FreeBSD 10 on Dedibox SC gen 2 or any remote server with a rescue shell

Feb 19, 2014 - freebsd dedibox

FreeBSD 10 is out and it’s time to replace your Linux boxes ![cheeky](http://k dl.nobugware.com/static/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/tongue_smile.gif)

SC gen 2 is a VIA U2250 with 2Gb memory.

Start the rescue shell in amd64 12.04 Ubuntu, connect to the box via SSH with the temporary password

sudo -s
cd /tmp
wget http://ftp1.fr.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/snapshots/ISO-
IMAGES/10.0/FreeBSD-10.0-STABLE-amd64-20140216-r261948-disc1.iso
apt-get update
apt-get install qemu-kvm

sudo qemu-system-x86_64 -no-kvm -hda /dev/sda -cdrom ./FreeBSD-10.0-STABLE-
amd64-20140216-r261948-disc1.iso -net nic,model=e1000 -vnc :1,yourpassword
-boot d

This install qemu and run the FreeBSD installer from the downloaded CD.

Run a VNC client on your computer and connect to your dedibox ip, you should watch FreeBSD boot from the CDROM.

Complete a normal installation, at the end it will ask if you want to run a shell **answer is YES **and then type this to reinstall the bootloader.

If you are using UFS (default)

fdisk -B -b /boot/boot0 /dev/ada0

If you are using ZFS:

gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptzfsboot -i 1 ada0

Type exit and reboot to the normal mode.

Happy FreeBSD !

Further notes:

If you are not using ZFS, you can enable softupdate and TRIM as the SC gen 2 contains an hybrid SSD, you should theoretically have better performance
The last fdisk command is not the normal process but it was the only way I get it boot
Do not use qemu with KVM as there is a bug with this particular cpu, so yes the installation will be dead slow
The DHCP won’t answer it’s ok