Using PC-Sysinstall for automated network installs of FreeBSD

[Warren Block]

On Mon, 19 Nov 2012, Mark Saad wrote:

>
> On Nov 17, 2012, at 12:19 AM, Warren Block <wblock at wonkity.com> wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 16 Nov 2012, Mark Saad wrote:
>>
>>> On Nov 16, 2012, at 8:44 PM, Warren Block <wblock at wonkity.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Fri, 16 Nov 2012, Warren Block wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Trying to start this from SYSLINUX almost works.  My menu config just does
>>>>
>>>> Actually, it does work on a real machine.  It stalls on a VirtualBox VM during or after the NFS root mount.
>>>
>>> Strange , I will test it on virtualbox when I get some time next week . I did a lot of the testing initially on VMware esxi 4.0 and I did not have any issues related to VM stuff . What version of vbox did you use ? What network interface choice did you use in vbox ?
>>
>> VirtualBox 4.1.22, FreeBSD 9-stable amd64 host.  Only the "PCnet-FAST III (Am79C973)" can pxe-boot, and only in bridged mode.
>
> Does this nic pxe boot other versions of FreeBSD ?

I have not tried anything other than 9.x, will give 8.x a try when 
possible.

> Isn't there a way to make it think it has a intel em nic?

Yes, but the emulated Intel does not have a boot ROM.  There are methods 
to add a boot ROM, but my attempts at that were not successful and I 
have not gotten back to it.