Configuring a FreeBSD "Kickstart" server
                        by Steven St.Laurent  - steven@403forbidden.net


Intro

Ducks
Ingredients
Security
Contributing

Files
Distro
Files
Files
Mfsroot
Patch
PXEBoot
Boot
Kernel

Services
INETD
DHCP
TFTP
NFS
FTP

Details
How it works
Loader.rc

Installing

Finishing


	FINISHING UP

	Some consideration should be given to running a postinstall script.
	There is no secure way to setup roots password. I highly recommend you set no
	password and leave the serial console marked as insecure. That way when
	the machine reboots you can set a password on the serial console and run
	any other scripts you might wish. 

	While adding to the postinstall package an expect script which issues 
	a passwd root command or even copies over a master.passwd and then executes 
	pwd_mkdb is a valid alternative there is the fear of having a root password 
	stored in any file. If you assume that this is just a default and will be changed 
	on reboot there is no difference between just not doing it and keeping the serial 
	port insecure.

	With a postinstall script you can install various custom packages quite easily.
	One concept that came to mind is having the script fetch specific post install
	packages for setting up specific machines such as a web server or pop/smtp host.
	By having post install script flexibility one could even install based on hostname,
	a value set in the installer config, then the post install checks the hostname,
	grabs the correct package and installs it. 

	The key to remember with the post installer is anything that you cant do via the
	installer could be done at this point. Limitations in the installer can hopefully
	worked around easily.





Copyright © 2003 - Steven St.Laurent - steven@403forbidden.net