BSD Installer 2009
This page will help serve all of the needed features and todo items for integrating the BSD Installer v2.0 into the FreeBSD distribution.
pfSense has used the BSDInstaller for years and it has served us well. It is time to give back to the FreeBSD community at large so we have decided to pick up the work involved in bringing BSD Installer to FreeBSD as a viable replacement for Sysinstall.
(this page is currently a work in progress as we identify the missing bits)
What is BSD Installer
BSD Installer is a complete installer with a seperated backend and frontend technology. Communication between the various frontends (QT, Curses, WebCGI, TTY) use the libdfui protocool (name pending change to cater to all communities). BSD Installer V2 is written using C libraries and Lua to make it very easy to make changes to the installer. Libraries being used by the BSD Installer currently: LibAura, LibDFUI and LibInstaller.
Interested developers
Scott Ullrich |
BSD Installer / pfSense developer |
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Ermal Luçi |
pfSense / FreeBSD developer |
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Kris Moore |
PC-BSD developer |
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Items that need to change in FreeBSD's tree currently
Make release integration |
Modify make release and make rerelease to generate a liveCD containing a full installer and packages |
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Needed Features missing that are present in Sysinstall
User management |
Add/delete/edit users |
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Distributions |
Install additional distribution sets? |
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Startup |
Configure startup options |
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TTys |
Configure system TTys |
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Security |
Security options |
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Mouse |
Configure mouse |
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Network |
Configure various networking services |
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Fixit |
Invoke fixit utilities. http://www.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com/technotes/fixit.html |
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Needed Features missing that are present in PC-BSD's installer
ZFS Support |
ZFS Support for root partitions |
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Features that are desirable but are not present in sysinstall, finstall or PC-BSD's installer
Restore/Clone |
Option to restore from user specified system backup, I.E. Tar Archive |
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Entirely new features
GPT |
GPT support |
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Kernel selection |
Ability to select various Kernel on installation such as XEN, kernel containing GDB, etc. |
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Usability improvements
Add to me here |
Content goes here |
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Completed Items
Rename LibDFUI -> LibBSDIUI |
May 11, 2009 |
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External links to sites that have plentiful information
Link to snapshots that contain FreeBSD 8 and BSD Installer. Built every 6-7 hours https://web.archive.org/web/20091226171206/http://snapshots.pfsense.org/FreeBSD_8_0/?C=M;O=D
Link to BSDInstaller v2.0 https://web.archive.org/web/20060511175654/http://cvs.bsdinstaller.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/installer/src/backend/lua/
Link to Installer REPO (moved to Git recently) https://rcs.pfsense.org/projects/bsdinstaller (This link is broken)
Link to BSDInstaller Wiki where you can find Design Goals, LibDFUI BSDIUI information and more https://web.archive.org/web/20120219133823/http://wiki.bsdinstaller.org/wikka.php?wakka=BSDInstaller
Link to mailing list where we will be discussing Installer integration http://lists.pcbsd.org/mailman/listinfo/installer (This link is broken)