Making an OpenBSD Bootable Install CDROM links: ftp://ftp3.usa.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/3.8/i386/ ftp://ftp3.usa.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/4.0/i386/ This example was done for the OpenBSD 3.8. Architecture i386. 1. To start you will need to download and install a program called "mkisofs" (I am using version 2.01). This is the program that will make the ISO image that we can burn to a CD. If you have a Debian GNU/Linux system you can just type "apt-get install mkisofs". 2. Next we need to make a few directories which will be the file system hierarchy. The top directory will be called "OpenBSD". The next directory down will be the version number of the OpenBSD release (3.8). The next directory down from that will be the architecture type (i386). In the architecture directory is where the install files will be going. Here is a quick example of making the hierarchy in the /tmp directory. Please switch to the root account to perform any steps if necessary. /tmp> mkdir -p OpenBSD/3.8/i386 /tmp> cd OpenBSD/3.8/i386 3. The "i386" directory is where we are going to put our install binaries. Find a mirror and download all of the binaries from the OpenBSD/3.8/i386 architecture directory. The following commands will download the entire remote directory to the current local directory if you have the program ncftp or wget installed: /tmp/OpenBSD/3.8/i386> ncftpget ftp://ftp3.usa.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/3.8/i386/* -or- wget --passive-ftp ftp://ftp3.usa.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/3.8/i386/* 4. Now we will make the ISO image. We will go back up to the "OpenBSD" directory and execute the "mkisofs" command with some options. We will be using the cdrom38.fs to be our boot image for the CD. If this image has boot problems on your computer then you can try the floppy38.fs as your boot image. Please see the mkisofs man page for what the options are for. Please note that if /tmp/OpenBSD/OpenBSD38.iso exists and you run mkisofs again it will simply append the new image to the old image, thus making the new image twice as large with illegal directories. /tmp/OpenBSD/3.8/i386> cd ../../ /tmp/OpenBSD> mkisofs -vrTJV "OpenBSD38" -b 3.8/i386/cdrom38.fs -c boot.catalog \ -o OpenBSD38.iso /tmp/OpenBSD/ The ISO named "OpenBSD38.iso" will be in the /tmp/OpenBSD directory. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- cd /usr/ports/sysutils/cdrtools make install /usr/local/bin/cdrecord -v speed=12 dev=/dev/rcd0c:0,0,0 -data driveropts=burnproof OpenBSD.iso The following command creates a ISO9660 CD with Rock Ridge extensions, which will boot from the floppy image in cdrom40.fs. The image is output to OpenBSD.iso. mkhybrid -r -b 4.0/i386/cdrom40.fs -c "boot.catalog" -o OpenBSD.iso OpenBSD The OpenBSD installer expects to see a CDROM with a directory structure of /version_number/architecture/ For a minimal boot image, all that's needed are the tarred gzipped install files, the bsd kernel, and the cdromxx.fs floppy image. Using Windows: xfer in "binary", not ASCII (prevents unix2dos) ISO9660 with no extensions like Joliet (use Rock Ridge and 9660 1) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OpenBSD/3.x/i386 (contents description) bsd - This is the Kernel. Required bsd.mp - Multi-processor (SMP) kernel (only some platforms) bsd.rd - RAM disk kernel base38.tgz - Contains the base OpenBSD system Required etc38.tgz - Contains all the files in /etc Required comp38.tgz - Contains the compiler and its tools, headers and libraries. Recommended man38.tgz - Contains man pages Recommended misc38.tgz - Contains misc info, setup documentation game38.tgz - Contains the games for OpenBSD xbase38.tgz - Contains the base install for X11 xetc38.tgz - Contains the /etc/X11 and /etc/fonts configuration files xfont38.tgz - Contains X11's font server and fonts xserv38.tgz - Contains X11's X servers xshare38.tgz - Contains manpages, locale settings, includes, etc. for X -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- floppy40.fs (Desktop PC) supports many PCI and ISA NICs, IDE and simple SCSI adapters and some PCMCIA support. Most users will use this image if booting from a floppy. floppyB40.fs (Servers) supports many RAID controllers, and some of the less common SCSI adapters. However, support for many standard SCSI adapters and many EISA and ISA NICS has been removed. floppyC40.fs (Laptops) supports the CardBus and PCMCIA devices found in many laptops. cdrom40.fs is, in effect a combination of all three boot disks. It can be used to make a bootable 2.88M floppy, or more commonly, as a boot image for a custom recordable CD. cd40.iso is an ISO9660 image that can be used to create a bootable CD with most popular CD-ROM creation software on most platforms. This image has the widest selection of drivers, and is usually the recommended choice if your hardware can boot from a CDROM. cdemu40.iso is an ISO9660 image, using "floppy emulation" booting, using the 2.88M image, cdrom40.fs. It is hoped that few people will need this image -- most people will use cd40.iso, only use cdemu40.iso if cd40.iso doesn't work for you.