Installing FreeBSD 9.1 on a KVM VPS with 128MB RAM
I have a VPS with 128MB’s worth of RAM. It’s a KVM so it’s as much as I’ll ever get. I installed FreeBSD 9.0 on the box a while ago but decided it was time for a fresh start. As I was going through the installation process I came across this:
I was stomped. Not enough swap? This was a minimal install and I had just created a 512MB swap partition during the installation process - it was only unpacking the kernel.
A bit of research led to me to understand that even though the swap parition was alive and well, it wasn’t being used - and the 128MB of RAM was getting used up in no time.
Now FreeBSD is nothing if not flexible, so here is how I worked around the issue.
When asked about disk paritioning, drop in the shell. If you’re used to fancy GUIs it’s a bit like a cold shower - but it’s really powerful.
First thing first - we remove whatever was left behind and create a brand new label (note there’s only one disk, so it simplifies things a bit):
We then create the partitions. Now YMMV but my needs are pretty simple. I just need a boot partition, a swap one, and one for /. Note that I left the -s out for the gptroot partition so it fills up the remaining space:
Format / using newfs and mount it - otherwise the installer will stall with some weird error regarding user=0:
Finish off by enabling the swap parition:
# swapon /dev/gpt/gptswap
and voila! The installer will continue and use the swap partition as and when required (yep, that was the tricky bit).
Once the install is complete you will be asked whether you want to be dropped into a shell. Again the answer is yes - this time because /etc/fstab hasn’t been created for you. Just open up vi and:
/dev/gpt/gptswap none swap sw 0 0
/dev/gpt/gptroot / ufs rw 1 1
Type exit once done and restart. all done!
gpart help found from wonkity