OpenBSD 3.9 remote installation

[Nick Guenther]

On 5/7/06, Leines <openbsd at leines.net> wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> new "would-like-to-be" user here, so please be nice to me :-)
>
> I want to switch from Debian to OpenBSD 3.9. Problem is that I have no clue
> on how to remotely install OpenBSD to my server to which I have no physical
> access. I tried to copy the bootdisk into my bootsector *g* (there was no
> needed data on the machine anymore), but after rebooting it won't load.
>
> The machine is i386 based and all hardware is supported.
>
> Is there anyone out there who knows a goof tutorial about remote
> installation of the newest OpenBSD? I could not find a thread regarding this
> topic here (looked back to Jan 05 only).
>
> Answer here or PM, please,
>
> thank you,
>
> Leines

This should be possible, but I don't think it's supported. The better
method is to convince someone who does have physical access to do the
install for you (and the best, of course, is you walk/fly/eat your way
to wherever it is and do it yourself). In particular, the install
program runs off of a ramdisk-based system which is not configured for
remote access by default (for obvious reasons). The only way, then,
will be to carry out the install manually.

The install process first sets up your intel-partitions using
fdisk(8), then your BSD ones using disklabel(8). Then it mounts / and
makes device nodes and installs the install sets (using nothing more
than cd / && tar xzvf install39.tgz). Finally, set up your
configuration (/etc/*). Make sure there's a way for you to get back in
when you reboot.

Also, don't take my word for any of this, go read the install script
yourself. It's on the install disk images, so just take one of them
and make a CD/floppy, and then open it up somewhere.

You can hopefully set up your fdisk partitions using the equivilent
program in debian. disklabel will be a bit more tricky.

If you've already destroyed your debian system, though, and can't log
in to it now then you are out of luck and will have to get someone to
do it for your physically. Make sure you can trust them ;).

In fact, if you're just trying to learn, it will probably be a much
better experience to grab an old box around your house/town and use
that. 3 of my computers were found in people's trash, so it's not
expensive to do this :).

Best wishes,
-Nick