Install FreeBSD-7.1 (domU) to a filesystem image

[Ivan Voras]

2009/1/31 Tomislav Novak <tomislav.novak at gmail.com>:
> Hello!
>
> I have set up Slackware Linux 12.0 as dom0 (Xen 3.3.1, Linux 2.6.18.8,
> built from source) and I'm playing with FreeBSD as a domU.
>
> It's currently, due to some circumstances, not possible for me to
> install FreeBSD to a separate partition(s), so I'm using a file-backed
> VBD. Kernel and filesystem images are those from
>
>    http://www.fsmware.com/xenofreebsd/7.0/download/
>
> and they work perfectly. However, the filesystem image contains only the
> basic stuff, and I need a few more packages (e.g. newer gcc version,
> X11 etc.). I don't have access to any other FreeBSD system so I can't
> copy necessary files, build 8.0-CURRENT etc. Is it possible to install
> FreeBSD from an installation media directly to the filesystem image on
> disk?

If the image you downloaded contains the whole FreeBSD "base" system,
simply install whatever you need like on a normal system. See
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ for
details.

(Note that, for example, the system compiler - gcc - is a part of the
base system and you cannot upgrade it as you would on Linux).