Install FreeBSD-13.1 on a dedicated server from a Linux rescue environment

1. Boot into rescue console

You must be logged in as root. Prepare file path or URL of SSH public key.

2. Download and run installer script

Download and run the mfsBSD-based installer for FreeBSD-13.1, with root-on-ZFS.

wget https://depenguin.me/run.sh \
&& chmod +x run.sh \
&& ./run.sh [ -d ] [ -r ram ] [ -m (url of own mfsbsd image) ] authorized_keys ...

Parameters in [ square brackets ] are optional.

You must specify at least one authorized_keys source, both URLs and local files are supported.

Example invocations

./run.sh https://example.org/mypubkey
./run.sh /tmp/my_public_key

3. Connect via SSH

Wait until the script reports SSH to be available (takes a few minutes) then connect.

ssh -p 1022 mfsbsd@your-host-ip

Once logged in, you can sudo su - to root without a password. You cannot login as root.

If you have trouble with the connection, wait 2 minutes and try again.

4. Install FreeBSD-13.1 or rescue your system

Choose your own adventure