INSTALLATION NOTES for OpenBSD/sgi 6.9
What is OpenBSD?
----------------
OpenBSD is a fully functional, multi-platform UN*X-like Operating
System based on Berkeley Networking Release 2 (Net/2) and 4.4BSD-Lite.
There are several operating systems in this family, but OpenBSD
differentiates itself by putting security and correctness first. The
OpenBSD team strives to achieve what is called a "secure by default"
status. This means that an OpenBSD user should feel safe that their
newly installed machine will not be compromised. This "secure by
default" goal is achieved by taking a proactive stance on security.
Since security flaws are essentially mistakes in design or implement-
ation, the OpenBSD team puts as much importance on finding and fixing
existing design flaws and implementation bugs as it does writing new
code. This means that an OpenBSD system will not only be more secure,
but it will be more stable. The source code for all critical system
components has been checked for remote-access, local-access, denial-
of-service, data destruction, and information-gathering problems.
In addition to bug fixing, OpenBSD has integrated strong cryptography
into the base system. A fully functional IPsec implementation is
provided as well as support for common protocols such as SSL and SSH.
Network filtering and monitoring tools such as packet filtering, NAT,
and bridging are also standard, as well as several routing services,
such as BGP and OSPF. For high performance demands, support for
hardware cryptography has also been added to the base system. Because
security is often seen as a tradeoff with usability, OpenBSD provides
as many security options as possible to allow the user to enjoy secure
computing without feeling burdened by it.
Because OpenBSD is from Canada, the export of Cryptography pieces
(such as OpenSSH and IPsec) to the world is not restricted.
(NOTE: OpenBSD can not be re-exported from the US once it has entered
the US. Because of this, take care NOT to get the distribution from
a mirror server in the US if you are outside of Canada and the US.)
A list of software and ideas developed by the OpenBSD project is
available on the web at https://www.OpenBSD.org/innovations.html.
A comprehensive list of the improvements brought by the 6.9 release
is also available at https://www.OpenBSD.org/69.html.
OpenBSD/sgi runs on several SGI workstations and servers built upon
64-bit MIPS processors (R4000 and up), including the Indigo, Indigo2,
Indy, O2, Octane, Origin/Onyx and Fuel/Tezro families.
Sources of OpenBSD:
-------------------
Please refer to https://www.openbsd.org/ftp.html for all the ways you may
acquire OpenBSD.
OpenBSD 6.9 Release Contents:
-----------------------------
The OpenBSD 6.9 release is organized in the following way. In the
.../6.9 directory, for each of the architectures having an OpenBSD 6.9
binary distribution, there is a sub-directory.
The sgi-specific portion of the OpenBSD 6.9 release is found in the
"sgi" subdirectory of the distribution. That subdirectory is laid
out as follows:
.../6.9/sgi/
INSTALL.sgi Installation notes; this file.
SHA256 Output of the cksum(1) program using the option
-a sha256, usable for verification of the
correctness of downloaded files.
SHA256.sig The above file, signed with the OpenBSD signing key
for the 6.9 release, usable for verification of the
integrity of the above file, and thus of the
downloaded files.
*.tgz sgi binary distribution sets; see below.
bsd.IP22 A stock GENERIC-IP22 sgi kernel for IP22 class
machines, which will be installed on such systems
during the install.
bsd.IP26 A stock GENERIC-IP26 sgi kernel for IP26 class
machines, which will be installed on such systems
during the install.
bsd.IP27 A stock GENERIC-IP27 sgi kernel for IP27 and IP35
class machines, which will be installed on such
systems during the install.
bsd.IP28 A stock GENERIC-IP28 sgi kernel for IP28 class
machines, which will be installed on such systems
during the install.
bsd.IP30 A stock GENERIC-IP30 sgi kernel for IP30 class
machines, which will be installed on such systems
during the install.
bsd.IP32 A stock GENERIC-IP32 sgi kernel for IP32 class
machines, which will be installed on such systems
during the install.
bsd.IP30.mp A stock GENERIC-IP30.MP sgi kernel for IP30 class
machines, with support for multiprocessor systems,
which can be used instead of the GENERIC-IP30 kernel
after the install.
bsd.rd.IP22 A RAMDISK-IP22 kernel; the embedded filesystem
contains the installation tools.
Used for installation and upgrades.
bsd.rd.IP26 A RAMDISK-IP26 kernel; the embedded filesystem
contains the installation tools.
Used for installation and upgrades.
bsd.rd.IP27 A RAMDISK-IP27 kernel; the embedded filesystem
contains the installation tools.
Used for installation and upgrades.
bsd.rd.IP28 A RAMDISK-IP28 kernel; the embedded filesystem
contains the installation tools.
Used for installation and upgrades.
bsd.rd.IP30 A RAMDISK-IP30 kernel; the embedded filesystem
contains the installation tools.
Used for installation and upgrades.
bsd.rd.IP32 A RAMDISK-IP32 kernel; the embedded filesystem
contains the installation tools.
Used for installation and upgrades.
install69.iso The sgi boot and installation CD-ROM image,
which contains the base and X sets, so that install
or upgrade can be done without network connectivity.
cd69.iso A simple bootable filesystem image consisting of
all the bsd.rd.* installation kernels above, suitable
to be used as a bootable CD-ROM image, but will require
the base and X sets be found via another media or
network.
boot32 A 32-bit ELF boot block for IP32 systems; will be
installed into the ``volume header'' of the boot
disk.
boot64 A 64-bit relocatable ELF boot block for IP26, IP27,
IP28, IP30 and IP35 systems; will be installed into
the ``volume header'' of the boot disk.
bootecoff A 32-bit ECOFF boot block for IP22 systems, also
used to boot ELF kernels over the network on
ELF-unaware PROM; will be installed into the
``volume header'' of the boot disk.
The OpenBSD/sgi binary distribution sets contain the binaries which
comprise the OpenBSD 6.9 release for sgi systems. There are eight
binary distribution sets. The binary distribution sets can be found in
the "sgi" subdirectory of the OpenBSD 6.9 distribution tree,
and are as follows:
base69 The OpenBSD/sgi 6.9 base binary distribution. You MUST
install this distribution set. It contains the base OpenBSD
utilities that are necessary for the system to run and be
minimally functional.
It includes shared library support, and excludes everything
described below.
[ 169.0 MB gzipped, 312.6 MB uncompressed ]
comp69 The OpenBSD/sgi Compiler tools. All of the tools relating
to C, C++ and Objective-C are supported. This set includes
the system include files (/usr/include), the linker, the
compiler tool chain, and the various system libraries
(except the shared libraries, which are included as part of
the base set).
This set also includes the manual pages for all of the
utilities it contains, as well as the system call and library
manual pages.
[ 48.5 MB gzipped, 190.5 MB uncompressed ]
game69 This set includes the games and their manual pages.
[ 2.6 MB gzipped, 7.1 MB uncompressed ]
man69 This set includes all of the manual pages for the binaries
and other software contained in the base set.
Note that it does not include any of the manual pages
that are included in the other sets.
[ 6.9 MB gzipped, 29.9 MB uncompressed ]
xbase69 This set includes the base X distribution. This includes
programs, headers and libraries.
[ 16.3 MB gzipped, 63.8 MB uncompressed ]
xfont69 This set includes all of the X fonts.
[ 38.4 MB gzipped, 56.6 MB uncompressed ]
xserv69 This set includes all of the X servers.
[ 6.5 MB gzipped, 20.2 MB uncompressed ]
xshare69 This set includes all text files equivalent between all
architectures.
[ 4.3 MB gzipped, 28.8 MB uncompressed ]
OpenBSD System Requirements and Supported Devices:
--------------------------------------------------
OpenBSD/sgi 6.9 runs on the following machine families:
IP22 class machines:
Indigo (R4x00 flavour only) (IP20)
Indigo2, Challenge M (IP22)
Indy, Challenge S (IP24)
(all processor configurations are supported)
IP26 class machines:
POWER Indigo2 (R8000)
IP27 class machines:
Origin 200
IP28 class machines:
POWER Indigo2 R10000
IP30 class machines:
Octane
Octane 2
IP32 class machines:
O2
O2+
(both R50000/RM52xx/RM70000 and R10000/R12000 configurations
are supported)
IP35 class machines:
Origin 3000
Origin 350, Onyx 350
Fuel
Tezro
Onyx 4
Verifying the OpenBSD Installation Media:
-----------------------------------------
As of OpenBSD 5.5, installations are able to verify files for the next
release. The OpenBSD 6.9 release was signed with the
/etc/signify/openbsd-69-base.pub release key.
If you have an existing OpenBSD 5.5 or higher installation, you can run
signify(1) to verify the signature and checksum. For example, run the following
to verify that the cd69.iso file was distributed by the OpenBSD team:
signify -C -p /etc/signify/openbsd-69-base.pub -x SHA256.sig cd69.iso
If you are unable to run or compile signify(1), use sha256(1) with the SHA256
file to see if a file was corrupt during the transfer.
Getting the OpenBSD System onto Useful Media:
---------------------------------------------
Installation is supported from several media types, including:
CD-ROM
FFS partitions
Remote NFS partition
HTTP
The steps necessary to prepare the distribution sets for installation
depend on which method of installation you choose. Some methods
require a bit of setup first that is explained below.
The installation allows installing OpenBSD directly from HTTP mirror
sites over the internet, however you must consider the speed and
reliability of your internet connection for this option. It may save
much time and frustration to download the distribution sets to a local
server or disk and perform the installation from there, rather than
directly from the internet.
The variety of options listed may seem confusing, but situations vary
widely in terms of what peripherals and what sort of network arrangements
a user has, the intent is to provide some way that will be practical.
To install OpenBSD using a remote partition, mounted via
NFS, you must do the following:
NOTE: This method of installation is recommended only for
those already familiar with using BSD network
configuration and management commands. If you aren't,
this documentation should help, but is not intended to
be all-encompassing.
Place the OpenBSD distribution sets you wish to install
into a directory on an NFS server, and make that directory
mountable by the machine on which you are installing or
upgrading OpenBSD. This will probably require modifying
the /etc/exports file of the NFS server and resetting
its mount daemon (mountd). (Both of these actions will
probably require superuser privileges on the server.)
You need to know the numeric IP address of the NFS
server, and, if the server is not on a network directly
connected to the machine on which you're installing or
upgrading OpenBSD, you need to know the numeric IP address
of the router closest to the OpenBSD machine. Finally,
you need to know the numeric IP address of the OpenBSD
machine itself.
Once the NFS server is set up properly and you have the
information mentioned above, you can proceed to the next
step in the installation or upgrade process.
If you are upgrading OpenBSD, you also have the option of installing
OpenBSD by putting the new distribution sets somewhere in your
existing file system, and using them from there. To do that, do
the following:
Place the distribution sets you wish to upgrade somewhere
in your current file system tree. At a bare minimum, you
must upgrade the "base" binary distribution, and so must
put the "base69" set somewhere in your file system. It
is recommended that you upgrade the other sets, as well.
Preparing your System for OpenBSD Installation:
-----------------------------------------------
Before you install your system, you should identify your system family and
familiarize yourself with the ARCBios setup and how to run programs from
the Command monitor prompt.
Identifying your system:
Due to significant design differences in SGI systems, OpenBSD
needs to use different kernels, depending on the system family.
There are currently five system families supported by OpenBSD:
IP22 family:
Indigo (R4x00 flavour only)
Indigo2, Challenge M
Indy, Challenge S
IP26 family:
POWER Indigo2 (R8000)
IP27 family:
Origin 200, Onyx 2
Origin 2000
IP28 family:
POWER Indigo2 R10000
IP30 family:
Octane, Octane 2
IP32 family:
O2, O2+
IP35 family:
Origin 350, Onyx 350
Fuel
Tezro
Onyx 4
You should use the kernels (bsd and bsd.rd) with the IP suffix
matching your family number, except for IP35 systems which use
IP27 kernels.
On Indigo2 systems, the particular family is not always easy to
figure out. When in doubt, access the maintenance console (see
below) and enter the ``version'' command. Its output will report
the IPxx family number of the system.
Accessing the Maintenance Console:
When the system starts up, press the ESC key or use the mouse and
click the ``stop for maintenance'' button. Once in the System
Maintenance Menu, select '5' (or click the appropriate icon if you
are using the graphics console) to go into the Command Monitor.
If the internal disk with the lowest SCSI ID does not contain a
valid Volume Header, but is bootable, the Maintenance Console will
be entered by default.
The first time the Maintenance Console is entered, it may be
necessary to force a reset of the environment to its default
settings by entering the ``resetenv'' command at the chevron
prompt. If some variables have been set explicitly, this may
disturb the normal OpenBSD boot process.
Switching from serial to graphics console and vice versa:
To change to serial console, go into the ARCBios Maintenance Console
and change the ``console'' environment variable, and power-cycle
the machine.
>> setenv console d
will select 8N1, no flow control, serial console on the first serial
port (labeled ``(1)''), while
>> setenv console g
will select the graphics console.
The speed of the serial console is controlled by the ``dbaud'' environment
variable, and defaults to 9600 bps if this variable is not set.
Not all graphics options are currently supported by OpenBSD. If your
system is configured for graphics console but the kernel does not
support your frame buffer, it will fallback to serial console on the
first serial port.
As of OpenBSD 6.9, the only unsupported graphics console devices are:
- Infinite Reality (Kona) frame buffer on IP27/IP35 Onyx systems
- Voyager (Ultimate Vision) frame buffer on IP35 Onyx 4 systems
Switching from L1 console to serial console and vice versa:
IP35 systems without a graphics console can have the PROM console output
either on the L1 console serial port, or the regular serial port.
The `console' command at the PROM prompt, can select between them:
>> console sc
will switch to the L1 serial port, while
>> console ioc3
or
>> console ioc4
will select the regular serial port, depending on the I/O board type.
On Fuel systems, there is no external L1 serial port, so `console sc'
should never be used on these machines.
Origin 300 and 3000 families can switch between `sc' and `ioc3', while
Origin 350 and 3500 families (including Tezro and Onyx 4) can switch
between `sc' and `ioc4'.
The OpenBSD kernel only supports serial console on the regular serial
ports; if your PROM console is on the L1 port, the kernel console will
nevertheless pick the first IOC3 or IOC4 serial port.
Setting the environment:
When setting up the system to boot from disk, the ``OSLoader''
environment variable will need to be changed.
Its default value is ``sashARCS'', ``sash'' or ``sash64'', which is
IRIX's standalone shell and loader. Set it to ``boot'', the name under
which the OpenBSD boot loader has been installed.
The kernel image loaded by default is specified in the ``OSLoadFilename''
variable, which defaults to ``unix''. To boot OpenBSD, set it to
``bsd''.
To enable automatic booting of OpenBSD once the machine has passed its
diagnostic tests, change the value of ``AutoLoad'' to ``Yes''.
Installing the OpenBSD System:
------------------------------
Installing OpenBSD is a relatively simple process. If you take your time
and are careful to read the information presented by the installer, you
shouldn't have any trouble.
There are several ways to install OpenBSD onto a disk. The easiest way
in terms of preliminary setup is to use the bootable CD-ROM mini image.
Alternatively, the OpenBSD ramdisk kernel can be booted from the network,
using a bootp/tftp server.
Booting from CD-ROM installation media:
From the System Maintenance Menu, select '2' (or click on the
appropriate icon if in graphics console) to Install System Software.
If necessary, select the proper CD-ROM drive, and press enter to
confirm your choice. Insert the installation CD-ROM (if you did not
do so already) and press enter to boot the system.
If the boot is successful, you will get a loader version message,
executable sizes, and then the kernel copyright and device probe
messages. Boot failure modes are typically a lot of CD-ROM drive
activity, but no messages or complaints about magic numbers,
checksums or formats.
If the system does not complain about being able to read the CD-ROM,
but of not being able to load a particular file, you can nevertheless
boot manually. This is the case on IP22 systems.
To boot manually from the CD-ROM, select ``Enter Command Monitor''
at the menu, and invoke the bootloader and ramdisk image manually.
For example, on an IP22 system, automatic boot may fail with:
Cannot load scsi(1)cdrom(4)partition(8)sashARCS.
Text start 0x10000, size 0xa120 doesn't fit in a FreeMemory area.
Cannot load scsi(1)cdrom(4)partition(8)sashARCS -- not enough space.
or:
Cannot load scsi(1)cdrom(4)partition(8)sashARCS.
Error 15 while loading scsi(1)cdrom(4)partition(8)sashARCS
The name of the CD-ROM drive is then ``scsi(1)cdrom(4)'', and the manual
boot command will be:
>> scsi(1)cdrom(4)partition(8)bootecoff
scsi(1)cdrom(4)partition(0)/bsd.rd.IP22
Note that this is a single commandline, the two paths should be separated
with spaces.
Booting over the network:
First, a bootp or dhcpd server needs to be set up. The bootpd(8) or
dhcpd(8) manual page on your server should provide detailed information
on how to set up the server.
The PROM, by default, will configure itself to use the IP address set in
the `netaddr' environment variable. To force the PROM to always get an
address from a bootp or dhcp server, clear the variable (`unsetenv netaddr')
before attempting to boot from the network. Alternatively, you may want to
make sure the value of this variable is correct.
Note that, if the `netaddr' variable is unset, the PROM will initialize it
to the address obtained from the bootp or dhcp server.
The bootp or dhcp server needs to know the ethernet address of the system.
On Indigo, Indigo2, Indy and O2 systems, this address can be found by using
the ``printenv'' command in the Maintenance Console, looking for the
``eaddr'' variable.
On other systems, or if this variable is missing, this address is usually
written on a factory sticker on the back of the machine.
The server should also provide a tftp location, where the proper bsd.rd
file should be available.
IMPORTANT! Older PROM are unable to connect to a tftp server
on a port number greater than 32767; if booting stalls almost
immediately, it might be necessary to restrict the tftp server
to only use 15-bit port numbers.
This situation can be detected by running tcpdump on the tftp
server, and looking for icmp `port unreachable' errors from the
sgi system.
The following PROM versions are known to exhibit this troublesome
behaviour:
- on Indigo:
>> version
PROM Monitor SGI Version 4.0.5G Rev B IP20, Nov 10, 1992 (BE)
- on Indy:
>> version
PROM Monitor SGI Version 5.1 Rev B3 IP24 Sep 17, 1993 (BE)
On the other hand, the following PROM versions are known to be
unaffected by this problem:
- on Indigo2:
>> version
PROM Monitor SGI Version 5.3 Rev C IP22 Oct 20, 1994 (BE)
- on Indy:
>> version
PROM Monitor SGI Version 5.3 Rev B7 R4X00 IP24 Feb 16, 1995 (BE)
PROM Monitor SGI Version 5.3 Rev B10 R4X00/R5000 IP24 Feb 12, 1996 (BE)
Note that these lists do not pretend to be complete.
If the server system runs OpenBSD, the following command can be
used to enforce a safe port number:
# sysctl net.inet.ip.portlast=32767
don't forget to restore the previous value of this sysctl after
the troublesome system has booted.
Once the server is set up, boot with the following command in the
Maintenance Console:
>> bootp()bsd.rd.IP32
(replacing `IP32' by the family name suitable for your machine).
On IP22-class systems, or if the PROM complains about the file format,
such as:
>> bootp()bsd.rd.IP22
[...]
Cannot load bootp()bsd.rd.IP22.
Problem reading elf structure at offset -2004877312.
Unable to execute bootp()bsd.rd.IP22
... then this means that the PROM is too old to know about the ELF file
format the OpenBSD kernel is provided in. In this case, the kernel needs
to be booted from the ``bootecoff'' boot block, which has to be put on the
tftp server as well, with:
>> bootp()bootecoff bootp()bsd.rd.IP22
If the boot aborts early with a memory related error message, such as:
>> bootp()bootecoff bootp()bsd.rd.IP22
[...]
Cannot load bootp()bootecoff.
Text start 0x80020f0, size 0xa030 doesn't fit in a FreeMemory area.
Unable to execute bootp()/bootecoff
... then it is necessary to clean up after an earlier unsuccessful (or
aborted) boot attempt. Just leave the PROM interactive mode with `exit',
and at the maintenance menu, choose `Enter Command Monitor' again.
Installing the system:
You should now be ready to install OpenBSD.
The following is a walk-through of the steps you will take while getting
OpenBSD installed on your hard disk.
The installation procedure is designed to gather as much information about
your system setup as possible at the beginning, so that no human interaction
is required as soon as the questions are over.
The order of these questions might be quite disconcerting if you are used to
other installation procedures, including older OpenBSD versions.
If any question has a default answer, it will be displayed in brackets ("[]")
after the question. If you wish to stop the installation, you may hit
Control-C at any time, but if you do, you'll have to begin the installation
process again from scratch. Using Control-Z to suspend the process may be a
better option, or at any prompt enter "!" to get a shell, from which "exit"
will return you back to that prompt.
Boot your machine from the installation media as described above.
It will take a while to load the kernel especially from a slow
network connection, most likely more than a minute. If some action
doesn't eventually happen, or the spinning cursor has stopped and
nothing further has happened, either your boot media is bad, your
diskless setup isn't correct, or you may have a hardware or
configuration problem.
Once the kernel has loaded, you will be presented with the
OpenBSD kernel boot messages which contain information about
the hardware that was detected and supported by OpenBSD.
After the kernel is done initializing, you will be asked whether
you wish to do an "(I)nstall", "(U)pgrade" or an "(A)utoinstall".
Enter "I" for a fresh install or "U" to upgrade an existing
installation. Enter "A" to start an unattended installation
where all of your answers are supplied in a response file (more
on that in "Preparing an unattended installation of OpenBSD").
If you are connected with a serial console, you will next be
asked for your terminal type.
You should choose the terminal type from amongst those listed.
(If your terminal type is xterm, just use vt220).
If you are connected using a glass console, you will next be
asked for your keyboard layout (the default being the US QWERTY
layout). Depending on your keyboard type, not all international
layouts may be supported; answering "?" (which, on QWERTY layouts,
is the key to the left of the right "shift" key, shifted) will
display a list of supported layouts.
(If you do not need to change the keyboard layout, just press
enter.)
The first question you will be asked is the system hostname.
Reply with the name of the system, without any domain part.
You will now be given an opportunity to configure the network.
The network configuration you enter (if any) can then be used to
do the install from another system using HTTP, and will also be
the configuration used by the system after the installation is
complete.
The install program will give you a list of network interfaces you
can configure. For each network interface you select to configure,
you will be asked for:
- the symbolic host name to use (except for the first
interface setup, which will reuse the host name entered at the
beginning of the installation).
- the IPv4 settings: address and netmask. If the IP address
should be obtained from a DHCP server, simply enter "dhcp"
when asked for the address.
- the IPv6 settings (address, prefix length, and default router).
You may enter "autoconf" when asked for the address for the
interface to configure automatically via router solicitation
messages.
After all interfaces have been configured, if there have been
any IPv4 interfaces set up, you will be asked for the IPv4 default
route. This step is skipped if you only have one IPv4 interface
setup, and it is configured with DHCP.
The install program will also ask you for your DNS domain name,
and the domain name servers, unless this information has
already been obtained from a DHCP server during interface setup.
You will then be asked to enter the initial root password
of the system, twice.
Although the install program will only check that the two
passwords match, you should make sure to use a strong password.
As a minimum, the password should be at least eight characters
long and a mixture of both lower and uppercase letters, numbers
and punctuation characters.
You will then be asked whether you want to start sshd(8) by
default.
You will now be given the possibility to set up a user account
on the forthcoming system. This user will be added to the
"wheel" group.
Enter the desired login name, or "n" if you do not want to
add a user account at this point. Valid login names are
sequences of digits and lowercase letters, and must start
with a lowercase letter. If the login name matches this
criteria, and doesn't conflict with any of the administrative
user accounts (such as "root", "daemon" or "ftp"), you
will be prompted for the user's descriptive name, as well
as its password, twice.
As for the root password earlier, the install program will only
check that the two passwords match, but you should make sure to
use a strong password here as well.
If you have chosen to set up a user account, and you had chosen
to start sshd(8) on boot, you will be asked if you want to allow
sshd(8) logins as root.
Depending on the installation media you are using, you may now
be given the opportunity to configure the time zone your system
will use. If the installation program skips this question, do
not be alarmed: the time zone will be configured at the end of
the installation.
The installation program will now tell you which disks it can
install on, and ask you which it should use.
Reply with the name of your root disk.
The file system layout is stored in the OpenBSD disk label. Each
file system is stored in its own "disk label partition", which
is a subdivision of the OpenBSD disk partition you created. In
the text below, "partition" refers to these subdivisions.
You will be shown a default layout with the recommended file
systems. This default layout is based on the disk size.
You will be given the choice of accepting the proposed layout,
editing it, or creating your own custom layout. These
last two choices will invoke the disklabel(8) interactive editor,
allowing you to create your desired layout.
Within the editor, you will see at least a "c" partition of
fstype "unused". This represents the whole disk and cannot be
modified.
You must create partition "a" as a native OpenBSD partition, i.e.
one with "4.2BSD" as the fstype, to hold the root file system.
In addition to partition "a" you should create partition "b" with
fstype "swap", and native OpenBSD partitions to hold separate file
systems such as /usr, /tmp, /var, and /home.
You will need to provide a mount point for all partitions you
define. Partitions without mount points, or not of the
4.2BSD fstype, will neither be formatted nor mounted during the
installation.
For quick help while in the interactive editor, enter "?".
The "z" command (which deletes all partitions and starts with a
clean label), the "A" command (which performs the automatic
partition layout) and the "n" command (to change mount points)
are of particular interest.
Although the partitions' position and size are written in exact
sector values, you do not need a calculator to create your
partitions! Human-friendly units can be specified by adding "k",
"m" or "g" after any numbers to have them converted to kilobytes,
megabytes or gigabytes. Or you may specify a percentage of the
disk size using "%" as the suffix.
Enter "M" to view the entire manual page (see the info on the
"-E" flag). To exit the editor enter "q".
No partitions should overlap with the SGI Volume Header, which by
default will use the first 3134 sectors.
After the layout has been saved, new filesystems will be
created on all partitions with mount points.
This will DESTROY ALL EXISTING DATA on those partitions.
After configuring your root disk, the installer will
return to the list of available disks to configure.
You can choose the other disks to use with OpenBSD in
any order, and will get to set up their layout similarly
to the root disk above. However, for non-root disks,
you will not be proposed a default partition layout.
When all your disks are configured, simply hit return
at the disk prompt.
After these preparatory steps have been completed, you will be
able to extract the distribution sets onto your system. There
are several install methods supported:
HTTP, CD-ROM, NFS or a local disk partition.
To install via HTTP:
To begin an HTTP install you will need the following
pieces of information:
1) Proxy server URL if you are using a URL-based HTTP
proxy (squid, CERN FTP, Apache 1.2 or higher).
You need to define a proxy if you are behind a
firewall that blocks outgoing HTTP connections
(assuming you have a proxy available to use).
2) The IP address (or hostname if you configured
DNS servers earlier in the install) of an HTTP
server carrying the OpenBSD 6.9 distribution.
The installation program will try to fetch a list
of such servers; depending on your network settings,
this might fail. If the list could be fetched, it
will be displayed, and you can choose an entry from
the list (the first entries are expected to be the
closest mirrors to your location).
3) The directory holding the distribution sets.
Then refer to the section named "installation set selection"
below.
To install from CD-ROM:
When installing from a CD-ROM, you will be asked which
device holds the distribution sets. This will typically
be "cd0". If there is more than one partition on the
CD-ROM, you will be asked which partition the distribution
is to be loaded from. This is normally partition "a".
You will also have to provide the relative path to the
directory on the CD-ROM which holds the distribution, for
the sgi this is "6.9/sgi".
Then refer to the section named "installation set selection"
below.
To install from an NFS mounted directory:
When installing from an NFS-mounted directory, you must
have completed network configuration above, and also
set up the exported file system on the NFS server in
advance.
First you must identify the IP address of the NFS server
to load the distribution from, and the file system the
server expects you to mount.
The install program will also ask whether or not TCP
should be used for transport (the default is UDP). Note
that TCP only works with newer NFS servers.
You will also have to provide the relative path to the
directory on the file system where the distribution sets
are located. Note that this path should not be prefixed
with a "/".
Then refer to the section named "installation set selection"
below.
To install from a local disk partition:
When installing from a local disk partition, you will
first have to identify which disk holds the distribution
sets.
This is normally "sdN", where N is a number.
Next you will have to identify the partition within that disk
that holds the distribution; this is a single letter between
"a" and "p".
You will also have to identify the type of file system
residing in the partition identified. Currently, you can
only install from partitions that have been formatted as the
Berkeley fast file system (ffs).
You will also have to provide the relative path to the
directory on the file system where the distribution sets
are located. Note that this path should not be prefixed
with a "/".
Then refer to the next section.
Installation set selection:
A list of available distribution sets found on the
given location will be listed.
You may individually select distribution sets to install
by entering their names or wildcards (e.g. "*.tgz" or
"base*|comp*"), or you may enter "all" to select all the
sets (which is what most users will want to do).
You may also enter "abort" to deselect everything and
restart the selection from scratch, or unselect sets
by entering their name prefixed with "-" (e.g. "-x*").
It is also possible to enter an arbitrary filename and
have it treated as a file set.
When you are done selecting distribution sets, enter
"done". The files will begin to extract.
After the files have been extracted, you will be given the choice
to select a new location from which to install distribution sets.
If there have been errors extracting the sets from the previous
location, or if some sets have been missing, this allows you to
select a better source.
Also, if the installation program complains that the distribution
sets you have been using do not match their recorded checksums, you
might want to check your installation source (although this can
happen between releases, if a snapshot is being updated on a mirror
server with newer files while you are installing).
The last thing you might need to configure, if you did not get
the chance to earlier, is the time zone your system will be using.
For this work properly, it is expected that you have installed at
least the "base69" and "bsd" distribution sets.
The installation program will then proceed to save the system
configuration, create all the device nodes needed by the installed
system, and will install bootblocks on the root disk.
On multiprocessor systems, if the bsd.mp kernel has been installed,
it will be renamed to "bsd", which is the default kernel the boot
blocks look for. The single processor kernel, "bsd", will be
available as "bsd.sp".
Finally, you will be asked whether you would like to install
non-free firmware files (which can't be tightly integrated to
the OpenBSD system) on first boot, by invoking fw_update(8) on
the next boot.
Congratulations, you have successfully installed OpenBSD 6.9. When you
reboot into OpenBSD, you should log in as "root" at the login prompt.
You should create yourself an account, if you skipped this step during
installation, and protect it and the "root" account with good passwords.
The install program leaves root an initial mail message. We recommend
you read it, as it contains answers to basic questions you might have
about OpenBSD, such as configuring your system, installing packages,
getting more information about OpenBSD, sending in your dmesg output
and more. To do this, run
mail
and then just enter "more 1" to get the first message. You quit mail by
entering "q".
Some of the files in the OpenBSD 6.9 distribution might need to be
tailored for your site. We recommend you run:
man afterboot
which will tell you about a bunch of the files needing to be reviewed.
If you are unfamiliar with UN*X-like system administration, it's
recommended that you buy a book that discusses it.
Preparing an unattended installation of OpenBSD:
------------------------------------------------
If "(A)utoinstall" is chosen at the install prompt or if the
installation system detects that it booted from the network, and
isn't interrupted within 5 seconds, it attempts a fully-automatic
installation.
The installer runs dhclient(8) on the network interface the system
booted from, or in case of multiple interfaces it will ask which one
to use. Upon success, it retrieves a response file via HTTP. If that
fails, the installer asks for the response file location, which can be
either a URL or a local path, and retrieves the response file from
there.
The "next-server" DHCP option specifies the hostname part of the URL,
as in "http://<next-server>/install.conf". The "filename" DHCP
parameter specifies the installer mode, e.g. "auto_install". On
architectures where this parameter is used for netbooting, create
a symbolic link named "auto_install" pointing to the boot program.
The response file contains lines with key/value pairs separated by
an equals sign "=", where the key is a non-ambiguous part (up to the
question mark) of the installer question, consisting of whitespace
separated words. The value is what would have been entered at the
interactive prompt. Empty lines and lines beginning with a "#"
character are ignored. The installer uses default answers in case
of missing answers.
Here is a response file example that uses a hashed password (see
encrypt(1) for more details) for root and a public ssh key for the
user that is created during the installation.
System hostname = openbsd
Password for root = $2a$14$Z4xRMg8vDpgYH...GVot3ySoj8yby
Setup a user = puffy
Password for user = *************
Public ssh key for user = ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1...g3Aqre puffy@ai
What timezone are you in = Europe/Stockholm
Location of sets = http
HTTP Server = ftp.eu.openbsd.org
The "System hostname" key above matches the following full question
asked during an interactive installation:
System hostname? (short form, e.g. 'foo')
While the installation is in progress the installer writes all output
to the file /ai.log, which is available as mail on the freshly
installed system after the initial reboot. If the installation is
successful the system will reboot automatically; otherwise, you will
be dropped back into the shell where you can look at the /ai.log file
or try again.
Upgrading a previously-installed OpenBSD System:
------------------------------------------------
Warning! Upgrades to OpenBSD 6.9 are currently only supported from the
immediately previous release. The upgrade process will also work with older
releases, but might not execute some migration tasks that would be necessary
for a proper upgrade.
The best solution, whenever possible, is to backup your data and reinstall
from scratch. As a minimum, if the toolchain (the "comp" set) was installed,
you should remove all files within /usr/include before attempting to
upgrade.
To upgrade OpenBSD 6.9 from a previous version, start with the general
instructions in the section "Installing OpenBSD".
Boot from the CD-ROM or the bsd.rd kernel.
When prompted, select the (U)pgrade option rather than the (I)nstall
option at the prompt in the install process.
You will be presented with a welcome message, and depending on how you are
connected to the system, you will be asked to set the terminal type or to
choose a keyboard layout.
The upgrade script will ask you for the existing root partition, and
will use the existing filesystems defined in /etc/fstab to install the
new system in. It will also use your existing network parameters.
From then, the upgrade procedure is very close to the installation
procedure described earlier in this document.
However, it is strongly advised that you unpack the etc.tgz and the
xetc.tgz files found in /var/sysmerge in a temporary
directory and merge changes by hand, or with the help of the sysmerge(8)
helper script, since all components of your system may not function
correctly until your files in "/etc" are updated.
Getting source code for your OpenBSD System:
--------------------------------------------
Now that your OpenBSD system is up and running, you probably want to get
access to source code so that you can recompile pieces of the system.
You can get the pieces over the internet using anonymous CVS, rsync,
FTP or HTTP(s). For more information, see:
https://www.OpenBSD.org/anoncvs.html
https://www.OpenBSD.org/ftp.html
Using online OpenBSD documentation:
-----------------------------------
Documentation is available if you first install the manual pages
distribution set. Traditionally, the UN*X "man pages" (documentation)
are denoted by "name(section)". Some examples of this are
intro(1),
man(1),
apropos(1),
passwd(1),
passwd(5) and
afterboot(8).
The section numbers group the topics into several categories, but three
are of primary interest: user commands are in section 1, file formats
are in section 5, and administrative information is in section 8.
The "man" command is used to view the documentation on a topic, and is
started by entering "man [section] topic". The brackets [] around the
section should not be entered, but rather indicate that the section is
optional. If you don't ask for a particular section, the topic with the
least-numbered section name will be displayed. For instance, after
logging in, enter
man passwd
to read the documentation for passwd(1). To view the documentation for
passwd(5), enter
man 5 passwd
instead.
If you are unsure of what man page you are looking for, enter
apropos subject-word
where "subject-word" is your topic of interest; a list of possibly
related man pages will be displayed.
Adding third party software - packages and ports:
--------------------------------------------------------
As complete as your OpenBSD system is, you may want to add any of several
excellent third party software applications. There are several ways to do
this. You can:
1) Use the OpenBSD package collection to grab a pre-compiled
and tested version of the application for your hardware.
2) Use the OpenBSD ports collection to automatically get any
needed source file, apply any required patches, create the
application, and install it for you.
3) Obtain the source code and build the application based
upon whatever installation procedures are provided with the
application.
Instructions for installing applications from the various sources using
the different installation methods follow.
You should also refer to the packages(7) manual page.
Installing applications from the ftp.OpenBSD.org package collection:
All available packages for your architecture have been placed on
ftp.OpenBSD.org in the directory pub/OpenBSD/6.9/packages/mips64/
You may want to peruse this to see what packages are available. The
packages are also on the OpenBSD mirror sites. See
https://www.OpenBSD.org/ftp.html
for a list of current mirror sites.
Installation of a package is very easy.
1) become the superuser (root)
2) use the "pkg_add" command to install the software
"pkg_add" is smart enough to know how to download the software
from the OpenBSD HTTP server. Example:
$ su
Password: <enter your root password>
# pkg_add \
http://ftp.OpenBSD.org/pub/OpenBSD/6.9/packages/mips64/emacs-21.4p32.tgz
Installing applications from the OpenBSD ports collection:
See https://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq15.html#Ports for current
instructions on obtaining and installing OpenBSD ports.
You should also refer to the ports(7) manual page.
Installing other applications:
If an OpenBSD package or port does not exist for an application
you're pretty much on your own. The first thing to do is ask
<ports@OpenBSD.org> if anyone is working on a port -- there may
be one in progress. If no such port exists, you might want to
look at the FreeBSD ports or NetBSD pkgsrc for inspiration.
If you can't find an existing port, try to make your own and
feed it back to OpenBSD. That's how our ports collection grows.
Some details can be found in the OpenBSD Porter's Handbook at
https://www.openbsd.org/faq/ports/
with more help coming from the mailing list, <ports@OpenBSD.org>.
Administrivia:
--------------
There are various mailing lists available via the mailing list
server at <majordomo@OpenBSD.org>. To get help on using the mailing
list server, send mail to that address with an empty body, and it will
reply with instructions.
More information about the various OpenBSD mailing list and proper
netiquette is available at
https://www.OpenBSD.org/mail.html
To report bugs, use the "sendbug" command shipped with OpenBSD,
and fill in as much information about the problem as you can. Good
bug reports include lots of details. Additionally, bug reports can
be sent by mail to:
bugs@OpenBSD.org
As a favor, please avoid mailing huge documents or files to the
mailing lists. Instead, put the material you would have sent on
a web server, then mail the appropriate list about it, or if
you'd rather not do that, mail the list saying you'll send the data
to those who want it.
For more information about reporting bugs, see
https://www.OpenBSD.org/report.html