DragonFly BSD 1.0-RELEASE Installer

Errata and Workarounds

The integration of the DragonFly BSD Installer into the DragonFly 1.0-RELEASE image went remarkably smoothly, considering that it took place only a few days before release. However, as is always the case, a few bugs slipped through. This document attempts to address them the best it can. Please keep in mind that, if you just can't get the installer to work, you always have the opportunity to log in as root and install manually, following the instructions in /README. It may be more difficult, but you'll also learn more about the system that way.

1.0A-REL Errata

My computer appears to be using the wrong time but I have setup my timezone
Your computer's BIOS may be set to Local time. To fix this simply touch /etc/wall_cmos_clock
My hard drive has FooOS on the first primary partition and BarOS on the second, and the rest is free. How come I can't install DragonFly on the empty third partition?
You'll need to create a primary partition from the unallocated space on the rest of your drive. The installer doesn't yet have the ability to create new primary partitions, so you'll have to use your favourite partition editor before using the installer. You can log in as root and use fdisk from the DragonFly live CD. Create the primary partition with a type of 165 (hexadecimal 0xa5), which is the same type used for FreeBSD and NetBSD. Also it's best to make this partition several gigabytes in size.
My system is now installed. How can I run the installer from the installed system, so I can configure it?
The installer doesn't yet support running from the installed system, so you'll have to boot from the CD and select "Configure an Installed System" from there.

The configuration support in the installer is currently pretty scant at any rate, so for any serious configuration, it's much wiser to learn how to do it manually. Most of these tasks can be accomplished by editing the files in /etc.

Also note that "Configure an Installed System" is primarily intended for configuring the system you've just installed. The more manual changes you've made to the system, the more likely "Configure an Installed System" will not know how to handle your setup.
How come the cron and syslogd services are not started automatically on the installed system?
Those services are not enabled in the LiveCD environment, and the /etc/rc.conf file on the installed system is copied from that environment. Edit /etc/rc.conf on the installed system to enable these services.

1.0-REL Errata

Note that all the errata items which apply to 1.0A-REL apply to 1.0-REL as well.

Is it safe to use the installer to install DragonFly BSD to any primary partition besides the last partition on a disk?
No. Due to a serious bug in the installer, the size of the selected primary partition will be altered so that it might overlap other partitions. If you wish to install DragonFly BSD to any partition other than the last one on the disk, you should perform the installation manually.
When I select "Install DragonFly BSD" from the "Begin Installation" screen, the installer just hangs showing a blue screen with an ASCII-art dragonfly on it. What's wrong?
If you have a lot of memory (2G or more), the problem is an overflow error internal to the installer. To work around it:
1. Press Alt+F1 to switch to the main console, then press Ctrl+C to interrupt the installer.
2. Login as root and type reboot to reboot.
3. When the login prompt comes up again, login as root again.
4. Type ee /var/run/dmesg.boot to edit the startup messages.
5. Go to the line that starts with real memory = followed by some numbers (e.g. (2097088K bytes)).
6. Edit those numbers to something smaller, e.g. (1048512K bytes).
7. Exit the editor (press Esc, then Enter, then Enter again).
8. Start the installer by typing installer.
The installer should now think you have less memory in your computer, an amount it can handle in its calculations. (It only uses this value to suggest a size for your swap subpartition, and you can edit this manually knowing the real size of your memory).
In the "Set date and time" form, the example says to use "04" for the year, but that doesn't work. What do I do?
The example is incorrect. Use the four-digit version of the year instead (i.e. "2004").
My system has been installed, but some of the files are owned by an unknown user (uid 1000) and/or an unknown group (gid 1000). Did I do something wrong?
No, this mistake slipped in on the 1.0-REL image during the integration of the installer into DragonFly. It is generally harmless, and can be fixed by changing the owner and group of each of these files to root:wheel.