6 ms·

Quick and dirty way to have OpenBSD running on Linode

51 points by 6d6b73 11y ago

technicalfault 11y ago
Also works fine on Bytemark's BigV - just mount the install CD as an ISO: https://forum.bytemark.co.uk/t/anyone-installed-their-own-os-on-a-new-bigv-machine/1440/15?u=joshr https://forum.bytemark.co.uk/t/anyone-installed-their-own-os...
Uberphallus 11y ago
I think the dirtiest remote install I've done was installing FreeBSD 6.X on a QEMU VM with zeroed raw disk image, then dd | gzip | netcat to a failsafe linux the hosting provided, and from there overwriting the hard disk with shell redirection.
- ben_bai 11y ago
  Oh my, that's nothing ;-) All I had was a minimal debian install with ssh access. So I installed QEMU, and over ssh with X11-forwarding i started it up using debians /dev/sda as the QEMU harddrive (yes you can: qemu-system-x86_64 -hda /dev/sda -cdrom install57.iso -boot d -m 256). Now install it without deleting debians partition. An then add the OpenBSD bootentry to grub. Dual boot remote server!
darklajid 11y ago
Not a Linode customer. If you have access to the grub(2) prompt, you can download a OpenBSD ramdisk and boot it directly from there. The whole process boils down to Download file to /boot (or anywhere accessible from grub) Reboot / boot OpenBSD installer Did that on my cloudcost machine to experiment with OpenBSD services.
- astrodust 11y ago
  It's a VPS. You don't have access to grub in any form.
  - brandon 11y ago
    That's untrue; Linode offers PV-GRUB. I've been using it to boot FreeBSD with their Xen offering for years.
unknownzero 11y ago
This is great for sure. I just wish Linode/Digital Ocean/etc would take notice how much work people are willing to go through to use openbsd on their platforms and provide official images to make things easier. It's obviously a minority of people, but they're also loyal customers willing to go out of their way to run what they want on your platform. Seems like a great move to build community good-will.
- hiphopyo 11y ago
  I've been in talks with the DO owner regarding how at least half of the DO BSD UserVoice votes (https://digitalocean.uservoice.com/forums/136585-digitalocean/suggestions/3232571-support-bsd-os https://digitalocean.uservoice.com/forums/136585-digitalocea...) were for OpenBSD. Yet only FreeBSD got supported. How, for instance, most of the cool stuff in FreeBSD comes from OpenBSD (pf, OpenSSH, OpenSMTPD, OpenNTPD, LibreSSL, http://itwire.com/business-it-news/open-source/62641-crypto-freebsd-playing-catch-up-says-de-raadt http://itwire.com/business-it-news/open-source/62641-crypto-...). How, for instance, one cannot protect oneself properly using FreeBSD's outdated version of pf. He's expressed his utmost sympathy, and it is my belief that he's slowly but surely realizing OpenBSD's worth.
  - unknownzero 11y ago
    This is great, I remember being disappointed about only freebsd being added from this effort as well. Thanks from the rest of us for keeping the conversation going :)
  - pyvpx 11y ago
    can you mention what is unsafe with FreeBSD's outdated version of pf?
    - merlincorey 11y ago
      The main difference in my experience (I am both a FreeBSD and OpenBSD user) is in syntax, not functionality. It's not as if FreeBSD is shipping a strangely vulnerable version of PF. I believe it's possible also he may be referring to multi-core PF which last I heard was still a ways away in FreeBSD.
grubles 11y ago
It's pretty simple on Vultr. https://www.vultr.com/docs/setup-openbsd https://www.vultr.com/docs/setup-openbsd
- morganvachon 11y ago
  Came here to say this. One of the reasons I chose Vultr over DO and Linode is the flexibility, and the price is competitive with DO. Though, I understand why someone who already has a Linode investment would want to do this instead of changing providers, kudos to the author for sharing!
vbezhenar 11y ago
I installed OpenBSD at ramnode: mount ISO and use HTML5 VNC client to install the system. I don't really like preinstalled images, because I don't trust them. They usually tinker with network settings, sometimes with other things. I prefer official installer.
- moviuro 11y ago
  > preinstalled images I had the issue with FreeBSD on kimsufi (2To UFS-formatted drive...). The great thing however was how good their recovery system was: they provide a Linux and BSD live rescue boot that you can use to chroot-install your system. There are just so many parameters that will get badly set with a pre-installed image: FS, size, hostname, routes, adresses, packages not in base (!!!)... IMO, a reliable rescue mode along the preinstalled images would have all users happy, as either you are in command of the install or are just getting started anyway and don't mind the default settings.
ised 11y ago
Are there any hosting providers that will truly accomodate raw disk (filesystem: ffs, etc.) images as opposed to proprietary image or container formats (Amazon's, VMWare's, etc.), without having jump through numerous hoops? For the sake of example, say I already have my system built and configured just the way I like it, as a "raw" ffs image file. And FWIW the kernel on that image is multiboot compatible and can run as a Xen guest. I also have my own non-GRUB bootloader. But I realize that it may not be feasible for the hosting provider to let me use it.
- akerl_ 11y ago
  dd it onto a "raw" Linode disk, set the bootloader to "Direct to disk".
ryanlol 11y ago
Whats the point of running OpenBSD on Linode? Surely the fact that you're using Linode negates pretty much all of the security benefits provided by OpenBSD.
- sigzero 11y ago
  Not in any order: * they like OpenBSD * they want to learn OpenBSD
  - ryanlol 11y ago
    But why Linode over any of the plethora of alternatives that actually support OpenBSD (and offer significantly better pricing than Linode)?
    - tedunangst 11y ago
      Already a linode customer?
    - astrodust 11y ago
      Like who?
      - yellowapple 11y ago
        I don't know about pricing (they're slightly pricier last I checked), but 1984.is is one example of a hosting company that supports OpenBSD directly.
        astrodust 11y ago
        I'm sure that's a good hosting company for Icelanders, but what about the rest of the world?
        yellowapple 11y ago
        I live in California; it's actually not terribly bad from where I am latency-wise. That said, I currently just run my personal mail server. However, I'd reckon latency to be pretty decent from the East Coast (of North America) or western Europe. Not sure about the whole rest of the world, though.
wmat 11y ago
Why not just use http://www.geekisp.com http://www.geekisp.com which is an all BSD shop? I've been a satisfied customer for probably around 10 years now.
- MayMuncher 11y ago
  Because their pricing doesn't match the current pricing situation of going as cheap as possible
  - wmat 11y ago
    True, but their customer service is bar none. Worth a few extra bucks.
retrack 11y ago
Some hosts are more OpenBSD friendly: https://www.exoscale.ch/syslog/2015/02/17/openbsd-meets-exoscale/ https://www.exoscale.ch/syslog/2015/02/17/openbsd-meets-exos...

51 points by 6d6b73 11y ago

Also works fine on Bytemark's BigV - just mount the install CD as an ISO: https://forum.bytemark.co.uk/t/anyone-installed-their-own-os-on-a-new-bigv-machine/1440/15?u=joshr https://forum.bytemark.co.uk/t/anyone-installed-their-own-os...

Uberphallus 11y ago

I think the dirtiest remote install I've done was installing FreeBSD 6.X on a QEMU VM with zeroed raw disk image, then dd | gzip | netcat to a failsafe linux the hosting provided, and from there overwriting the hard disk with shell redirection.

ben_bai 11y ago
Oh my, that's nothing ;-) All I had was a minimal debian install with ssh access. So I installed QEMU, and over ssh with X11-forwarding i started it up using debians /dev/sda as the QEMU harddrive (yes you can: qemu-system-x86_64 -hda /dev/sda -cdrom install57.iso -boot d -m 256). Now install it without deleting debians partition. An then add the OpenBSD bootentry to grub. Dual boot remote server!

darklajid 11y ago

Not a Linode customer. If you have access to the grub(2) prompt, you can download a OpenBSD ramdisk and boot it directly from there. The whole process boils down to Download file to /boot (or anywhere accessible from grub) Reboot / boot OpenBSD installer Did that on my cloudcost machine to experiment with OpenBSD services.

astrodust 11y ago
It's a VPS. You don't have access to grub in any form.
- brandon 11y ago
  That's untrue; Linode offers PV-GRUB. I've been using it to boot FreeBSD with their Xen offering for years.

unknownzero 11y ago

This is great for sure. I just wish Linode/Digital Ocean/etc would take notice how much work people are willing to go through to use openbsd on their platforms and provide official images to make things easier. It's obviously a minority of people, but they're also loyal customers willing to go out of their way to run what they want on your platform. Seems like a great move to build community good-will.

hiphopyo 11y ago
I've been in talks with the DO owner regarding how at least half of the DO BSD UserVoice votes (https://digitalocean.uservoice.com/forums/136585-digitalocean/suggestions/3232571-support-bsd-os https://digitalocean.uservoice.com/forums/136585-digitalocea...) were for OpenBSD. Yet only FreeBSD got supported. How, for instance, most of the cool stuff in FreeBSD comes from OpenBSD (pf, OpenSSH, OpenSMTPD, OpenNTPD, LibreSSL, http://itwire.com/business-it-news/open-source/62641-crypto-freebsd-playing-catch-up-says-de-raadt http://itwire.com/business-it-news/open-source/62641-crypto-...). How, for instance, one cannot protect oneself properly using FreeBSD's outdated version of pf. He's expressed his utmost sympathy, and it is my belief that he's slowly but surely realizing OpenBSD's worth.
- unknownzero 11y ago
  This is great, I remember being disappointed about only freebsd being added from this effort as well. Thanks from the rest of us for keeping the conversation going :)
- pyvpx 11y ago
  can you mention what is unsafe with FreeBSD's outdated version of pf?
  - merlincorey 11y ago
    The main difference in my experience (I am both a FreeBSD and OpenBSD user) is in syntax, not functionality. It's not as if FreeBSD is shipping a strangely vulnerable version of PF. I believe it's possible also he may be referring to multi-core PF which last I heard was still a ways away in FreeBSD.

grubles 11y ago

It's pretty simple on Vultr. https://www.vultr.com/docs/setup-openbsd https://www.vultr.com/docs/setup-openbsd

morganvachon 11y ago
Came here to say this. One of the reasons I chose Vultr over DO and Linode is the flexibility, and the price is competitive with DO. Though, I understand why someone who already has a Linode investment would want to do this instead of changing providers, kudos to the author for sharing!

vbezhenar 11y ago

I installed OpenBSD at ramnode: mount ISO and use HTML5 VNC client to install the system. I don't really like preinstalled images, because I don't trust them. They usually tinker with network settings, sometimes with other things. I prefer official installer.

moviuro 11y ago
> preinstalled images I had the issue with FreeBSD on kimsufi (2To UFS-formatted drive...). The great thing however was how good their recovery system was: they provide a Linux and BSD live rescue boot that you can use to chroot-install your system. There are just so many parameters that will get badly set with a pre-installed image: FS, size, hostname, routes, adresses, packages not in base (!!!)... IMO, a reliable rescue mode along the preinstalled images would have all users happy, as either you are in command of the install or are just getting started anyway and don't mind the default settings.

ised 11y ago

Are there any hosting providers that will truly accomodate raw disk (filesystem: ffs, etc.) images as opposed to proprietary image or container formats (Amazon's, VMWare's, etc.), without having jump through numerous hoops? For the sake of example, say I already have my system built and configured just the way I like it, as a "raw" ffs image file. And FWIW the kernel on that image is multiboot compatible and can run as a Xen guest. I also have my own non-GRUB bootloader. But I realize that it may not be feasible for the hosting provider to let me use it.

akerl_ 11y ago
dd it onto a "raw" Linode disk, set the bootloader to "Direct to disk".

ryanlol 11y ago

Whats the point of running OpenBSD on Linode? Surely the fact that you're using Linode negates pretty much all of the security benefits provided by OpenBSD.

sigzero 11y ago
Not in any order: * they like OpenBSD * they want to learn OpenBSD
- ryanlol 11y ago
  But why Linode over any of the plethora of alternatives that actually support OpenBSD (and offer significantly better pricing than Linode)?
  - tedunangst 11y ago
    Already a linode customer?
  - astrodust 11y ago
    Like who?
    - yellowapple 11y ago
      I don't know about pricing (they're slightly pricier last I checked), but 1984.is is one example of a hosting company that supports OpenBSD directly.
      - astrodust 11y ago
        I'm sure that's a good hosting company for Icelanders, but what about the rest of the world?
        yellowapple 11y ago
        I live in California; it's actually not terribly bad from where I am latency-wise. That said, I currently just run my personal mail server. However, I'd reckon latency to be pretty decent from the East Coast (of North America) or western Europe. Not sure about the whole rest of the world, though.

wmat 11y ago

Why not just use http://www.geekisp.com http://www.geekisp.com which is an all BSD shop? I've been a satisfied customer for probably around 10 years now.

MayMuncher 11y ago
Because their pricing doesn't match the current pricing situation of going as cheap as possible
- wmat 11y ago
  True, but their customer service is bar none. Worth a few extra bucks.

retrack 11y ago

Some hosts are more OpenBSD friendly: https://www.exoscale.ch/syslog/2015/02/17/openbsd-meets-exoscale/ https://www.exoscale.ch/syslog/2015/02/17/openbsd-meets-exos...