Pre-installation Tasks

Pre-installation Tasks

Back Up Your Data

Back up all important data on the target computer before installing GhostBSD. The GhostBSD installer will not ask before making changes to the disk, but once the process has started, it cannot be undone.

Check for FreeBSD Errata

GhostBSD is based on FreeBSD. Although the FreeBSD Project strives to ensure that each release of FreeBSD is as stable as possible, bugs occasionally creep into the process. On very rare occasions those bugs affect the installation process. As these problems are discovered and fixed, they are noted in 11.1-RELEASE Errata page on the FreeBSD web site. Check the errata before installing to make sure that there are no problems that might affect the installation.

Prepare the Installation Media

The GhostBSD installation media is available as a .iso file. Copies of GhostBSD installation media are available for free at the GhostBSD download page.

Creating a bootable USB Flash Drive

Introduction

After downloading the appropriate .iso file, copy it to a USB flash drive using one of the methods described below.

On Linux

Depending on the image filename, issue one of the following commands:

sudo dd if=GhostBSD11.1-mate-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdf bs=1M conv=sync

or

sudo dd if=GhostBSD11.1-xfce-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdf bs=1M conv=sync

On BSD

Depending on the image filename, issue one of the following commands:

dd if=/path/to/GhostBSD11.1-mate-amd64.iso of=/dev/da0 bs=1m conv=sync

or

dd if=/path/to/GhostBSD11.1-xfce-amd64.iso of=/dev/da0 bs=1m conv=sync

On Windows

1. Download the desired .iso file
2. Download Disk Imager from http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/
3. Insert your USB flash drive
4. Note the drive letter assigned to your flash media
5. Start Disk Imager
6. Select the downloaded file and target device, and click "Write"
7. Remove your USB flash drive when the operation is complete

Conclusion

The steps described above will create a bootable GhostBSD system on a USB flash drive. To start a live session, connect the USB thumb drive, or insert the DVD, into the computer and reboot the computer. More in-depth instructions can be found here.