Guide to Unix/BSD/OpenBSD/Customize Installation

You may want to customize your installation if:

• you want to install a new set of packages during the OpenBSD installation.
• if you want to report an installation problem.
• If you want to change the default configuration files.

Inside the iso

Mount the iso and cd into it. See the Guide to Unix Explanation section on how to mount an iso file. Then the <your OpenBSD release>, and then <your processor> directory.

cd /<where the mounted iso is located>/<your OpenBSD release>/<your processor>

For me it is:

cd /Volumes/OpenBSD:i386_4.4_Install_CD/4.4/i386

(My auto-mount system gives the files that it mounts long names).

Layout

For OpenBSD 4.4 i386 it is:

4.4
   i386
      BASE44.tgz
      boot.catalog
      bsd
      bsd.mp
      bsd.rd
      cdboot
      cdbr
      comp44.tgz
      etc44.tgz
      game44.tgz
      man44.tgz
      misc44.tgz
      xbase44.tgz
      xetc44.tgz
      xfont44.tgz
      xserv44.tgz
      xshare44.tgz
      TRANS.TBL
   TRANS.TBL
etc.
TRANS.TBL
   boot.conf
   TRANS.TBL

Explanation

File or Exec	Description
bsd.rd	"RAM Disk" kernel.
bsd	The OpenBSD kernel.
bsd.mp	Multi-processor (SMP) kernel.
base44.tgz	Contains the base OpenBSD system.
etc44.tgz	Contains all the files in /etc.
comp44.tgz	Contains the compiler and its tools, headers and libraries.
man44.tgz	Contains the man pages.
misc44.tgz	Contains misc info, setup documentation.
game44.tgz	Contains games for OpenBSD.
xbase44.tgz	Contains the base files for X11.
xetc44.tgz	Contains the /etc/X11 and /etc/fonts configuration files.
xfont44.tgz	Contains X11's font server and fonts.
xserv44.tgz	Contains X11's X servers.
xshare44.tgz	Contains manpages, locale settings, includes, and others for X.

Customize

Take the packages out of the iso and edit them as described below. Then take all of the files and make a new iso.

Install additional packages

Cd into the iso as directed before. Now change the file permissions. If you want another package installed as an option. Take the package and rename it (do not put a period):

site<your version>-<the package name>.tgz

For abiword on OpenBSD 4.4, it is:

site44-abiword.tgz

You will also have to find its dependencies and include them as well.

Change configuration files

Untar etc44.tgz. You will find all of the default configuration files in etc. inside of the package. Edit them and retar them.