That's very odd. The pkg_add command now works out of the box for OpenBSD 6.4 as your /etc/installurl file is pre-configured for you and selects the best download site for you based on location.
I find that download speeds are now a lot faster for me when I download packages.

I just upgraded my mail servers. It required a lot of testing prior to deployment, due to changes in OpenSMTPd grammar. Details here.

Enjoyed reading about your server adventures. Thanks.

Not in China. The internet is slow here at the best of times. It is not unusual for local connections to occasionally go down for an hour or two. So international connections being sporadic is not unusual.

Anyway, upgrade had a hitch, so reinstalled and 6.4 humming along nicely.

Interesting! Thanks for the reply. I didn't know about the Internet slow downs in China. Very happy to hear that 6.4 is working well for you now. This release is stellar.

I really wanted to give OpenBSD 6.4 a go, curious about it - been a FreeBSD user for a while and I see folks running OpenBSD as a desktop. I currently run FreeBSD 11.2 as a desktop. Successfully wrote a thumbdrive with the 6.4 image and booted to the installer - everything seemed fine until I got to the partitioner and then massive confusion overcame me...I am no slouch at the CLI but could not for the life of me figure out how to install to a custom drive/partition scheme. OpenBSD graciously ate my boot drive despite not having committed any changes so that was an issue but I needed to do a fresh install of FreeBSD anyway for other reasons.

Maybe this is a topic for another thread - can someone point me in the direction of a howto on installing OpenBSD? I have already read through the OpenBSD FAQ but it was not terribly informative. Looking at installing to a desktop PC with 2 SSDs: one for the OS and one for user's /home. No windoze involved, BSD only. Been running this config for years on both Linux and FreeBSD with no issues. I am sure it must be possible on OpenBSD?

It's not complicated, just different to what you are used to.

Read up on partitioning & all will become clear.

When I install, I just use a / & /home, (but I'm told this isn't the best set up) - select Whole disk, Custom partitioning, enter 'z' to clear it, then 'a' to add a partition.

(I add the 'a' partition for / & the 'd' partition for /home.)

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You would want to use disklabel(8)'s interactive mode (presented as the option "manual partitioning" as I recall) during installation to create your own partition schema. There are valid reasons for using the defaults - or close to the defaults - however, which I won't go into here as it's the subject of a whole other thread.

I tend to exit the installer and using fdisk(8) and disklabel(8), ensure I know for certain which disk it is I am installing to and which contains important data or another OS.

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Great, thanks to both of you - I have no issues with the default partitioning scheme, other than my /home is on another disk and I don't want to format it but leave it as UFS and untouched. Yes, very different than what I am used to! I am intrigued by the simplicity of the OS - I have minimal software requirements and use a WM and a few tools, all of which appear to be in OpenBSD.

Will give another go and report back. Thanks again.

I hadn't realised you'd wanted to install across two SSDs. The installer does not support installing to multiple block devices. You would have to do this afterwards.

I suggest creating a very small /home partition on the first device during install (this is your "failsafe" should the other device fail or not be available).

Backup all of the files from this partition.

Then create a suitable sized UFS partition on the other drive and just mount that as your /home partition..

Restore the backed up files to the new /home partition.

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Thanks cynwulf - saved me some confusion! I have a NAS and regularly back up my /home disk so it is easy to restore. The automatic partition scheme is fine then, and I can just adjust the mount point of /home later, to point to my other SSD.

I still have more reading to do on OpenBSD - reading through the FAQ shows different commands, etc, for tasks that I am used to on FreeBSD. It seems a VM instance might be prudent first so I can learn the system better.

If you are installing OpenBSD for the first time, PLEASE START with the default partitioning allocations, which are based on disk size. If you use the defaults, you will avoid inadvertently eliminating OpenBSD security features set by mount point, and you will also avoid the risk of boot failure due to having the second stage bootloader randomly stored outside your computer's BIOS sector addressing limits.

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Thanks for the advice - that brings up another question: can OpenBSD handle UEFI motherboards and booting? I am booting FreeBSD with an EFI partition now. No other OS's (windows) on this machine so no "secure boot, fast boot, etc".

Yes, OpenBSD supports EFI boot and GPT partitioning. To my recollection, EFI multi-boot is not currently supported, but I also recall that there are some users who have developed workarounds.


Edited to add: I'm using EFI, but I have two OSes on two separate drives. Therefore, I don't have direct knowledge of multi-boot concerns.

Great, no multiboot for me, I am a one OS guy, lol. Appreciate the answers.