TITLE:OpenBSD Netboot Diskless OpenBSD install

Author: Pantelis Roditis Created: 2011/01/28

Introduction

The following paper describes how to setup an OpenBSD system to be able to be booted from a system without a hard drive (Diskless).

• Extract the base system Decide where your OpenBSD system will be stored and extract your OpenBSD distribution.

  mkdir -p /n/sys/obsd/b
  cd /n/sys/obsd/b
  for pkg in /n/pub/OpenBSD/4.8/i386/*.tgz;do tar zxvpf $pkg;done
  

• Configure the system All the following commands assume that the root directory of your new OBSD is under /n/sys/obsd/b

• Populate the /dev directory

  cd /n/sys/obsd/b/dev && ./MAKEDEV all
  

• Configure the networking

  cd /n/sys/obsd/b/etc
  echo 'inet 172.16.0.1 255.255.255.0 172.16.0.255 NONE'>hostname.if
  for ifname in re0 rl0 ne0 bge0 fxp0 age0 nfe0 xl0;do ln -s hostname.if hostname.$ifname;done
  echo -e "domain rnd.echothrust.dev\nnameserver 172.16.200.254\norder file bind">resolv.conf
  echo "172.16.200.8 tboot">>hosts
  echo "172.16.200.254">mygate
  echo "obsd">myname
  

• Create your fstab

  cd /n/sys/obsd/b/etc
  echo 'tboot:/n/sys/obsd/b / nfs rw 0 0'>fstab
  

• Change the timezone of the system

  ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Athens localtime
  

If the extracted system is the same architecture and version as your own you can chroot and work based on root (/etc/resolv.conf,/etc/fstab etc)