1 DRAGONFLY CDROM README FILE
3 This CDROM boots DragonFly BSD. Basically what you get is a full base
4 system on CD with certain critical directories, such as /tmp, remounted
5 read-write using MFS. Your existing hard drive is not affected by
8 NOTE!!! DRAGONFLY IS UNDERGOING DEVELOPMENT AND IS CONSIDERED
9 EXPERIMENTAL! BSD RELATED EXPERIENCE IS RECOMMENDED WHEN USING
12 If you just want to play with DragonFly and not mess with your hard disk,
13 this CDROM boots into a fully operational console-based system, though
14 without swap it should be noted that you are limited by available memory.
15 It is a good idea to test your hardware for compatibility from a CD boot
16 before spending time installing the dist on your hard disk.
19 AUTOMATIC INSTALLATION
21 There are currently two installation tools available - the installer, and
24 The installer can be run with a text-based (curses) user interface
25 from the serial console or a VTY, and provides a straightforward method
26 for installing DragonFly on your HD. To start it, just login with the
29 The installer can also be run with a web-based (CGI) user interface.
30 To set this up manually is a bit of work, but much of it can be automated
31 by writing a couple of lines into a configuration file on a floppy disk
32 or USB pendrive, and inserting or attaching that to the computer before
33 booting the CDROM. See the file /etc/defaults/pfi.conf for more info.
35 rconfig is a client/server protocol which requires a server (typically on
36 the same network). An example server setup can be found in
37 /usr/share/examples/rconfig. If you have multiple machines you can setup
38 an installation script and run rconfig on a server and then install the
39 clients from CD boot with network connectivity (e.g. dhclient <blah>)
40 and then, typically, 'rconfig -a'.
42 You can also just boot from the CD, login as 'root' to get a shell
43 prompt, copy the sample script to /tmp, edit, and run it directly
44 (assuming that blowing away your existing disk is ok).
49 The second stage boot (boot2) and third stage boot (loader) default
50 to dual serial & video console I/O. The system will also throw a login
51 prompt up on ttyd0 by default. You can direct the boot output
52 to just the serial port by creating the file /boot.config with the
53 line '-h', or to just the screen using '-V'. If you wish to leave
54 boot2 in dual I/O mode but want the third stage to use just one or the
55 other, you can set the 'console' environment variable in /boot/loader.conf
56 to either 'console=vidconsole' or 'console=comconsole'.
58 The dual serial port operation might have to be disabled if you use
59 the serial port for things like UPSs. Also note that by default
60 the CD will run a login prompt on the serial port after booting is
61 complete. This can be disabled by editing the 'ttyd0' line in /etc/ttys
62 after installation is complete.
64 Note that the kernel itself currently only supports one console or the
65 other. If both are enabled, the kernel will use the video console or
66 the last one for which input was received.
71 Manual installation of DragonFly onto an HD involves the following sequence
72 of commands. You must be familiar with BSD style UNIX systems to do
73 installations manually. The primary IDE hard drive is typically 'ad0'
74 and DragonFly is typically installed onto the first free slice
75 (ad0s1 if disk is empty, ad0s2 if your first slice contains
76 another OS, etc). Be careful to substitute the correct partition name
79 # OPTIONAL STEP: If your disk is already partitioned and you
80 # have a spare primary partition on which you want to install
81 # Dragonfly, skip this step. However, sometimes old boot
82 # blocks or cruft in the boot area can interfere with the
83 # initialization process. A cure is to zero out the start of
84 # the disk before running fdisk.
86 # WARNING: This COMPLETELY WIPES and repartitions your hard drive.
88 dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ad0 bs=32k count=16
92 # If you didn't zero the disk as above, but have a spare slice
93 # whose partition type you want to change to UFS, use fdisk(8).
95 # This installs boot blocks onto the HD and verifies their
96 # installation. See note just above the 'reboot' below for
97 # things to try if it does not boot from your HD. If you
98 # already have a multi-OS bootloader installed you can skip
104 # This creates an initial label on the chosen slice of the HD. If
105 # you have problems booting you could try wiping the first 32 blocks
106 # of the slice with dd and then reinstalling the label. Replace
107 # 'ad0s1' with the chosen slice.
109 # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ad0s1 bs=32k count=16
110 disklabel -B -r -w ad0s1 auto
112 # Edit the label. Create various standard partitions. The typical
115 # ad0s1a 256m This will be your /
116 # ad0s1b 1024m This will be your swap
117 # ad0s1c (leave alone)
118 # ad0s1d 256m This will be your /var
119 # ad0s1e 256m This will be your /tmp
120 # ad0s1f 8192m This will be your /usr (min 4096m)
121 # ad0s1g * All remaining space to your /home
123 # An example disklabel can be found in /etc/disklabel.ad0s1.
127 # Newfs (format) the various filesystems. Softupdates is not
128 # normally enabled on the root filesystem because large kernel or
129 # world installs/upgrades can run it out of space due to softupdate's
130 # delayed bitmap freeing code.
138 # Mount the filesystems.
140 mount /dev/ad0s1a /mnt
145 mount /dev/ad0s1d /mnt/var
146 mount /dev/ad0s1e /mnt/tmp
147 mount /dev/ad0s1f /mnt/usr
148 mount /dev/ad0s1g /mnt/home
150 # Copy the CDRom onto the target. cpdup won't cross mount boundaries
151 # on the source (e.g. the MFS remounts) so it takes a few commands.
153 # Note that /etc contains the config files used for booting from the
154 # CDROM itself, and /etc.hdd contains those for booting off a
155 # hard disk. So it's the latter that you want to copy to /mnt/etc.
159 cpdup /etc.hdd /mnt/etc
163 # Cleanup. Also, with /tmp a partition it is usually reasonable
164 # to make /var/tmp a softlink to /tmp.
168 ln -s /tmp /mnt/var/tmp
170 # Edit /mnt/etc/fstab to reflect the new mounts. An example fstab
171 # file based on the above parameters exists as /mnt/etc/fstab.example
172 # which you can rename to /mnt/etc/fstab.
174 mv /mnt/etc/fstab.example /mnt/etc/fstab
177 # Save out your disklabel just in case. It's a good idea to save
178 # it to /etc so you can get at it from your backups. You do intend
179 # to backup your system, yah? :-) (This isn't critical but it's a
182 disklabel ad0s1 > /mnt/etc/disklabel.ad0s1
185 MISC CLEANUPS BEFORE REBOOTING
187 Once you've duplicated the CD onto your HD you have to make some edits
188 so the system boots properly from your HD. Primarily you must remove
189 or edit /mnt/boot/loader.conf, which exists on the CD to tell the kernel
190 to mount the CD's root partition.
192 # Remove or edit /mnt/boot/loader.conf so the kernel does not try
193 # to obtain the root filesystem from the CD, and remove the other
194 # cruft that was sitting on the CD that you don't need on the HD.
196 rm /mnt/boot/loader.conf
197 rm /mnt/README* /mnt/autorun* /mnt/index.html /mnt/dflybsd.ico
201 At this point it should be possible to reboot. The CD may be locked
202 since it is currently mounted. To remove the CD, type 'halt' instead
203 of 'reboot', wait for the machine to halt, then the CD door should be
204 unlocked. Remove the CD and hit any key to reboot.
206 Be careful of the CD drawer closing on you if you try to remove the CD
207 while the machine is undergoing a reboot or reset.
209 WARNING: Do not just hit reset; the kernel may not have written out
210 all the pending data to your HD. Either unmount the HD partitions
211 or type halt or reboot.
214 (let the machine halt)
215 (remove CD when convenient, be careful of the CD drawer closing on you)
216 (hit any key to reboot)
221 You will notice in the boot menu that you can choose to boot with or
222 without ACPI. ACPI is an infrastructure designed to allow an operating
223 system to configure hardware devices associated with the system.
224 Unfortunately, as usual, PC BIOS makers have royally screwed up the
225 standard and ACPI is as likely to hurt as it is to help. Worse, some
226 PCs cannot be booted without it, so there is no good 'default' choice.
228 The system will use ACPI by default. You can disable it in the default
229 boot by adding the line 'hint.acpi.0.disabled=1' in /boot/loader.conf.
230 If you boot without hitting any menu options the system will boot without
231 ACPI. To boot without ACPI no matter what, place 'unset acpi_load' in
232 our /boot/loader.conf instead. This is not recommended.
235 IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS BOOTING FROM HD
237 There are a couple of things to try. Try booting from the CD again and
238 use boot0cfg to turn off packet mode (boot0cfg -o nopacket ad0). If you
239 can select CHS or LBA mode in your BIOS, try changing the mode to LBA.
240 Also try booting with and without ACPI (option 1 or 2 in the boot menu).
242 Once you have a working HD based system you can clean up /etc/rc.conf
243 to enable things like cron, sendmail, setup your networking, and so
244 forth. If 'ifconfig' does not show your networking device you could
245 try to kldload it from /modules. With a recognized network device
246 you can ifconfig its IP address or, if you have a DHCP server on your
247 network, use 'dhclient <interfacename>' to obtain an IP address from
251 USING GIT TO OBTAIN A SOURCE TREE AND DOING BUILDWORLDS
253 Instructions on how to obtain and maintain DragonFly source code using
254 git are in the development(7) manual page.
256 To upgrade a DragonFly system from sources you run the following
261 make buildkernel KERNCONF=<KERNELNAME>
262 make installkernel KERNCONF=<KERNELNAME>
265 You will also want to run the 'upgrade' target to upgrade your /etc
266 and the rest of your system. The upgrade target is aware of stale
267 files created by older DragonFly installations and should delete them
272 See the build(7) manual page for further information.
274 Once you've done a full build of the world and kernel you can do
275 incremental upgrades of either by using the 'quickworld' and
276 'quickkernel' targets instead of 'buildworld' and 'buildkernel'. If
277 you have any problems with the quick targets, try updating your repo
278 first, and then a full buildworld and buildkernel as shown above, before
282 OBTAINING A PKGSRC TREE TO BUILD/INSTALL PACKAGES
284 In order to obtain a reasonably current snapshot of the pkgsrc tree, use
285 the tarball from NetBSD:
287 fetch -o /tmp/pkgsrc.tar.gz ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/pkgsrc.tar.gz
288 cd /usr; tar -xzf /tmp/pkgsrc.tar.gz; chown -R root:wheel pkgsrc
290 This tree can then be kept up to date with cvs update:
292 cd /usr/pkgsrc; cvs up
295 EMERGENCY RECOVERY FROM THE CD
297 Lets say you blew up your kernel or something else in / and you need to
298 boot the CD to fix it. Remember that you have a fully operational
299 system when booting the CD, but that you have to fsck and mount your
300 hard drive (typically onto /mnt) to get at the contents of your HD.
302 Your HD is typically an IDE hard drive, so the device is typically
303 /dev/ad0. DragonFly is typically on the first slice, which is
304 /dev/ad0s1, and the root partition is always in partition 'a',
305 which is /dev/ad0s1a.
307 # fsck root before trying to mount it.
309 # mount root read-write onto /mnt
310 mount /dev/ad0s1a /mnt
311 # copy files from the CD as appropriate to make it possible to boot
312 # from your HD again. Note that /mnt/kernel may be flags-protected.
313 chflags noschg /mnt/kernel
314 cp /kernel /mnt/kernel
315 cp /modules/* /mnt/modules/
317 If you want to mount other partitions from your HD but have forgotten
318 what they are, simply cat /mnt/etc/fstab after mounting the root
321 $DragonFly: src/nrelease/root/README,v 1.22 2006/10/24 17:09:45 swildner Exp $