Blue Room Hosting

Although we do not currently offer OpenBSD as a stock distribution we are happy to install it on request. This is a simple matter of using the provided virtual console and virtual CD to boot the installation CD and following the prompts. Of course anyone wishing to perform the installation themselves can do so very easily.

OpenBSD 4.6 amd64

We have just added OpenBSD 4.6 to our CD library and successfully installed it. There were only two problems and they were both very simple to fix.

The first issue is with KVM. We are currently part way though a roll out of KVM 86, and some of our hosts are still running KVM 78 which does not support OpenBSD versions after 4.4. If you wish to run a later version you will need to be moved to a KVM 86 host. Once our roll out is complete this will cease to be a problem.

The second issue is with mpbios. Although OpenBSD 4.6 installs fine it will hang when it first boots. To fix this mpbios must be disabled.

Step 1 - boot prompt

When the VPS is booting stop at the boot prompt and type the following:

 boot> bsd -c
 ...
 UKC> disable mpbios
 54 mpbios0 disabled
 UKC> quit
 ...

Step 2 - permanent fix

Interrupting the boot prompt will enable the system to be booted once, but to make the system boot every time the kernel must be reconfigured. This must done as root:

 # config -ef /bsd
 ...
 ukc> disable mpbios
 54 mpbios0 disabled
 ukc> quit
 Saving modified kernel.
 #

With these changes in place OpenBSD works very well and is an attractive option for anyone wanting to run a very secure VPS.