GNet Solutions » FreeBSD Administration

This is a guide on how I manually setup FreeBSD with a ZFS root on a GPT formatted hard drive, without the help of a GUI or bsdinstall. This guide is intended to install FreeBSD using the installation DVD and will work offline.

• When the FreeBSD Installer Welcome message appears, choose Shell.

• Get a list of available drives:
  

  camcontrol devlist
  

• Create the GPT slices:
  

  gpart create -s gpt ada0
  

  1. Then create the boot slice:
     

     gpart add -b 40 -s 512K -t freebsd-boot -a 4k -l boot0 ada0
     

  2. Create the swap slice:
     

     gpart add -s 4G -t freebsd-swap -a 4k -l swap0 ada0
     

  3. Then create the root ZFS slice:
     

     gpart add -t freebsd-zfs -a 4k -l disk0 ada0 
     

• Create ZFS pool using the GPT disk labeled disk0, then export it:
  

  zpool create -o altroot=/mnt -o cachefile=/tmp/zpool.cache -m / -f rpool /dev/gpt/disk0 
  zpool export rpool
  

• Next import the ZFS pool using /mnt as the alternate root create the root dataset and settings:
  

  zpool import -o altroot=/mnt -o cachefile=/tmp/zpool.cache rpool
  zpool set bootfs=rpool rpool
  zfs set checksum=fletcher4 rpool
  zfs set atime=off rpool
  zfs create rpool/root
  

  • Then create some additional system datasets:
    

    zfs create -o canmount=off rpool/root/usr 
    zfs create -o canmount=off rpool/root/var 
    zfs create -o compression=on   -o exec=on  -o setuid=off rpool/root/tmp 
    zfs create -o compression=gzip -o setuid=off  rpool/root/usr/ports 
    zfs create -o compression=off  -o exec=off -o setuid=off rpool/root/usr/ports/distfiles 
    zfs create -o compression=off  -o exec=off -o setuid=off rpool/root/usr/ports/packages 
    zfs create -o compression=gzip -o exec=off -o setuid=off  rpool/root/usr/src 
    zfs create -o compression=lzjb rpool/root/usr/obj
    zfs create -o compression=lzjb -o exec=off -o setuid=off rpool/root/var/crash 
    zfs create -o compression=off  -o exec=off -o setuid=off rpool/root/var/empty 
    zfs create -o compression=lzjb -o exec=on  -o setuid=off rpool/root/var/tmp 
    

• Set the permissions of the temp directories in the zfs mount:
  

  chmod 1777 /mnt/tmp 
  chmod 1777 /mnt/var/tmp 
  

• Extract the base.txz and kernel.txz to the zfs root to install the base system:
  

  cat /usr/freebsd-dist/base.txz | tar --unlink -xpJf - -C /mnt
  cat /usr/freebsd-dist/kernel.txz | tar --unlink -xpJf - -C /mnt
  

• Add the initial system configuration:
  

  echo 'zfs_enable="YES"' >> /mnt/etc/rc.conf 
  echo 'sshd_enable="YES"' >> /mnt/etc/rc.conf 
  touch /mnt/etc/fstab
  

  • And setup networking using DHCP:
    

    echo 'ifconfig_em0="DHCP"' >> /mnt/etc/rc.conf
    echo 'hostname="freebsd.example.com"' >> /mnt/etc/rc.conf
    

  • (Optional) Setup networking using a static IP address instead:
    

    echo 'ifconfig_em0="inet 192.168.10.70 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 198.100.10.255"' >> /mnt/etc/rc.conf 
    echo 'defaultrouter="192.168.10.1"' >> /mnt/etc/rc.conf 
    echo 'hostname="freebsd.example.com"' >> /mnt/etc/rc.conf
    echo 'nameserver 192.168.10.1' >> /mnt/etc/resolv.conf
    

• Install the bootcode and set the boot partion to active:
  

  gpart bootcode -b /mnt/boot/pmbr -p /mnt/boot/gptzfsboot -i 1 ada0
  gpart set -a bootme -i 1 ada0
  

• Add the bootloader config:
  

  echo 'zfs_load="YES"' >> /mnt/boot/loader.conf 
  echo 'if_em_load="YES"' >> /mnt/boot/loader.conf 
  echo 'vfs.root.mountfrom="zfs:rpool"' >> /mnt/boot/loader.conf
  

• Copy the working zpool.cache file to the rpool:
  

  cp /tmp/zpool.cache /mnt/boot/zfs/zpool.cache
  

• Unmount the zpool:
  

  zpool export rpool
  

• Reboot the system and eject the FreeBSD install disc:
  

  reboot
  

Resources¶

• https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/42773/
• https://wiki.freebsd.org/RootOnZFS/GPTZFSBoot/9.0-RELEASE
• https://calomel.org/zfs_freebsd_root_install.html
• http://daemon-notes.com/articles/system/install-zfs/gpart
• http://daemon-notes.com/articles/system/install-zfs/zfs
• http://daemon-notes.com/articles/system/install-zfs/finish