Introduction to OpenBSD for Linux users (Part 1)
By Rafael Coninck Teigao
SafeCore Network Solutions
Several years ago I was doing security research for a company and
after reading so much about OpenBSD I decided to give it a try and
installed its version 2.3. I came from a Linux background and was
quite familiar with SunOS, so I knew OpenBSD wouldn't be so hard to
deal with.
In fact I was right on that and my new operating system was running
smooth after some time installing it through the Net. But my jumpstart
time would've been better if I wasn't struggling with it trying to
apply Linux's concepts.
Now I've seem many people on OpenBSD mailing lists that came from a Linux
world and were having the very same problems I had on their first
contact with their brand new OS. That's why I decided to write these
articles, to make it easier for newcomers. Enjoy!
For matter of simplicity, I'm going to focus on a whole disk, single
system installation, but if you feel experienced enough on Linux disk-partitioning
and are comfortable with its fdisk, you can take a look at[(1) INSTALL.linux]
and choose to do a dual-boot system.
First you will need a boot disk, so go choose a server from the [(2) mirrors list],
and download the file 3.2/i386/floppy32.fs and place a formatted (or
otherwise blank) floppy in your drive, then issue:
dd if=floppy32.fs of=/dev/fd0 >enter<
This copies the bootable floppy image to your floppy disk.
Now you have to choose where you are going to install from. Broadband
is common nowadays, but if you don't have it, you've got 3 choices:
- log on your Linux, go to your htdocs directory and create a new directory
named OpenBSD. Inside it, download the files from 3.2/i386/, you can
use the same mirror used for the floppy32.fs file. The file list should
be:
| CKSUM |
INSTALL.ata |
INSTALL.chs |
INSTALL.dbr |
INSTALL.i386 |
INSTALL.linux |
| INSTALL.mbr |
INSTALL.os2br |
INSTALL.pt |
MD5 |
TRANS.TBL |
base32.tgz |
| boot.catalog |
bsd |
bsd.rd |
cdrom32.fs |
comp32.tgz |
etc32.tgz |
| floppy32.fs |
floppyB32.fs |
floppyC32.fs |
game32.tgz |
man32.tgz |
misc32.tgz |
| xbase32.tgz |
xfont32.tgz |
xserv32.tgz |
xshare32.tgz |
|
|
Now fire your Apache up and go to
section 2.2.
- log on your Linux, download the same files from choice #1, burn a
CD and go to section 2.2.
- buy the CD from [(3) OpenBSD Orders] and wait a few weeks, then go to section 2.2.
Booting the floppy and installing
Once you boot, you are going to be greeted by the installer and the
process will stop, asking whether you want to proceed with the install
or not. After reading the greet, select the default terminal (just
type >enter<), choose your keyboard encoding (if it is different
from standard US) and type y >enter<.
The install then will ask which disk it should install to. If you
have more then one disk available, make sure to choose to correct
one. This is very important because you are going to DESTROY ALL PREVIOUSLY
STORED DATA on the harddrive. One important thing you'll notice is
that the device name convention differs from that on Linux, being
of the format xx#, e. g. wd0=hda, wd1=hdb and so fort. So be careful
and choose your drive. Since you are going to use the whole disk,
just type yes >enter< for the next question.
The next step will be creating a disk label, or logical partitions,
inside your A6 (OpenBSD) partition. At the prompt, if you type p
>enter< you should see:
type: ESDI
disk: ESDI/IDE disk
label: Maxtor 86480D6
bytes/sector: 512
sectors/track: 63
tracks/cylinder: 15
sectors/cylinder: 945
cylinders: 13395
total sectors: 12658776
free sectors: 12658713
rpm: 3600
16 partitions:
# size offset fstype
[fsize bsize cpg]
a: 12643092 63 unused
0 0
c: 12658776 0 unused
0 0
Of course your size may differ, but this is just to give you a hint
of what you should see. Notice the unused fstype. That means that
you have no fstype assigned for partition a. Partition
c comprises the whole disk. You are now going
to set the partitions. At least 5 partitions are recommended, they
are: /, swap, /var, /home and /usr. How much space you will allocate
for each partition is up to you, take a look at [(4) partitions space needed]. Here
you are going to add 6:
> d a >enter<
> a a >enter<
offset: [63] >enter<
size: [12658713] 80m >enter<
Rounding to nearest cylinder: 163422
FS type: [4.2BSD] >enter<
mount point: [none] / >enter<
> a b >enter<
offset: [163485] >enter<
size: [12495291] 300m >enter<
Rounding to nearest cylinder: 614250
FS type: [swap] >enter<
> a d >enter<
offset: [777735] >enter<
size: [11881041] 80m >enter<
Rounding to nearest cylinder: 163485
FS type: [4.2BSD] >enter<
mount point: [none] /tmp >enter<
> a e >enter<
offset: [941220] >enter<
size: [11717556] 80m >enter<
Rounding to nearest cylinder: 163485
FS type: [4.2BSD] >enter<
mount point: [none] /var >enter<
> a f>enter<
offset: [1104705] >enter<
size: [11554071] 2g >enter<
Rounding to nearest cylinder: 4193910
FS type: [4.2BSD] >enter<
mount point: [none] /usr >enter<
> a g >enter<
offset: [5298615] >enter<
size: [7360161] >enter<
FS type: [4.2BSD] >enter<
mount point: [none] /home >enter<
Now let's see what the label looks like and save it:
> p >enter<
device: /dev/rwd0c
type: ESDI
disk: ESDI/IDE disk
label: Maxtor 86480D6
bytes/sector: 512
sectors/track: 63
tracks/cylinder: 15
sectors/cylinder: 945
cylinders: 13395
total sectors: 12658776
free sectors: 0
rpm: 3600
16 partitions:
# size offset
fstype [fsize bsize cpg]
a: 163422 63 4.2BSD
1024 8192 16 # /
b: 614250 163485 swap
c: 12658776 0 unused
0 0
d: 163485 777735 4.2BSD
1024 8192 16 # /tmp
e: 163485 941220 4.2BSD
1024 8192 16 # /var
f: 4193910 1104705 4.2BSD 1024
8192 16 # /usr
g: 7360161 5298615 4.2BSD 1024
8192 16 # /home
> w >enter<
> q >enter<
The install is going to ask for confirmation on your mount points.
If you keep hitting enter, it'll just loop, giving you the opportunity
to make any changes. If you feel everything is ok, just type done
>enter<. It now asks whether you want to configure another disk,
but let's leave that alone for a moment, type done >enter<
and y >enter< for formating the partitions.
Configuring the network is really straightforward, you should simply
follow the dialog, press >enter< on Media directives?
[] and Escape to shell? [no], select your root password,
choose to use (>enter<) or not (n >enter<) X Window
and then select your installation media.
The installation media can be ftp, http, CD-ROM or local disk. If
you've bought or burned a CD, select CD-ROM and, if appropriate, configure
the right directory as shown bellow. Otherwise select http.
Again, if you have broadband, you can install through the Internet,
so choose yes when prompted to be shown a list of servers and
select one close to you by typing it's number and >enter<.
If you need to use a proxy server, configure it by typing http://your.proxy.address:port/
>enter<, or just >enter< to use none. If you decided to download
the files to a local computer, choose no when prompted to be
shown a list of servers and type http://your.files.ip.address/
>enter<.
When you burned the CD or downloaded the files to your htdocs/OpenBSD
directory, you most likely didn't create the directories 3.2/i386,
so now you have to change it when prompted
Enter the directory relative to the mount point that contains
the file: [3.2/i386]
to /OpenBSD or, if you created any different directory, to the
one you created.
When prompted to select the packages to install, type * >enter<
to select all packages, then done >enter< to start the install.
The install software is going to ask if you're ready to begin downloading
the files or to install them, just type y >enter<. If you have
less then 16Mb of RAM, take a look at the [(5) OpenBSD Installation Guide] before beginning
to download.
Your installation is almost done now. Just type >enter< to
Extract more sets? [n] and select your timezone. Now
type halt on the command prompt, remove the floppy from your
drive and press any key to reboot.
This can be for two reasons: incompatibility between your BIOS and
OpenBSD MBR or a drive geometry problem. As of OpenBSD 3.1 it is expected
that no incompatibilities are found, so let's assume it is a drive
geometry problem.
Geometry problems usually occur when you move a drive from one computer
to another, having some BIOS configuration differences between them.
To solve this you should boot from the floppy you created for the
install and at the boot> prompt type boot wd0a:/bsd
(changing, of course, wd for whatever drive is your OpenBSD installed
on). Then log in as root and type:
cp /usr/mdec/boot /boot
/usr/mdec/installboot -v /boot /usr/mdec/biosboot wd0
This is going to install and configure the partition boot loader to
correctly boot your geometry. If it does not solve your problem, you
may have found an incompatibility, so take a look at [(6) "Using Drive: 0 Partition: 3" - i386 specific].
By now you should have your OpenBSD 3.2 up and running. You can configure
your X Window as you would on Linux and have basic Internet access
with lynx. On the next articles from this series, I am going to explain
the firewall and nat interfaces, the port and packages systems and
system configurations, so you'll be able to turn your OpenBSD on a
workstation or server.
For more information, please take a look at the [(7) OpenBSD FAQ] and
the mailing lists, and don't get upset with the rudeness of some answers,
developers are usually stressed people and don't like when you don't
do your homework (checking the FAQ and mail archives before posting
is usually a Good Idea).
- (1) INSTALL.linux
- ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/3.2/i386/INSTALL.linux
- (2) mirrors list
- http://www.openbsd.org/ftp.html
- (3) OpenBSD Orders
- http://www.openbsd.org/orders.html
- (4) partitions space needed
- http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html#SpaceNeeded
- (5) OpenBSD Installation Guide
- http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html
- (6) "Using Drive: 0 Partition: 3" - i386 specific
- http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq14.html#D0P3
- (7) OpenBSD FAQ
- http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faqtoc.html
An open source enthusiast since 1994, Rafael Coninck Teigao has worked
and played with Linux and *BSD and followed their evolution for almost 10
years. Currently getting his graduation degree in Computer Science from
PUC-PR, Brazil, and running his company, SafeCore Network Solutions,
Rafael still manages to find time to spend with his girlfriend in some
calm and quiet place.
Discussion
Discuss this article
below.
newbie & partitions - john daniels
re: newbi - Tiro
newbie & partitions
john daniels
- January 10, 2005 00:27:22
Why is it not possible to include a sheet with specific settings to partition a 20,30,40,60,80,120,160 et.c hard drive so a 63 year old,3-year inductee to the PC world can get an open source machine up and running before he dies. I speak a few languages (+or-) and have a thousand dollars worth of mags and books, but I am not yet nerdy enuf to try to put openBSD on this HP-120GB machine. I want to dual-boot and keep the WinXP, naturally. (I PAID for it.) I just bought "Point and click Linux" [Mepis Linux] and it too is scary, tho I've run the disc independently and it is amazing how much programming is available because of the heroic efforts of the Open Source community! I also have other computers running Win 95, 98& 98-2ndEd. I've got an old HP-Vectra Series 4 5/100 I know Nothing about, and Today I just got an IBM 486 unit which runs but has no OS. I have Red Hat 6.1 which would probably be good for that unit. I'm building a 1600 Duron/40Gig/256Mb PC which will get Red Hat 9.1 for the WHOLE HD: That I'm willing to take the chance on. The Win95 PC runs very satisfactorilly but won't run a printer, so I would really like to put freeBSD and 6.1 linux on it too, but I have no OS discs for it and I have yet to learn how to Copy an OS, if possible (I know it CAN be done,but..) so I also hesitate to screw it up. SO specific size drive mounting points/partitions and all that would make it possible for a lot more dummies like me to proceed into the Unix world sooner. Please help. BossOldman.
re: newbi
Tiro
- September 13, 2007 19:48:38
If you can't figure out how to manage your BSD partitions, just use Debian. It will set them up for you automatically during the installation. Other than that, your post is a lot of rambling. I'm glad you are enthusiastic about the Open Source/Free Software movement. Just remember that those linux assholes are trying to steal your Freedom with the GPL.
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