FreeBSD

Upgrade

Check the latest FreeBSD release and compare to uname -a.

Upgrade the system:

sudo pkg upgrade -y
sudo bash -c 'PAGER=cat freebsd-update fetch'
sudo bash -c 'PAGER=cat freebsd-update install'

PAGER=cat is used to ignore messages about added, removed and overriden configuration files.

Minimum packages to develop on FreeBSD

Install:

pkg  # first command proposes to install it
pkg install sudo
sudo pkg install vim-console git

Misc

• Coredump filename: sudo sysctl -w 'kern.corefile =%N.%P.core'

Configuration

• Rerun the installer configuration, run:: bsdconfig.

• Change the keyboard layout: run kbdmap.

Upgrade to newer FreeBSD

Upgrade to FreeBSD 12.0-RC2:

sudo freebsd-update fetch
sudo freebsd-update upgrade -r 12.0
sudo freebsd-update install
sudo reboot
# after reboot
sudo freebsd-update install

Install FreeBSD VM

Install VM image

• https://www.freebsd.org/where.html : Download amd64/qcow2 virtual machine image,

• Uncompress the image: unxz file.qcow2.xz

• Move the image to /var/lib/libvirt/images/

• Create a FreeBSD VM using this disk image

• Add “freebsd” hostname to /etc/hosts

• Customize FreeBSD:

  • bsdconfig: Create an user

  • kbdmap: Change the keyboard layout

• Run pkg and follow the wizard to install pkg

• pkg install sudo

Classic installer (old way)

• Download ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/11.0/FreeBSD-11.0-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso.xz

• Uncompress: unxz FreeBSD-11.0-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso.xz

• Create a new VM:

  • Name: FreeBSD

  • Boot from an ISO: specify the path to the .iso file

  • System: select Show all, select UNIX, pick FreeBSD 11

  • 1 cpu, 1 GB of RAM

  • Disk size: 20 GB

  • Select network: shared interface, br0

• FreeBSD installer:

  • <install>

  • Keymap: French ISO-8859-1

  • Hostname: freebsd

  • Distribution: only keep [*] ports

  • Partition: auto, <Entire disk>, MBR, Finish, Commit

  • (choose a root password)

  • network: configure IPv4, use DHCP, yes, configure IPv6, auto, yes

  • Time Zone: 8 Europe, 14 France

  • Date/Time: Skip

  • Service started at boot: sshd

  • (no option)

  • Add a new user: username vstinner

  • Exit: Manual config? No

  • Reboot

Enlarge qcow2 image

• Shutdown the VM

• On the host: sudo qemu-img resize /var/lib/libvirt/images/freebsd.qcow2 40G

• Boot the VM, in FreeBSD: sudo /etc/rc.d/growfs onestart

Configure as root

• Log as root

• kbdcontrol -l fr.iso

• pkg install sudo bash tmux vim

• visudo: uncomment %whell ALL.. without password

• adduser: add user, add it to the wheel group

• to add wheel group to an user: pw usermod -n vstinner -G wheel

• Enable the SSH server:

• Add sshd_enable=”YES” to /etc/rc.conf

• service sshd start

• https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/openssh.html

• Log out

Configure as your user

• Log in as the your user

• chsh -s /usr/local/bin/bash

• Log out and log in again to get bash

• sudo pkg install git

Commands to develop Python on FreeBSD

Install:

sudo pkg install pkgconf

Use ports

By default, ports are not installed:

vstinner@freebsd$ ls /usr/ports
ls: /usr/ports: No such file or directory

Install ports:

sudo git clone https://git.FreeBSD.org/ports.git /usr/ports --depth=1

Misc

Which package provides a file?

vstinner@freebsd$ pkg which /usr/local/bin/git
/usr/local/bin/git was installed by package git-2.41.0

FreeBSD source code: https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/

DHCP error

• https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/fresh-freebsd-14-1-guest-vm-does-not-receive-any-dhcpoffers.95189/#post-674508

• https://lists.libvirt.org/archives/list/users@lists.libvirt.org/thread/DJFOKQ7RDPAOFGUJZYY56TJTORHHQKWI/

• https://www.spinics.net/linux/fedora/libvir/msg249203.html

fix_network.sh:

set -x -e
ifconfig vtnet0 -rxcsum -txcsum
service dhclient restart vtnet0

Repair pkg

Repair pkg, if needed:

sudo pkg bootstrap -f

If something goes wrong, reinstall everything installed by pkg:

sudo pkg-static upgrade -f

Resize rootfs

• On the host (Linux), when the VM is not running, resize the qcow2 file:

  cd /var/lib/libvirt/
  qemu-img resize freebsd.qcow2 +20G
  

• Boot the VM as single user.

• Run gpart show and identify the main partition and the disk device:

  root@freebsd# gpart show -l
  =>      34  54592694  ada0  GPT  (26G)
          34       122     1  bootfs  (61K)
         156     66584     2  efiboot0  (33M)
       66740   2097152     3  swapfs  (1.0G)
     2163892  10485803     4  rootfs  (5.0G)
    12649695  41943033        - free -  (20G)
  

• Here, the disk device is “ada0” and the rootfs partition is the partition 4.

• Resize the partition 4: gpart resize -i 4 -s 25G ada0

• Resize the filesystem:: growfs /

• Reboot (I prefer to restart on a fresh filesystem at boot).