FreeBSD installer (was Re: Newbie Experience #2)

[Jonathan McKeown]

On Monday 11 September 2006 15:56, Jud wrote:
> everyone who uses FreeBSD knows that a "better" (meaning,
> at least to many folks, more simplified and graphical)
> installer would be nice  

Perhaps as an option. The problem is that you need to install a graphical 
environment to run a graphical installer. Simplicity means different things 
to different people, too.

I set up new and replacement servers, using commodity hardware for cost 
reasons, for our various offices around South Africa. I used to have a KVM 
switch with a spare monitor and keyboard in my office for doing the 
installations, or if I was going elsewhere to install delivered hardware or 
update an existing box, we needed to arrange a spare screen and keyboard at 
the location.

I now have a slightly-adjusted installation CD (I downloaded the disc 1 and 2 
ISO images from Freebsd.org, unpacked disc 1 onto a hard drive and edited 
boot/loader.conf, adding the line
console="comconsole"
then made a new ISO and burned to a fresh CD labelled ``disc 1- serial'').

Now the only time my servers get a screen/keyboard connected is to configure 
the BIOS when they are first unpacked. Otherwise the basic install is done 
from the serial boot CD with my laptop as a serial terminal, up to the point 
where I can ssh to the box and start customising, adding packages etc. From 
my point of view it doesn't get simpler than that.

Jonathan