Comments on: How to install FreeBSD 8.0 using only ZFS partitions? (Newbie proof, I hope) http://www.rhyous.com/2009/12/01/how-to-install-freebsd-8-0-using-only-zfs-partitions/ Knight of the Code Sun, 19 May 2013 16:44:14 -0600 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: varj http://www.rhyous.com/2009/12/01/how-to-install-freebsd-8-0-using-only-zfs-partitions/#comment-2255 varj Sat, 10 Sep 2011 11:41:33 +0000 http://rhyous.com/?p=654#comment-2255 i get this far too, it seems somehow the bootloader isn't correctly installed. (after "F1 FREEBSD F6 PXE", you're supposed to get the list with boot normal, single user mode, etc to the left and the FreeBSD logo on the right, right?)

]]> By: jh http://www.rhyous.com/2009/12/01/how-to-install-freebsd-8-0-using-only-zfs-partitions/#comment-2158 jh Thu, 14 Jul 2011 07:36:20 +0000 http://rhyous.com/?p=654#comment-2158 This didn't work for me. I didn't understand the usage of "cat" in the script (nor the cryptic comments by users; my experience and experiments with the cat command tell me it can't work) and replaced that part by creating the (nonexistent) fstab file with two echo... lines.

Booting resulted in:
F1 FreeBSD

F6 PXE
Boot: F1

but no further progress.
Thanks anyway, jh

]]> By: SIFE http://www.rhyous.com/2009/12/01/how-to-install-freebsd-8-0-using-only-zfs-partitions/#comment-1991 SIFE Wed, 02 Mar 2011 23:58:16 +0000 http://rhyous.com/?p=654#comment-1991 i followed all steps with no error, but in end I can't boot the system with no error showing, I test this in VirtualBox 3.2.12 with 8.2-RELEASE-AMD64.
To those didn't find lib32 directory, because this directory available only in AMD64 and IA64 I guess.

]]> By: Kengaru http://www.rhyous.com/2009/12/01/how-to-install-freebsd-8-0-using-only-zfs-partitions/#comment-1938 Kengaru Sat, 05 Feb 2011 22:32:01 +0000 http://rhyous.com/?p=654#comment-1938 Great howto!

May could help someone, or improve this post:

Unfortunately, trying to install the 8.1-RELEASE got no ATA DVD drive in old PC whose have to be the home router and NAS. Also, no USB boot at BIOS. So, it's impossible to boot from DVD or memstick image.

Booted from Live FS CDROM, then, after creating pool (RAIDZ1) and ZFS hierarchy, tried to mount the memstick image on my 1Gb USB drive (/dev/da0a) to any dir under /mnt, then started extracting distributions. Kernel panic - low kmem, I have only 512Mb RAM on the box.

We brake for nobody!

So, next boot we set vm.kmem_size="330M"
vm.kmem_size_max="330M"
vfs.zfs.arc_max="40M"
vfs.zfs.vdev.cache.size="5M" at the loader prompt and then boot. (Don't forget to place that to the /boot/loader.conf).

And, after boot and diving to fixit shell, zpool import -f zroot to get where we were when crashed. Then, followed your manual, all goes like a charm.

Thanks a lot.

]]> By: mike http://www.rhyous.com/2009/12/01/how-to-install-freebsd-8-0-using-only-zfs-partitions/#comment-237 mike Sat, 18 Sep 2010 16:10:06 +0000 http://rhyous.com/?p=654#comment-237 Ok, there is now an actually easy way of installing FreeBSD root on ZFS using mfsbsd livecd. I did a complete write up on my blog: http://mpietruszka.com/2010/08/14/freebsd-on-zfs-update-1/, but all you really need to get it going is just the mfsbsd livecd and two commands:

Mount the cd:
mount_cd9660 /dev/acd0 /cdrom
Install ZFS version 15/FreebSD:
zfsinstall -d /dev/ad0 -t /cdrom/8.1-RELEASE-amd64.tar.xz -s 4G -V 15

Just to let you know, pjd has started testing ZFS version 28 so we might see that trickle down real soon as well.

]]> By: Tuco http://www.rhyous.com/2009/12/01/how-to-install-freebsd-8-0-using-only-zfs-partitions/#comment-236 Tuco Thu, 16 Sep 2010 12:58:33 +0000 http://rhyous.com/?p=654#comment-236 Not exactly the same, but Debian GNU/kFreeBSD has an installer with ZFS support: http://robertmh.wordpress.com/2010/09/06/debian-installer-with-zfs/

]]> By: dmitri http://www.rhyous.com/2009/12/01/how-to-install-freebsd-8-0-using-only-zfs-partitions/#comment-235 dmitri Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:09:19 +0000 http://rhyous.com/?p=654#comment-235 That should be: cat < /zroot/etc/fstab as in the docs. Sorry.

]]> By: dmitri http://www.rhyous.com/2009/12/01/how-to-install-freebsd-8-0-using-only-zfs-partitions/#comment-234 dmitri Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:06:07 +0000 http://rhyous.com/?p=654#comment-234 Thanks! Worked like a charm with 8.1
According to the docs, installing the bootloader (the steps "cd /usr/src/sys/boot/" ... make, et c.,)
are not required because 8.1 ships with a zfs aware bootloader
However, it tried it just to see, and it does no harm.

To n00b-proof your script, you might want to change:
"cat < /zroot/etc/fstab" to
"cat < /zroot/etc/fstab" _I_ know that ^D will get me an EOF, but someone just typing the script might get 'EOF' as the last line of /etc/fstab which might result in some interesting, though harmless, errors.

Once again, thanks for a really great post. You rock, and now so does my Beastie.

]]> By: vincent http://www.rhyous.com/2009/12/01/how-to-install-freebsd-8-0-using-only-zfs-partitions/#comment-233 vincent Mon, 05 Jul 2010 19:31:24 +0000 http://rhyous.com/?p=654#comment-233 nice job, many thks ... just one question, I tried with success a slight updated version of this how-to with a mirrored zpool but I try now to add a second (non mirrored) zpool on the same disk, ... is there a way to do this ?

]]> By: mike http://www.rhyous.com/2009/12/01/how-to-install-freebsd-8-0-using-only-zfs-partitions/#comment-232 mike Tue, 22 Jun 2010 01:10:22 +0000 http://rhyous.com/?p=654#comment-232 I would like to second what the poster above me (ben) has said. I do receive the same error messages upon boot.

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