OpenBSD Frequently Asked Questions

This FAQ is supplemental documentation to the man pages, which are available both in the installed system and online. It covers the latest release of OpenBSD. There are likely new features and changes in the development version of OpenBSD (-current) that are not covered in the FAQ.

Quick Links:

Introduction to OpenBSD

• Tell me about OpenBSD
• Hardware support
• Is OpenBSD really free?
• What is included with OpenBSD?
• Supporting the project
• Mailing lists
• Manual pages
• Reporting bugs
• Migrating to OpenBSD

Installation Guide

• Overview of the installation procedure
• Pre-installation checklist
• Downloading OpenBSD
• Creating bootable install media
• Booting the install media
• Performing a simple install
• What files are needed for installation?
• How should I partition my disk?
• Additional thoughts on partitioning
• Sending your dmesg after the install
• What is bsd.rd?
• Problems with signatures
• Customizing the install process
• Multibooting

Building the System from Source

• OpenBSD's flavors
• What are snapshots?
• Building OpenBSD from source
• Making a release
• Building X
• Common problems when compiling
• Miscellaneous questions and tips
• Custom kernels
• CVS tips

Networking

• Background
• Network configuration
• Firewalling
• Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
• Using NFS
• Setting up a network bridge
• PXE booting
• Using OpenNTPD
• Wireless networking
• Equal-cost multipath routing

Keyboard and Display Controls

• Remapping the keyboard
• Console mouse support
• Accessing the console scrollback buffer
• Switching consoles
• Changing console font and resolution
• Configuring a serial console
• Blanking the console after a period of inactivity

General Questions

• I forgot my root password
• The boot loader
• ksh does not appear to read my .profile
• Why is my clock off by twenty-some seconds?
• Time zones
• Reverse DNS
• Using S/Key
• Device "not configured" in dmesg

System Management

• When I try to su to root it says I'm in the wrong group
• Duplicating filesystems with dump and restore
• The rc system startup script
• OpenBSD's sudo replacement, doas
• Changing a user's password
• Adding and deleting users
• Setting up user disk quotas
• Directory services
• Character sets and localization
• Converting your Linux password file to BSD-style
• Keeping OpenBSD up to date

The X Window System

• Introduction to X
• Configuring X
• Starting X
• Customizing X

Multimedia

• Configuring audio devices with mixerctl
• Playing different kinds of audio
• Playing audio CDs
• Recording audio samples
• Recording a monitor mix of all audio playback
• OpenBSD's audio server, sndiod
• Debugging audio problems
• Using MIDI instruments
• Playing DVDs
• Burning CDs and DVDs
• Browser plugins (Java and Flash)

Disk Setup

• Disks and partitions
• Using fdisk
• Using disklabel
• The amd64 boot process
• Soft updates
• Duplicating your root partition: /altroot
• Can I access data on filesystems other than FFS?
• Mounting disk images
• Why does df tell me I have over 100% of my disk used?
• RAID and disk encryption

Packages and Ports

• Introduction
• Package management
• Working with ports
• FAQ
• Reporting problems
• Helping us

PF User's Guide

• Basic configuration
  • Getting started
  • Lists and macros
  • Tables
  • Packet filtering
  • Network Address Translation
  • Traffic redirection (port forwarding)
  • Shortcuts for creating rulesets
• Advanced configuration
  • Runtime options
  • Anchors
  • Address pools and load balancing
  • Packet tagging (policy filtering)
• Additional topics
  • Logging
  • Performance
  • Issues with FTP
  • User shell for authenticating gateways (authpf)
  • Firewall redundancy (CARP and pfsync)
• Example rulesets
  • Building a router

Questions and comments regarding this FAQ may be directed to misc@openbsd.org. General questions about OpenBSD should be directed to the appropriate mailing list.

OpenBSD FAQ Copyright © 1998-2016 OpenBSD

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