Install FreeBSD (Short and Sweet Version)

Last edited on 2025-06-10 • Tagged under #freebsd #bsd #zfs #encrypt

Part of the "Exploring FreeBSD on a Laptop" series.

Tested on FreeBSD 14.3

The FreeBSD Handbook has an extensive chapter on installing FreeBSD that covers a wide range of scenarios with descriptions of each possible choice. Its an invaluable resource maintained by volunteer contributors.

After performing a few installs, these are my personal notes of steps taken and choices made. A short and sweet version of the above Handbook HOWTO.

Start Here

Throughout this guide, if you see square brackets [] in code blocks, that means the word of code (square brackets included) should be replaced with something else. This is detailed in the instructions before or after the code block.

This guide makes a few assumptions:

Target device is amd64 architecture with >= 8GB RAM
System uses UEFI to boot and a GPT partition table
FreeBSD install media prepared on a Linux-based system
FreeBSD is the sole OS on a single disk
FreeBSD uses Root-on-ZFS file system with encryption
Network access during install uses a supported wired interface

Download the RELEASE install image and the CHECKSUM file for verification:

$ wget -c https://download.freebsd.org/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/14.3/FreeBSD-14.3-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img
$ wget https://download.freebsd.org/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/14.3/CHECKSUM.SHA512-FreeBSD-14.3-RELEASE-amd64

Verify the image using sha512sum:

$ sha512sum -c --ignore-missing CHECKSUM.SHA512-FreeBSD-14.3-RELEASE-amd64 
FreeBSD-14.3-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img: OK

Plug in a USB stick and identify its device label:

$ lsblk -f

If the USB stick is mounted, unmount the device:

# umount /dev/[device_label]

For example, if the USB stick is mounted as sde1:

# umount /dev/sde1

NOTE
Be very careful to note the proper device. All contents on the device will be lost!

Write the install image to the USB stick using the dd(1) command:

# dd if=FreeBSD-14.3-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img of=/dev/[device_label] bs=4M conv=fsync oflag=direct status=progress

Using the previous example of sde1, this command would replace [device_label] with sde (omit the partition number):

# dd if=FreeBSD-14.3-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img of=/dev/sde bs=4M conv=fsync oflag=direct status=progress

Wipe Disk

Boot target device from the install media. In the FreeBSD Boot Menu press s to select the Boot Single user mode.

Wipe all existing content from the target disk for our brand spanking new FreeBSD installation.

Use geom(8) to identify disks:

# geom disk list

IDE/SATA/SSD disk names start with ad and NVMe disks with nd. Example: My laptop's internal storage disk is a SATA SSD and is identified as Name: ada0.

Use dd to overwrite the entire disk with zeroes:

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/[disk_label] bs=4M conv=fsync oflag=direct status=progress

Using the previous example of ada0, this command would replace [disk_label] with:

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ada0 bs=4M conv=fsync oflag=direct status=progress

This operation will take a bit of time. On my 233G SSD, for example, it took approximately 14 minutes to zero out the disk.

Installation

After the wipe operation is finished, enter the reboot command to return to the Boot Menu. Press <Enter> to launch the installer.

At the Welcome screen choose Install.

Steps:

Keymap Selection: Default is standard US keyboard map. Press <enter> to continue or select an alternative from the list.
Set Hostname: [new_name_for_device].home.arpa # example: bsdbox.home.arpa
Optional system components to install:
- [*] kernel-dbg
- [*] lib32
Partitioning: Auto (ZFS) Guided Root-on-ZFS
ZFS Configuration:
- Pool Type/Disks: stripe: 1 disk # first disk is [*] ada0 for SATA and [*] nda0 for NVME
- Pool Name zroot
- Force 4K Sectors? YES
- Encrypt Disks? YES
- Partition Scheme? GPT
- Swap Size [2x RAM] # example: 16g on system with 8GB RAM
- Mirror Swap? NO
- Encrypt Swap? YES
- Select >>> Install Proceed with Installation
- Select YES to destroy current contents of target disk
- Enter encryption passphrase. Retype to confirm.
New password for root. Retype to confirm.
Network interface: [auto-detected ethernet] # example: Intel network device em0
- Configure IPv4 for this interface? Yes
  - Use DHCP? Yes
- Configure IPv6 for this interface? No
- Resolver Configuration
  - Search home
  - IPv4 DNS #1 <ip_address>
  - IPv4 DNS #2 <ip_address>
Clock set to UTC? Yes # my computers are always set to UTC; if uncertain, choose No
Time Zone Selector: [region] # example: America - Canada - Eastern - ON & QC (EDT)
Time and Date
- Set Date Skip
- Set Time Skip # NTP will set on reboot
Services to be started at boot:
- [*] sshd
- [*] ntpd
- [*] powerd &emsp # for laptops
- [*] dumpdev
System hardening:
- [*] clear_tmp
- [*] secure console
Firmware installation: # install all packages
Add user account? Yes
- Username: [username] # example: foo
- Full name: <enter>
- Uid: <enter>
- Login group: <enter>
- Other groups?: wheel
- Login class: <enter>
- Shell: <enter>
- Home directory: <enter>
- Home directory permissions: <enter>
- Enable ZFS encryption?: no # encrypted Root-on-ZFS already enabled
- Use password-based authentication? <enter>
- Use an empty password? <enter>
- Use a random password? <enter>
- Enter password. Retype to confirm.
- Lock out account after creation? <enter>
- OK? <enter>
- Add another user? <enter>
Final configuration: Exit Apply configuration and exit installer
Manual configuration: No
Complete: Reboot

NOTE
During boot, when prompted for the encryption passphrase - regardless of the keymap set during install - enter the correct passphrase referencing the US keymap:

GELI Passphrase for <disk>:

Upon success, boot resumes....

FreeBSD/amd64 (<hostname>.home.arpa) (ttyv0)
login: root
Password:

Welcome to FreeBSD!

To shutdown/poweroff the system:

# shutdown -p now

Next: After the First Boot

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