Category:FreeBSD

Introduction to FreeBSD

I am going to make the assumption that you have at least a basic knowledge of the command line in FreeBSD. If you are new to FreeBSD all hope is not lost. The FreeBSD Handbook is the primary source of documentation produced by the FreeBSD Documentation Project. Aside from this recently there has also been another great article written by Paul Venezia at InfoWorld entitled Why aren't you using FreeBSD?. If you are familiar with linux but new to FreeBSD there is the FreeBSD Quickstart Guide for Linux Users. Last but not least if you are coming over from Windows you can take a look at FreeBSD is NOT Windows.

GEOM permits access and control to classes (Master Boot Records, BSD labels, etc.) through the use of providers, or the special files in /dev. Supporting various software RAID configurations, GEOM will transparently provide access to the operating system and operating system utilities.^[1]

Being newer features that have been recently added into FreeBSD they are not available through the generic sysinstall(8) or the new BSDInstall that is included on all of the default installation media. To remedy this, I am going to show you how to install FreeBSD manually from the shell on the install media.

Obtaining FreeBSD

The first thing you are going to need is a copy of the most current *-dvd1.iso, *-release.iso or *-memstick.img FreeBSD image (the other images do not contain the livefs that is needed). FreeBSD may be obtained from torrent, an FTP mirror near you, or from FreeBSD Daily Snapshots.