Re: Installing openBSD

Karel Lucas said on Mon, 31 Jul 2023 16:08:49 +0200

>Hi,
>
>Multi-boot is not an option here. The intention is to replace the
>entire PfSense installation with openBSD. Eventually this computer
>becomes a firewall with PF, so the current installation is
>unnecessary. But my question remains whether I need the (U)EFI
>partition for that or not. Can anyone give me some helpful advice?

Once you delete the EFI partition it's gone. I've had mobos that booted
EFI but not MBR, mobos that booted MBR but not EFI, and mobos that
could boot either if the partition/media was correctly created for the
MBR or EFI. So I understand your concern and your desire to get an
answer to your question.

I understand that your question is about making sure you can get a
working install, rather than the desire to dual boot or manually
specify all partitions and mountpoints.

It's been awhile since I installed OpenBSD, so I don't remember exactly
what goes where. Why don't you install OpenBSD on a VM somewhere, check
out the directory layout, manually create that layout on your hard disk
after deleting all but the EFI partition and directory containing it.
The EFI partition isn't all that big, so if you later don't need it,
you're not wasting much room.

As you know, the MBR/EFI legacy/EFI decision for the motherboard is
done in the bios.

HTH,

SteveT

Steve Litt
Autumn 2022 featured book: Thriving in Tough Times
http://www.troubleshooters.com/bookstore/thrive.htm