NAME

pc-sysinstall — System installer backend

SYNOPSIS

pc-sysinstall

[ -c file][ command]

DESCRIPTION

The pc-sysinstall utility is a hybrid backend for installing FreeBSD. When run in install mode it takes a configuration file and performs an installation according to the parameters specified in the configuration file. When called with one of the system query commands it provides information about the system to aid a front end in building an appropriate configuration file.

The following options are available:

-c file

Perform an installation as directed by file.

COMMANDS

The command can be any one of the following:

help

Display a list of all commands.

help command

Display the help data for the specified command.

disk-list

Provide a listing of the storage devices detected on this system.

disk-part disk

Queries the specified storage device and returns information about its partitions.

disk-info disk

Returns information about a storage device's size, cylinders, heads, and sectors.

detect-laptop

Tests to see if this system is a laptop or desktop.

detect-emulation

Tests to see if this system is running in an emulator

detect-nics

Returns a listing of the detected network cards on this system.

list-components

Returns a listing of the available components which can be installed.

list-rsync-backups user host port

Returns a listing of available rsync-backups on the target server in the life-preserver/ directory.

list-tzones

Returns a listing of available timezones.

query-langs

Returns a list of languages that the installer supports.

sys-mem

Returns the size of installed system RAM in MegaBytes.

test-netup

test if an internet connection is available.

update-part-list

Returns a list of PC-BSD and FreeBSD installs on this system for updates.

xkeyboard-layouts

Returns a list of keyboard layouts that xorg supports.

xkeyboard-models

Returns a list of keyboard models that xorg supports.

xkeyboard-variants

Returns a list of keyboard variants that xorg supports.

create-part disk size

Create a new MBR primary slice on the target disk using size MB.

delete-part partition

Delete the disk partition specified. If this is the last partition, the disk partition layout will also be scrubbed, leaving a clean disk ready for MBR or GPT file system layouts.

start-autoinstall file

Start an automated installation with the specified file. Normally only used by automated install scripts.

setup-ssh-keys user host port

Setup SSH without a password for the target host, user, and port. Used to prompt the user to log into a server before doing a rsync + ssh restore.

HISTORY

This version of pc-sysinstall first appeared in FreeBSD 9.0.

AUTHORS

Kris Moore <kmoore@FreeBSD.org>

BUGS

This utility was written to install PC-BSD and has seen limited use as an installer for FreeBSD. It's likely that usage to install FreeBSD will expose edge cases that PC-BSD doesn't, as well as generate feature requests based on unforeseen needs.