PC-SYSINSTALL(8)

NAME
pc-sysinstall - System installer backend

SYNOPSIS
pc-sysinstall [-c file] [command]

DESCRIPTION
The pc-sysinstall utility is a hybrid backend for installing FreeBSD. When run in install mode it takes a configuration file and performs an installation according to the parameters specified in the configuration file. When called with one of the system query commands it provides information about the system to aid a front end in building an appropriate configuration file.

The following options are available:

-c file
    Perform an installation as directed by file.

COMMANDS
The command can be any one of the following:

help
    Display a list of all commands.

help command
    Display the help data for the specified command.

disk-list
    Provide a listing of the storage devices detected on this system.

disk-part disk
    Queries the specified storage device and returns information about its partitions.

disk-info disk
    Returns information about a storage device's size, cylinders, heads, and sectors.

detect-laptop
    Tests to see if this system is a laptop or desktop.

detect-emulation
    Tests to see if this system is running in an emulator

detect-nics
    Returns a listing of the detected network cards on this system.

list-components
    Returns a listing of the available components which can be installed.

list-rsync-backups user host port
    Returns a listing of available rsync-backups on the target server in the life-preserver/ directory.

list-tzones
    Returns a listing of available timezones.

query-langs
    Returns a list of languages that the installer supports.

sys-mem
    Returns the size of installed system RAM in MegaBytes.

test-netup
    test if an internet connection is available.

update-part-list
    Returns a list of PC-BSD and FreeBSD installs on this system for updates.

xkeyboard-layouts
    Returns a list of keyboard layouts that xorg supports.

xkeyboard-models
    Returns a list of keyboard models that xorg supports.

xkeyboard-variants
    Returns a list of keyboard variants that xorg supports.

create-part disk size
    Create a new MBR primary slice on the target disk using size MB.

delete-part partition
    Delete the disk partition specified. If this is the last partition, the disk partition layout will also be scrubbed, leaving a clean disk ready for MBR or GPT file system layouts.

start-autoinstall file
    Start an automated installation with the specified file. Normally only used by automated install scripts.

setup-ssh-keys user host port
    Setup SSH without a password for the target host, user, and port. Used to prompt the user to log into a server before doing a rsync + ssh restore.

HISTORY
This version of pc-sysinstall first appeared in FreeBSD 9.0.

AUTHORS
Kris Moore <kmoore@FreeBSD.org>

BUGS
This utility was written to install PC-BSD and has seen limited use as an installer for FreeBSD. It's likely that usage to install FreeBSD will expose edge cases that PC-BSD doesn't, as well as generate feature requests based on unforeseen needs.