Getting OpenBSD


Before you proceed much further, let's talk about how you can get OpenBSD. OpenBSD is available on CD-ROM and over the Internet.

CD-ROMs

You can purchase OpenBSD CD-ROMs direct from the OpenBSD Project or from any number of online vendors. Just go to the OpenBSD website and look for the "Getting OpenBSD" link. The OpenBSD Project will be happy to sell you CD-ROMs and assorted other OpenBSD merchandise, such as T-shirts and posters.

The main OpenBSD distribution point is in Canada, which may be a problem for those of you in other countries. You can get OpenBSD from a variety of resellers, many of which are listed on the OpenBSD ordering page. Pick a vendor in your country and you can save on customs duties — or, at least, you can pick a vendor on your same continent and save on shipping charges!

CD-ROM Layout

Each of the CD-ROMs contain the software for a few hardware platforms. For example, in the OpenBSD 3.2 CD-ROM set, disk 1 contains the i386 and Alpha software, disk 2 contains the VAX and MacPPC software, and disk 3 contains the Sparc and Sparc64 software. You'll find some extra tidbits scattered throughout all the CD-ROMs, however, so you can't just get by with one disk. For example, the operating system source code is kept on disk 3 in this particular release. Here's a look at the contents of the first CD-ROM.

 3.2/ HARDWARE PACKAGES PORTS README TRANS.TBL song32.mp3 

The 3.2 directory contains the actual software of OpenBSD 3.2. Almost anything you want to install your software is in this directory.

The HARDWARE file gives a brief overview of the hardware this release of OpenBSD supports. It makes an excellent quick reference if you're wondering about hardware support for your particular machine or architecture.

The PACKAGES file gives instructions for installing precompiled software packages on OpenBSD. We cover this information in more detail in Chapter 13.

The PORTS file gives instruction for compiling your own software from the ports collection, also discussed in Chapter 13.

The README file gives valuable pointers to information elsewhere on the CD-ROM. While I've made every effort to be complete in this book, if you have any trouble at all always refer to the documentation for the release of OpenBSD you're working with!

Finally, the song32.mp3 file contains a song written to celebrate this OpenBSD release. (It might not be technically necessary, but it's certainly fun.)

Finding OpenBSD on the Net

You can install OpenBSD directly from the Internet, over HTTP or FTP. Every bit of OpenBSD is available this way, from programs to source code to add-on packages. You can download the entirety of OpenBSD piecemeal or just grab the entire software distribution from the FTP site. Installing via FTP or HTTP is one of the most popular ways to get OpenBSD.

What you will not find on the Internet is a set of official OpenBSD ISO images of any release. The OpenBSD Project uses CD-ROM sales to fund OpenBSD development, and it would really prefer that if you want a CD-ROM, you purchase one. The disk images of the official install CD-ROMs is copyrighted by Theo de Raadt. The OpenBSD team adds some extras to the CD-ROM package, such as stickers and artwork, to make it more appealing.

With a bit of searching, you will find OpenBSD ISO images on various Internet sites. Some of these are duplicates of the official ISO images, and are distributed in violation of Theo's copyright. This is not only illegal in most parts of the world, it's also just plain rude. Other ISO images on the Net are releases built by third parties who are not OpenBSD team members. While the release process is well documented, it still isn't a very simple operation. You're welcome to grab one of these ISO images and try to use it, but you should be warned that they have not been through the usual OpenBSD quality assurance process. Also, any joker can put up an ISO image, but you have no way to really know that such an image doesn't contain a Trojan, backdoor, or other booby trap unless you thoroughly audit the image and compare it against an official OpenBSD install. If you're going to go to that amount of trouble, you might as well shell out a few dollars and purchase an official CD-ROM anyway, or just try a FTP install!

FTP Install Sites

The main OpenBSD FTP site is at the University of Alberta, in Calgary, Canada. You can expect that the students are using all the bandwidth they can get for educational purposes, without sparing a thought for your OpenBSD needs. This makes the main FTP site slower that you might like. Fortunately, OpenBSD is mirrored all over the world.

Go to the OpenBSD website and check the "FTP" link. This will bring up a whole list of mirror sites in a variety of formats — FTP, HTTP, AFS, and so on. The list includes mirrors on every continent, including places such as Peru, Thailand, and Lithuania. There's almost certainly one closer to you than the University of Alberta.

OpenBSD FTP/HTTP Layout

No matter how you get OpenBSD over the network, you'll find the distribution site laid out much like this.

 1 3.0/ 3.1/ 3.2/ 3.3/ 2 OpenSSH/ 3 README 4 distfiles/ 5 ftplist 6 patches/ 7 snapshots/ 8 songs/ 9 src/ tools/ 

The 1 numbered directories are for the various releases of OpenBSD. Above, we see that this FTP site contains versions 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3. You'll only have one release directory on a CD-ROM, of course — the directory for the release you have.

The 2 OpenSSH directory contains the OpenBSD team's implementation of SSH, which has been adopted by many different software projects, both free and commercial (i.e., Solaris). OpenBSD includes OpenSSH, and so you really don't have to worry about getting it separately.

The 3 README file contains very basic information about obtaining OpenBSD and where to get more information on the software.

The 4 distfile directory contains the source code of a great deal of add-on OpenBSD software. Not all mirror sites carry this directory, as it's quite large.

The 5 ftplist file lists the official FTP and HTTP installation mirrors. When you install via FTP later, the install program will grab this file to allow you to choose a mirror site close to you.

The 6 patches directory contains directories for each previous release of OpenBSD, and various patches for that release. Security problems and critical bugs can be patched after a release, and they are made available here.

The 7 snapshots directory contains recent experimental versions of OpenBSD, generally from between releases. If you want to see what's coming in future versions of OpenBSD, you can install a snapshot. Because these are works-in-progress, support is minimal. The developers appreciate bug reports on snapshots, but don't support snapshots.

The 8 songs directory contains the "soundtracks" for each release of OpenBSD.

If all you want to do is browse the source code of the most recent release of OpenBSD, you can trawl through the 9 src directory. The source code is kept here in plain-text, human-readable format. There are easier ways to browse the source code, however: the OpenBSD website includes the source code on the Web, complete with revision history and developer comments.

Finally, the tools directory contains odds and ends that are useful for the OpenBSD Project's internal workings.

Whether you have a CD-ROM or FTP access to the software, what you're almost certainly most interested in is the release directory for the latest version of OpenBSD.




Absolute Openbsd(c) Unix for the Practical Paranoid
Absolute OpenBSD: Unix for the Practical Paranoid
ISBN: 1886411999
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 298

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