Installation Media

Now that you have a network connection and a disk to put files on, you can tell the system where to install from.

 You will now specify the location and names of the install sets you want to load. You will be able to repeat this step until all of your sets have been successfully loaded. If you are not sure what sets to install, refer to the installation notes for details on the contents of each. Sets can be located on a (m)ounted filesystem; a (c)drom, (d)isk or (t)ape device; or a (f)tp, (n)fs or (h)ttp server. Where are the install sets you want to use? (m, c, f, etc.) f 

In this chapter, we will discuss installations over the network (FTP and HTTP), and installations from CD-ROM. The "mounted filesystem" and "disk" installs are more commonly used in a multiple-boot installation, so we'll cover them in the next chapter. (And if you know how to prepare an OpenBSD installation tape, you probably don't need this tutorial!)

CD-ROM Installs

If you're installing from CD-ROM, you probably booted off of it. If you had to boot off a floppy disk, be certain that your CD-ROM is in the computer before proceeding! If you enter "c" to choose CD-ROM media, you'll see the following message:

 The following CD-ROM devices are installed on your system. Please make sure the CD is in the CD-ROM drive and select the device containing the CD with the installation sets: cd01 Which CD-ROM contains the installation media? [cd0] 2 Enter the directory relative to the mount point that contains the file: [3.2/i386] 3 

You almost certainly have only 1 one CD-ROM drive installed. If you have multiple CD-ROM drives, they will be named cd0, cd1, cd2, and so on. You may have to look at the system's boot-time messages to determine which drive is which. Enter the name of your CD-ROM drive in the 2 appropriate space. The installer knows which on the CD-ROM the architecture's distribution directory can be found, but if this is a custom CD-ROM not created by the OpenBSD team you may need to 3 enter a custom path.

That's it! You're now ready to go.

Network Installs

On any sort of network install, from any source, the installer will ask you several basic questions:

• What server is the installation media found on?

• Where on this server is the installation media?

• What are my logon and password to access this resource?

You'll want to have these answers available before you start. The FTP and HTTP install processes are almost identical, so we're only going to cover FTP. In most cases the questions are exactly the same, except for the scripts saying "HTTP" instead of "FTP." If you have a choice, use FTP. (FTP is a more reliable protocol for transferring large amounts of data than HTTP.)

 HTTP/FTP proxy URL? (e.g. 'http://proxy:8080', or 'none') [none] 

If you are behind a FTP or HTTP proxy server, you can enter the URL here. If you aren't, just hit ENTER.

 Do you want a list of potential ftp servers? [y] 

The installer can fetch a list of mirror sites for the release you are installing. If you already know which OpenBSD mirror site you are going to use, you will have an opportunity later to enter it directly. Otherwise, you should probably take a look at the list of servers.

     1 1 2 ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD         3 Alberta, Canada       2   ftp://ftp.openbsd.org.ar/pub/OpenBSD         Buenos Aires, Argentina       3   ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/OpenBSD       Canberra, Australia ... 

Each line is an official OpenBSD mirror for this release and includes an 1 index number, a 2 URL, and a 3 physical location. If you're not certain which mirror is closest on the network, choose a mirror that is physically close. ^[1] Remember the index number for your closest mirror. In my case, this looks best.

     66  ftp://ftp3.usa.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD           Boulder, CO, USA 

At the end of the server list, the installer asks you which mirror to use. If you had previously chosen a particular mirror or have a local FTP server you're using, you could enter that host name here. Otherwise, just enter the server number.

 Server IP address, hostname, or list#? [] 66 Using   ftp://ftp3.usa.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD Does the server support passive mode ftp? [y] 

Passive mode FTP is a more modern version of the FTP protocol, designed to cooperate with packet-filtering firewalls. Some very old FTP servers do not support passive mode FTP properly, however. Almost all public OpenBSD mirrors support passive mode FTP; if you have problems getting the software from a particular server, however, you might try setting this to "no."

 Server directory? [pub/OpenBSD/3.2/i386] pub/OpenBSD/3.2/i386 

If you entered a number from the FTP server list, the installer remembers which directory of the FTP server the software can be found in. Otherwise, enter the full path to the architecture's release directory here.

 Login? [anonymous] 

OpenBSD mirrors generally allow anonymous access. If you are installing from a local mirror, you might need to enter a username and password here.

^[1]In an ideal world, before starting you would have identified your closest mirror with ping(8) and traceroute(8). But I'm not about to walk you through these commands for every operating system that you might have!