Learn DragonFlyBSD - Installation & Partitioning (installer)

#Introduction

In episode 2 you understood DragonFlyBSD's architecture: the base system, DPorts, the source tree, and the role of each component. Now that theory has to touch the disk. This episode guides you from the installation boot image to a ready-to-use system — including the important partitioning decisions that will shape your entire experience throughout this series.

Installation is the moment when you make structural decisions: how much space to give the root filesystem, whether to use HAMMER2 or UFS, and how to lay out mount points. These decisions aren't hard to change later — but understanding the reasoning makes everything much calmer.

#Text-Based Installer

#Boot and the Initial Menu

After booting from the ISO or USB image, you'll see the installer menu. Choose the option to enter the interactive installer. The whole process runs in the terminal — no GUI — in keeping with the Unix philosophy: transparent, concise, and repeatable. Navigation is done with the arrow keys, Enter, and Tab.

The main installer flow:

1. Choosing the keyboard layout and language.
2. Initial network configuration (interface and IP address).
3. Deciding which distribution sets to install.
4. Creating partitions and choosing a filesystem.
5. Setting up mount points and swap.
6. Finishing the installation and rebooting.

#Distribution Sets

DragonFlyBSD divides the base system into sets — groups of files you can pick. This is what makes the installation flexible:

Throughout this series we need comp for episode 20 (buildworld/buildkernel) and crypto for episode 14 (OpenSSL and TLS). Don't remove these sets from your selection.

#Network & Swap Configuration

During installation, you'll be asked to configure the network interface and swap. If you're using DHCP, simply choose the DHCP option — static configuration can be set up later via /etc/rc.conf. Swap is recommended to be the size of your RAM or slightly larger; DragonFlyBSD also supports swapcache to use swap as a cache for HAMMER2 file data.

#Partitioning & Disks

#fdisk: MBR and GPT

The first step in partitioning is deciding the partition scheme with fdisk. DragonFlyBSD supports classic MBR and modern GPT. For modern disks over 2 TB, or when you want many partitions, GPT is the right choice; MBR remains supported for compatibility. Inside that slice, the disk layout is managed further with disklabel.

A common partitioning flow:

1. Use fdisk to create one slice spanning the whole disk (or divide it for dual-boot).
2. Use disklabel to split the slice into partitions a, b, and so on.
3. Decide each partition's filesystem and mount point.

#disklabel: Splitting the Slice

disklabel works inside the slice: partition a is usually for root, b for swap, and the rest for data filesystems. Here's the layout we'll use as an example:

The installer offers a sensible automatic layout. For learning purposes, also try to understand the manual approach — because in episodes 8 and 19 we'll add HAMMER2 volumes outside of installation.

#HAMMER2 (Default) vs UFS

The filesystem decision is the most important decision in this episode:

• HAMMER2 — the default since the 6.x releases. Supports snapshots, checksums, deduplication, compression, and encryption. Ideal for modern workloads and the focus of this series.
• UFS — the classic BSD filesystem: lightweight and mature. Suitable for a simple boot partition or workloads that don't need advanced features.

For installation, use HAMMER2 for root. Here's an example of creating a HAMMER2 filesystem on the command line:

newfs_hammer2 -L root /dev/da0a

The -L option sets a label. This is a command that will become your friend throughout this series — we'll discuss newfs_hammer2 in more depth in episodes 7 and 8.

#Mount Points

The recommended mount point structure:

Separating /var is a wise decision: logs and caches won't fill up the root filesystem. Once the mount points are in place, the installer writes the boot configuration and completes the process.

#After Installation: Verification

After rebooting, log in as root and verify that the system is truly healthy:

uname -a
df -h
mount
sysctl kern.version
pkg -v

df -h will show your HAMMER2 filesystems, mount shows the active mount options, and pkg -v confirms the package manager is ready to use. If everything appears without errors, your system is officially a DragonFlyBSD.

#Closing

In this episode 3 you successfully completed the entire installation process: navigating the text installer, choosing sets (kern, base, comp, man), configuring network and swap, understanding the difference between fdisk (MBR/GPT) and disklabel, choosing HAMMER2 as the default filesystem (with UFS as an alternative), laying out mount points, and verifying the system with df -h and mount.

Key takeaways:

• The DragonFlyBSD installer is a text wizard; choose at least the kern, base, comp, man sets for learning.
• Layered partitioning: fdisk for slices (MBR/GPT), disklabel for partitions (a, b, c).
• HAMMER2 is the default filesystem; newfs_hammer2 -L root /dev/da0a is how you format it.
• Separate /var and swap for long-term operational comfort.
• Verify after boot with uname -a, df -h, and pkg -v.

In the next episode, episode 4, we'll step into the world of applications: package management with pkg & DPorts. You'll learn pkg install, pkg upgrade, pkg search, and pkg info, then understand DPorts, make install clean, dsynth, and the tradeoffs between binary packages and building from source.