FreeBSD Network Tutorial/How-To Guide Page 1

A Network Tutorial/How-To Guide

for the FreeBSD OS
by Nick Rogness

The freebsd handbook clearly defines on how to install FreeBSD but I figured I would just run
through it quick for you newbies out there.

Hardware

First we need to look at what type of computer we are installing on. Pretty much any Intel
architecture will work...From a 386 to a PIII. Also, AMD chips work as well. As a side note Alpha
machines will work but are not covered in this document.

For RAM, you need at least 8MB of memory to install, although 16 is recommended.

For Hard Drive size, you should have at least a 540MB, although having at least 1GB of drive space
to play with is nice.

A keyboard, Monitor, and floppy drive are a must to getting FreeBSD installed on your machine.

Also, a network card (NIC) or modem is recommended to make the most out of your FreeBSD
experience. It is not necessary but I would highly recommend it. You will see why it makes sense to
have one of these network mediums in later sections... and it is necessary to have one of these to
install FreeBSD via the Internet (FTP [see below]). For network cards, the official supported cards
are located here. For modems, a good thing to remember is to stay away from Win Modems, use a
hardware modem instead.

The hardware requirements are just from my personal experience. The official requirements are
located here.

It is also important to note that your hardware configuration depends highly on what you are trying
to accomplish. For example, if you are planning on just using BSD as an internet router (gateway)
for your home network then a 486 with 16MB of RAM, 540MB hard drive, and 2 network cards is
more than sufficient to accomplish this. But, if you plan on using X Window (graphical utility similar
to Microsoft Windows) then you should have a little more horsepower, ie Pentium or higher. As you
add more complex functionality, sometimes it helps if you have the extra horsepower to play with.
Nowadays, hardware is relatively cheap so it shouldn't be a problem to meet these demands. Also,
you may want to check the official hardware compatibility located at the link above to make sure
that FreeBSD has drivers available for your specific hardware.

http://freebsd.rogness.net/redirect.cgi?starterkit/preinstallation.html 06/23/2004 11:17:18 PM

FreeBSD Network Tutorial/How-To Guide Page 2
Preinstall Thoughts

Now you have a machine picked out that you want install BSD on. Excellent [getting exicted!]. Now
we need to actual figure out how to get the OS. There are a couple of ways to get it. FTP or
CDROM.

First off, CDROM. Yep, like a lot of other OS's you can FreeBSD from CDROM at your local
computer store. I believe you can get these in different packages. "The Complete FreeBSD",
"FreeBSD Power Pack", "The FreeBSD Handbook", just to name a few. These packages, which also
come with book, can be purchased online from several vendors, eg FreeBSD Mall, or at your local
computer store as mentioned earlier. You may also choose to download the whole CDROM ISO that
can be "burned" onto a CD-R CDROM with a CD Writer [Burner]. This ISO file can be downloaded
from the FreeBSD ftp site or mirrors. It is also available on other websites.

Another option is to download the whole FreeBSD OS via ftp! Yes, the whole BSD system can be
downloaded on the fly...so to speak. The convienence of this means that all you do is have some sort
of connection to the Internet and you can download it, not having to worry about CDROM's at all.

These are the 2 ways to get FreeBSD. Although FTP is my personal preferred method of installation
media, I would recommend buying a copy of FreeBSD on CDROM. Why? because this project is a
volunteer project and the many hard hours of work by individuals goes without any type of payment.
So you can get think of buying the CDROM as supporting the project.

Network Connections

If you choose to download FreeBSD via the FTP option, you will need some sort of Internet
connection. The 3 forms that are supported during the install process are:

- Ethernet, Static IP configuration

- Ethernet, Dynamic IP configuration (aka DHCP, NOT PPPoE)
- Modem

Static IP Configuration means that your machine will be connected via ethernet (with a NIC) to some
sort of internet "pipe" were your IP configuration, ie IP Address, SUbnet Mask, Gateway, Name
Server, are given to you and do not change. Consult your Network Administrator for this
information.

Dynamic IP Configuration or DHCP is a protocol used to assign network connection info to your
machine dynamically. Consult your Network Administrator or Service provider to see if your
connection uses DHCP.

You will be able to select between static and dynamic IP configuration during the install process. It
is important to know if your IP configuration is "Static" or "Dynamic" BEFORE you start your
install process.

You may choose to install BSD using a modem through a dialup connection to the Internet. You
may choose to use a standard modem or ISDN TA to accomplish this. It will dialup to your Service
Provider using a PPP connection. It is important to know your Dialup Credential, ie

http://freebsd.rogness.net/redirect.cgi?starterkit/preinstallation.html 06/23/2004 11:17:18 PM

FreeBSD Network Tutorial/How-To Guide Page 3
Username,Password. A SLIP style connection is also supported but will not be covered in this
document.

FreeBSD versions

You may be asking yourself, "Which version of FreeBSD do I install?". I'll try to explain. There are 3
different branches of FreeBSD, each of which have different version within them:

1) RELEASE
|
=> ...
=> ...
=> 4.2-RELEASE
=> 4.3-RELEASE

2) STABLE (and Release Candidate or RC for short)

|
=> 4.X-STABLE

3) CURRENT
|
=> 5.0-CURRENT

RELEASE, STABLE, and CURRENT are the major FreeBSD branches available. Let's take a quick
look at each one seperately.

RELEASE is the branch that gets released to the general public when a new version comes out.
These versions are all directly reachable via ftp. After this mainstream version is presented to the
public, it becomes available at all the FreeBSD mirrors for download and floppies can be
downloaded to obtain it.

STABLE is the branch where most bug fixes take place for the last major mainstream RELEASE.
After a version is RELEASE'd, bug reports role in [hopefully not many] and the fixes get applied to
the STABLE branch. You can think of STABLE as a mainstream RELEASE with bug fixes. This is
why the above diagram has "4.x-STABLE". Depending on what RELEASE is the most currently
out, the STABLE version will have the same corresponding name. For example, since 4.3-
RELEASE is the latest RELEASE, there is a version called 4.3-STABLE which is 4.3-RELEASE
with bug fixes. AFAIK, there is no way to directly ftp download the STABLE branch of FreeBSD.
The only way to get this branch is to go through an upgrade process known as CVSup. Also, I
mentioned RC's (Release candidates) above. Before a major mainstream RELEASE is released to the
public, it goes through a beta process and corresponding versions are referred to as RC. If a new
RELEASE version, eg 4.4-RELEASE, is going to be released as a major release, it will go through a
beta beforehand as 4.4-RC. This will be available via CVSup as well.

CURRENT is the branch where major code re-writes or cutting-edge stuff happens. This is a branch
that is not recommended to the newbie user and takes a lot of maintainance to keep up with. Most of
the serious BSD hackers play in this area. I would steer clear if you are a newbie. It is available at the
current.freebsd.org ftp site... NOT ftp.freebsd.org where normal RELEASE resides.

http://freebsd.rogness.net/redirect.cgi?starterkit/preinstallation.html 06/23/2004 11:17:18 PM

FreeBSD Network Tutorial/How-To Guide Page 4
Making boot Floppies

Whew! Are we ready to install or what? Well, good news, we have 1 thing left to do...make the boot
floppies to boot off of which will start the install process. It does not matter which way you are
going to get FreeBSD either CDROM or FTP, I recommend having these boot floppies on hand
before you start the install. First off, retrieve 2 standard 1.44MB floopy disks. Then proceed

There are 2 floppies that you will need to make. Each floppy will conatin 1 image file that we will
download:

kern.flp (Disk #1)

mfsroot.flp (Disk #2)

These 2 floppy images are accessible via ftp. Finding them can be difficult at first, so lets take a look.
On the FreeBSD ftp server, you will find them in the floppies directory in the subdirectory of the
release you are trying to install. Huh? Maybe a little diagram will clear things up:

ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386
|
-> 4.1-RELEASE
| |
| -> floppies
| |
| -> kern.flp
| -> mfsroot.flp
|
-> 4.2-RELEASE
| |
| -> floppies
| |
| -> kern.flp
| -> mfsroot.flp
|
-> 4.3-RELEASE
|
-> floppies
|
-> kern.flp
-> mfsroot.flp

As you can see, in the floppies directory sits the 2 files: kern.flp and mfsroot.flp. If you want to
install 4.2-RELEASE version of FreeBSD, you will retrieve the 2 floppy image files within the 4.2-
RELEASE directory (above) via the ftp site. If you want 4.1-RELEASE you will choose the files in
that directory, same goes for any RELEASE branch of FreeBSD.

Now lets actually retrieve them. We have decided to install the 4.3-RELEASE of FreeBSD. From the
above diagram we can see where we will find them on the ftp server. If we are making these boot
floppies on a Windows machine we will also need a special tool known as fdimage.exe. This utility

http://freebsd.rogness.net/redirect.cgi?starterkit/preinstallation.html 06/23/2004 11:17:18 PM

FreeBSD Network Tutorial/How-To Guide Page 5
will be used to copy the special images to the floppy. You can not just copy the boot images to your
floppy drive...they will not work! So we will need to download this fdimage.exe utility from the ftp
site as well. It is located in /pub/FreeBSD/tools/fdimage.exe on the ftp server. Let's go ahead and
download the boot floppy images and the fdimage.exe utility:

Goto the StartMenu in Windows..Click on the "Run" menu item.

Type: "command" in the dialog box
[Another window opens up, just follow the commands below]
The commands you type are highlighted in Yellow.

If you can't read this picture, try this one. It's a tad larger.

http://freebsd.rogness.net/redirect.cgi?starterkit/preinstallation.html 06/23/2004 11:17:18 PM