FreeBSD preinstalled and ready for post-installation tasks. Virtual machine images are also commonly used in cloud environments.* SD card images, for embedded systems such as Raspberry Pi. These files must be uncompressed and written as a raw image to an SD card, from which the board will boot.* Installation images to boot from an ISO or USB device to install FreeBSD on a drive for the usual desktop, laptop, or server system.
Once it has been determined that the system meets the minimum hardware requirements for installing FreeBSD, the installation file should be downloaded and the installation media prepared.Before doing this, check that the system is ready for an installation by verifying the items in this checklist:
If FreeBSD will be the only operating system installed, this step can be skipped.But if FreeBSD will share the disk with another operating system, decide which disk or partition will be used for FreeBSD.
Disk partitions containing different operating systems make it possible to install multiple operating systems on one computer.An alternative is to use virtualization (Virtualization) which allows multiple operating systems to run at the same time without modifying any disk partitions.
The FreeBSD installer is not an application that can be run from within another operating system.Instead, download a FreeBSD installation file, burn it to the media associated with its file type and size (CD, DVD, or USB), and boot the system to install from the inserted media.
-bootonly.iso: This is the smallest installation file as it only contains the installer. A working Internet connection is required during installation as the installer will download the files it needs to complete the FreeBSD installation. This file should be burned to optical media.
-dvd1.iso: This file contains all of the files needed to install FreeBSD, its source, and the Ports Collection. It also contains a set of popular binary packages for installing a window manager and some applications so that a complete system can be installed from media without requiring a connection to the Internet. This file should be burned to optical media.
-memstick.img: This file contains all of the files needed to install FreeBSD, its source, and the Ports Collection. Write this file to a USB stick as shown in Writing an Image File to USB.
-mini-memstick.img: Like -bootonly.iso, does not include installation files, but downloads them as needed. A working internet connection is required during installation. It should be written to a USB stick as shown in Writing an Image File to USB.
After downloading one of the files (or both), calculate the checksum for the image file and compare it with the one shown in the checksum file.Note that you need to compare the calculated checksum against the correct file, as they correspond to two different algorithms: SHA256 and SHA512.FreeBSD provides sha256(1) and sha512(1) that can be used for calculating the checksum.Other operating systems have similar programs.
The command-line utility is available on BSD, Linux, and Mac OS systems. To burn the image using dd, insert the USB stick and determine its device name. Then, specify the name of the downloaded installation file and the device name for the USB stick. This example burns the amd64 installation image to the first USB device on an existing FreeBSD system.
Double-click the Win32DiskImager icon to start the program.Verify that the drive letter shown under Device is the drive with the memory stick.Click the folder icon and select the image to be written to the memory stick.Click Save to accept the image file name.Verify that everything is correct, and that no folders on the memory stick are open in other windows.When everything is ready, click Write to write the image file to the memory stick.
ports - The FreeBSD Ports Collection is a collection of files which automates the downloading, compiling and installation of third-party software packages. Installing Applications: Packages and Ports discusses how to use the Ports Collection.
The menu shown in Installing from the Network only appears when installing from a -bootonly.iso or -mini-memstick.img, as this installation media does not hold copies of the installation files.Since the installation files must be retrieved over a network connection, this menu indicates that the network interface must be configured first.If this menu is shown in any step of the process, remember to follow the instructions in Configuring Network Interfaces.
After the partition layout has been created, review it to ensure it meets the needs of the installation.Selecting Revert will reset the partitions to their original values. Pressing Auto will recreate the automatic FreeBSD partitions.Partitions can also be manually created, modified, or deleted.When the partitioning is correct, select Finish to continue with the installation.
Once the disks are configured, the next menu provides the last chance to make changes before the selected drives are formatted.If changes need to be made, select Back to return to the main partitioning menu.Revert & Exit exits the installer without making any changes to the drive.Otherwise, select Commit to start the installation process.
Proper sector alignment provides the best performance, and making partition sizes even multiples of 4K bytes helps to ensure alignment on drives with either 512-byte or 4K-byte sectors.Generally, using partition sizes that are even multiples of 1M or 1G is the easiest way to make sure every partition starts at an even multiple of 4K.There is one exception: the freebsd-boot partition should be no larger than 512K due to current boot code limitations.
For a traditional partition layout where the /, /var, /tmp, and /usr directories are separate file systems on their own partitions, create a GPT partitioning scheme, then create the partitions as shown.Partition sizes shown are typical for a 20G target disk.If more space is available on the target disk, larger swap or /var partitions may be useful.Labels shown here are prefixed with ex for "example", but readers should use other unique label values as described above.
Force 4K Sectors? - Force the use of 4K sectors. By default, the installer will automatically create partitions aligned to 4K boundaries and force ZFS to use 4K sectors. This is safe even with 512 byte sector disks, and has the added benefit of ensuring that pools created on 512 byte disks will be able to have 4K sector disks added in the future, either as additional storage space or as replacements for failed disks. Press the Enter key to chose to activate it or not.
When creating advanced installations, the bsdinstall partitioning menus may not provide the level of flexibility required.Advanced users can select the Shell option from the partitioning menu in order to manually partition the drives, create the file system(s), populate /tmp/bsdinstall_etc/fstab, and mount the file systems under /mnt.Once this is done, type exit to return to bsdinstall and continue the installation.
Once all requested distribution files have been extracted, bsdinstall displays the first post-installation configuration screen.The available post-configuration options are described in the next section.
bsdinstall will prompt for any additional configuration that needs to be done before rebooting into the new system.Select Yes to exit to a shell within the new system or No to proceed to the last step of the installation.
If the system hangs while probing hardware during boot or behaves strangely during the installation process, ACPI may be the culprit.FreeBSD makes extensive use of the system ACPI service on the i386 and amd64 platforms to aid in system configuration if it is detected during boot.Unfortunately, some bugs still exist in both the ACPI driver and within system motherboards and BIOS firmware.ACPI can be disabled by setting the hint.acpi.0.disabled hint in the third stage boot loader:
ZFS on FreeBSD is an incredible file system. It is fast, secure and flexiblewhich makes it a pleasure to use. One of the current limitations wheninstalling FreeBSD 9 is you can not install the OS to a ZFS root pool frominside the default installer. Using the guide from aisecurewe were able to get the ZFS root install working by manually typing commands.What we really wanted was the script on the FreeBSD 9 install media. Our goalwas to boot the install media, execute the script and have the script do theFULL FreeBSD install for us without user intervention. We are happy to say wehave a solution. 2ff7e9595c
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