Hitchhiker's Guide to Openbsd

4.5.1 - Starting the install
Whatever your means of booting is, it is now time to use it. During the boot process, the kernel and all of the programs 
used to install OpenBSD are loaded into memory. Once the install kernel is booted, the boot media is no longer needed, 
everything runs from the RAM disk. You can actually remove the CD or floppy you booted from at this point, assuming 
you don't need the CD for installation files. 
At almost any point during the OpenBSD install process, you can terminate the current install attempt by hitting CTRL-C 
and can restart it without rebooting by running 
install
at the shell prompt. You can also enter a "!" at most places in 
the installation to get to a shell prompt, then exit the shell to return to the installer. 
When your boot is successful, you will see a lot of text messages scroll by. This text, on many architectures in white on 
blue, is the 
dmesg
, the kernel telling you what devices have been found and how they are hooked to other devices. A 
copy of this text is saved as 
/var/run/dmesg.boot
. 
Then, you will see the following: 
...
root on rd0a swap on rd0b dump on rd0b
erase ^?, werase ^W, kill ^U, intr ^C, status ^T
Welcome to the OpenBSD/i386 4.9 installation program.
(I)nstall, (U)pgrade or (S)hell? i
And with that, we reach our first question. You have the three options shown: 
●
Install: load OpenBSD onto the system, overwriting whatever may have been there. Note that it is possible to 
leave some partitions untouched in this process, such as a 
/home
, but otherwise, assume everything else is 
overwritten. 
●
Upgrade: Install a new set of 
install files
 on this machine, but do not overwrite any configuration information, 
user data, or additional programs. No disk formatting is done, nor are the 
/etc
or 
/var
directories overwritten. 
A few important notes: 
❍
You will not be given the option of installing the 
etc49.tgz
file. After the install, you will have to 
manually merge
 the changes of 
etc49.tgz
into your system before you can expect it to be fully 
functional. This is an important step which must be done, as otherwise certain key services (such as 
pf(4)
) 
may not start. 
❍
The Upgrade process is not designed to skip releases! While this will often work, it is not supported. For 
OpenBSD 4.9, upgrading 4.8 to 4.9 is the only supported upgrade. If you have to upgrade from an older 
version, upgrade to intermediate versions first, or if the system is very out-of-date, consider a complete 
reinstall. 
More information on upgrading between releases can be found in the 
OpenBSD Upgrade Guide 4.9
. 
●
Shell: Sometimes, you need to perform repairs or maintenance to a system which will not (or should not) boot to a 
normal kernel. This option will allow you to do maintenance to the system. A number of important utilities are 
available on the boot media. 
We are assuming you are choosing "(I)nstall" here. 
http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html (7 of 43)9/4/2011 10:01:58 AM

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4 - OpenBSD 4.9 Installation Guide