
Quick and dirty way to have OpenBSD running on Linode - 6d6b73
https://forum.linode.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=12080
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unknownzero
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.

~~~
coherentpony
As someone who is totally unfamiliar with OpenBSD, why _are_ people going to
all this trouble? Does it offer something different to the plethora of linux
distributions that are available?

Apologies if my curiosity is misinterpreted as ignorance.

~~~
hiphopyo
Don't get me wrong, I love Linux and have been using it since I was a kid.
But, for what it's worth, here's my selling point:

Choose OpenBSD for your Unix needs. OpenBSD -- the world's simplest and most
secure Unix-like OS. Creator of the world's most used SSH implementation
OpenSSH, the world's most elegant firewall PF, the world's most elegant mail
server OpenSMTPD, the OpenSSL rewrite LibreSSL, and the NTP rewrite OpenNTPD.
OpenBSD -- the cleanest kernel, the cleanest userland and the cleanest
configuration syntax.

~~~
comex
Nitpick: LibreSSL is a fork/cleanup of OpenSSL, not a rewrite.

~~~
yellowapple
Given how involved that "cleanup" was, "rewrite" isn't _entirely_ inaccurate
;)

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grubles
It's pretty simple on Vultr.

[https://www.vultr.com/docs/setup-openbsd](https://www.vultr.com/docs/setup-
openbsd)

~~~
morganvachon
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!

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technicalfault
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...](https://forum.bytemark.co.uk/t/anyone-installed-their-own-os-on-a-new-
bigv-machine/1440/15?u=joshr)

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

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Uberphallus
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
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!

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ised
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_
dd it onto a "raw" Linode disk, set the bootloader to "Direct to disk".

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darklajid
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
It's a VPS. You don't have access to grub in any form.

~~~
brandon
That's untrue; Linode offers PV-GRUB. I've been using it to boot FreeBSD with
their Xen offering for years.

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vbezhenar
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
> 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.

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wmat
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
Because their pricing doesn't match the current pricing situation of going as
cheap as possible

~~~
wmat
True, but their customer service is bar none. Worth a few extra bucks.

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ryanlol
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.

~~~
comex
I don't see how it does anything of the sort. Using Linode may expose you to
additional attacks (I'm not quite sure what you're referring to), but if
running OpenBSD daemons with OpenBSD's protections leaves your server less
vulnerable to direct attack than alternatives on Linux, this is a significant
improvement.

~~~
ryanlol
I was just referring to their security track record :) (4? compromises within
3 or so years)

