OpenBSD on Linode.

This is great, glad to see you got it working and thank you so much for outlining the process!

I wonder why it looks like it is 5.8 in that url y http://mirrors.nycbug.org/pub/OpenBSD/s … stall58.fs">http://mirrors.nycbug.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/amd64/install58.fs

OpenBSD 5.8

To be released Oct 18, 2015

Copyright 1997-2015, Theo de Raadt.

ISBN 978-0-9881561-6-6

5.8 Songs: "So much better"

Order a CDROM from our ordering system.

See the information on the FTP page for a list of mirror machines.

Go to the pub/OpenBSD/5.8/ directory on one of the mirror sites.

Have a look at the 5.8 errata page for a list of bugs and workarounds.

See a detailed log of changes between the 5.7 and 5.8 releases.

signify(1) pubkeys for this release:

base: RWQNNZXtC/MqP3Eiu+6FBz/qrxiWQwDhd+9Yljzp62UP4KzFmmvzVk60

fw: RWTpkvg4fhJCDx9yL4bUCou/vtAecPVTfcaaGESQeBruwX/qHToMvWh6

pkg: RWRlkI2aFHvL/XGqD+lFerD/xUi/jnAXKwdFQwZDekYwDrEPSpSWgpI9

http://www.openbsd.org/58.html

=======================================================================

~~http://www.openbsd.org/images/puffy57.gif" />

So I suggest anyone who is going to try it use mirors from official sources

http://www.openbsd.org/57.html~~

@v32:

I wonder why it looks like it is 5.8 in that url y http://mirrors.nycbug.org/pub/OpenBSD/s … stall58.fs">http://mirrors.nycbug.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/amd64/install58.fs

Because it is a 5.8 snapshot.

@v32:

So I suggest anyone who is going to try it use mirors from official sources

The New York City BSD User Group does operate an official mirror site.

@Vance:

@v32:

I wonder why it looks like it is 5.8 in that url y http://mirrors.nycbug.org/pub/OpenBSD/s … stall58.fs">http://mirrors.nycbug.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/amd64/install58.fs

Because it is a 5.8 snapshot.

@v32:

So I suggest anyone who is going to try it use mirors from official sources

The New York City BSD User Group does operate an official mirror site.

Thanks for explaining, just it's a good habit to check it instead of using blindly especially with OpenBSD.

Just tried this and it worked excellently! I used OpenBSD 5.9 instead of 5.8 (the url to wget is http://mirrors.nycbug.org/pub/OpenBSD/s … stall59.fs">http://mirrors.nycbug.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/amd64/install59.fs).

Also, you can now just use glish instead of trying to catch the boot prompt in time and set the tty.

@mariusz:

Quick and dirty way to have OpenBSD running on your Linode:

1. Create New Linode.

2. Create New Disk

Select unformatted raw 1024MB (make it bigger just in case)

Label Install Disk

3. Create New Disk

Unformatted raw, make is as big as it's allowed.

4. Go to Remote Access and connect to your console either using ajax or ssh

5. Go into Rescue tab and Click Reboot into rescue mode

6. When finnix boots, download installxx.fs using wget

i.e wget http://mirrors.nycbug.org/pub/OpenBSD/s … stall58.fs">http://mirrors.nycbug.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/amd64/install58.fs

7. check where is your Install Disk located by doing fdisk -l. (most likely sda)

8. dd if=install58.fs of=/dev/sda bs=1M

9. create new configuration

Label: OpenBSD

VM Mode Full-virtualization

Kernel: Direct Disk

/dev/sda OpenBSD

/dev/sdb Install.fs

change boot device to /dev/sdb

10. disable all filesystem/boot helpers

11. Reboot into OpenBSD profile but be careful.. As soon as you see boot> we need to interrupt it by pressing space or something similar. this may require few tries and it usually works better from ajax web console.

You could of course edit install58.fs but I found this unnecessary.

12. execute set tty com0

13. install openbsd

14. change profile to boot from /dev/sda and enjoy!

My ref code in case someone needs a new linode account to try it:

https://www.linode.com/?r=c66d46b6b7b43 … e486c35c51">https://www.linode.com/?r=c66d46b6b7b435b80d82e7411e1750e486c35c51

Thanks so much for this write-up! I'm a bit stuck on step 9, though. I'm not seeing "Install.fs" in the disc dropdown. Did I miss a step somewhere?

Thanks for sharing

This is fantastic, thank you for outlining this!

The Linode user community is the best.

This method still seems to work great with OpenBSD 6.4 amd64! I still needed to use Full Virtualization instead of para for the installer to see both disks… otherwise it only sees the install disk.

Can also confirm this works for OpenBSD 6.4.

One minor niggle: only the public network interface IP can be assigned. Linode-assigned private IP addresses don't get picked-up during OpenBSD installation, and I can't see an option for selecting it during configuration (vlan0 fails to obtain the private IP from DHCP).

Currently tinkering to work this out.

Thanks for your writeup.

Just for information, I have just installed OpenBSD 13.1 by following this general guide for custom distros and using Full Virtualization as @geoffhill pointed out. I haven't done much with it yet. However, for me it worked better than my attempt to install FreeBSD, but that may be more my fault than that of FreeBSD!

@amooti --

that may be more my fault than that of FreeBSD!

I run FreeBSD on my Linode so it can be done. I just upgraded it to 13.1 from 13.0. It works like a champ! ZFS works great with block storage.

I wish Linode supported *BSD as a tier-one OS…

-- sw