Installer demands network connection: full memstick recognized as mini-memstick

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burmaldist

Hello,

I'm trying to install FreeBSD, but the installer acts as if I am using a mini-memstick image and asks for a network connection to fetch base system packages. I do not have network access during the installation.

Details of my setup:
- Image file downloaded: FreeBSD-15.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img
- How I wrote it: dd if=FreeBSD-15.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img of=/dev/sda bs=4M status=progress conv=sync
- Target system specs: intel core i7-12650H Nvidia rtx 4060 laptop 16gb ram

When I start bsdinstall, it asks for a network configuration and fails to find local distribution sets.

Could you please help me understand why the installer isn't picking up the local packages from the USB drive

Thanks in advance!
 
burmaldist said:
When I start bsdinstall, it asks for a network configuration and fails to find local distribution sets.

Could you please help me understand why the installer isn't picking up the local packages from the USB drive
Click to expand...
What kind of installation system packages are you referring to?

Distribution sets (base.txz, kernel.txz, src.txz, etc. ), previously stored in /usr/freebsd-dist but not included anymore since 15.0, following the transition to pkgbase, or pkgbase packages (FreeBSD-*.pkg), stored in /usr/freebsd-packages/offline on the installer memstick?
 
T-Daemon said:
but not included anymore since 15.0, following the transition to pkgbase, or pkgbase packages
Click to expand...

FreeBSD has used distribution sets since FreeBSD 1.0.
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Support for distribution sets is planned to be totally removed in FreeBSD 16. Such a shame.
 
I am using FreeBSD 15.1-CURRENT.

I didn't realize that 15.x transitioned to pkgbase and no longer includes traditional distribution sets. Since I don't have network access during the installation process, this explains why the installer was asking for a connection.

Thank you for clarifying!
 
As per your orig. message you have a 15.1-RELEASE memstick. This contains both distribution sets as well as base pkgs. If you are doing a fresh install pick off-line install and you won't be asked about network connection.
 
One can easily add the distribution sets on the memstick.img, assuming the USB disk is >1 GB in size.

After dd(1) the image on USB, gpart(8) "resize" the "freebsd" slice and the "freebsd-ufs" partition in the "freebsd" slice, growfs(8) the "freebsd-ufs" partition, mount the partition, download MANIFEST, base.txz, kernel.txz, etc. into /mnt/usr/freebsd-dist.
 
So basically, as of 15.0 installer (based on the link Phishfry provided up in #7) one cannot do "traditional install (distribution sets), offline" unless you are using the DVD images.

I would have thought that option should be available in the "full" memstick image, simply because a lot of systems don't have a DVD drive anymore and the sizes of USB drives is a lot bigger than they used to be. Heck quick look at walmart.com shows 128GB USB3 for 25USB. What's the size of a DVD media?
Are dist sets and pkgbase packages both included on DVD images?

If so then this makes me go "hmmm" and "why".
Sounds like even 15.0 installer on memstick was trying to push pkgbase.

I'm not arguing the merits of pkgbase, but it just feels odd that "pkgbase is going to be the default in 16.0-RELEASE" and it appears to be the preferred for 15.0-RELEASE memstick images.
"memstick, offline" means "pkgbase".
 
Maybe I'm just too old but I honestly do not understand the context around the replies from bakul in #14 and Phishfry in #15.

I was commenting on the link provided in #7 and the result seeming to be "15.0 on you can only do new offline install on memstick with pkgbase".
Is that a wrong understanding of everything in this thread?

I'm asking because the last time I used the installer was probably pre 13.0
 
I just felt that was a pathetic response.
You cant get what you want.
As a user I am supposed to guess how things changed? After decades working one way?

We have release notes for things. Everything in the above PR should have been in the RELEASE notes.
To blame users or say Closed "Works As Intended" sounds arrogant. At least the follow up comments offered clarity.
Victim might be too strong a phrase but when something you have depended on is removed it matters to users. Just tell us what you changed.
 
Phishfry said:
I just felt that was a pathetic response.
You cant get what you want.
As a user I am supposed to guess how things changed? After decades working one way?

We have release notes for things. Everything in the above PR should have been in the RELEASE notes.
To blame users or say Closed "Works As Intended" sounds arrogant. At least the follow up comments offered clarity.
Victim might be too strong a phrase but when something you have depended on is removed it matters to users. Just tell us what you changed.
Click to expand...
Ahh. That I can work with.
Yes, I agree that the PR should have been reflected in RELEASE notes.
"Works as intended" is a valid resolution IF there is clear explaination as to why.

But I agree with the overall "pkgbase is default in 16.0-RELEASE so 15.X-RELEASE should work as pre-pkgbase".

Thank you for clarifying.
 
As you go through installation screens you can see there is a choice of using distribution sets or packages. If one doesn't work, you can try the other or ask here and get your problem resolved. That is all I meant.
 
bakul said:
As you go through installation screens you can see there is a choice of using distribution sets or packages. If one doesn't work, you can try the other or ask here and get your problem resolved. That is all I meant.
Click to expand...
Ok, that's valid. I just keep circling back to "pkgbase supposed to be default in 16-RELEASE and dist sets not available offline in memstick 15-RELEASE images". Very much breaking of POLA and as Phishfry points out the response to the bug report is way less than optimal.
But if that's "the way it is" fine, just something (Release notes) should be overtly clear about the situation.
 
I hate to be the whiner. I appreciate everything done by everybody. I know things get forgotten in a busy release cycle.

Like T-Daemon mentions. Almost all USB sticks are bigger than the installer image and it can be expanded to fill all space and then add dist-files from internet connected machine.

I should note I say /usr/freebsd-dist/ is gone but it is not. Just the contents stripped and a MANIFEST file remains.
 
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Phishfry said:
Like T-Daemon mentions. Almost all USB sticks are bigger than the installer image and it can be expanded to fill all space and then add dist-files from internet connected machine.
Click to expand...
I guess to me, if we are talking about "less than 16.0-RELEASE installer" we should not have to do this. Again coming back to "pkgbase will be default in 16.0-RELEASE so 15.X-RELEASE should not default to pkgbase" POLA.
 
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