tsiry-sandratraina.com / freebsd-up
A simple, zero-configuration script to quickly boot FreeBSD ISO images using QEMU
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README.md

FreeBSD-Up 🚀#

A simple, zero-configuration script to quickly boot FreeBSD ISO images using QEMU. Perfect for testing, development, or learning FreeBSD without complex setup.

Preview

✨ Features#

  • 🔗 Download and boot from URLs: Automatically downloads ISO images from remote URLs
  • 📁 Local file support: Boot from local ISO files
  • 🏷️ Version shortcuts: Simply specify a version like 14.3-RELEASE to auto-download
  • 🎯 Smart defaults: Run without arguments to boot the latest stable release (FreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE)
  • ⚡ Zero configuration: Works out of the box with sensible defaults
  • 🖥️ Serial console: Configured for headless operation with stdio console
  • 🌐 Network ready: Pre-configured with SSH port forwarding (host:2222 → guest:22)
  • 💾 Smart caching: Automatically skips re-downloading existing ISO files
  • 🆘 Help support: Built-in help with --help or -h flags
  • ⚙️ Configurable VM options: Customize CPU type, core count, memory allocation, and persistent storage
  • 💾 Persistent storage support: Attach disk images for data persistence
  • 🗂️ Multiple disk formats: Support for qcow2, raw, and other disk formats
  • 📝 Enhanced CLI: Powered by Cliffy for robust command-line parsing

📋 Prerequisites#

Before using FreeBSD-Up, make sure you have:

  • Deno - Modern JavaScript/TypeScript runtime
  • QEMU - Hardware virtualization
  • KVM support (Linux) - For hardware acceleration (optional but recommended)

Installation on Common Systems#

Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install qemu-system-x86 qemu-kvm
curl -fsSL https://deno.land/install.sh | sh

Fedora:

sudo dnf install qemu qemu-kvm
curl -fsSL https://deno.land/install.sh | sh

macOS:

brew install qemu deno

Run the following command to install the CLI:

deno install -A -g -r -f --config deno.json ./main.ts -n freebsd-up

🚀 Quick Start#

Default Usage (Easiest)#

Simply run without any arguments to boot the latest stable FreeBSD release:

freebsd-up

This will automatically download and boot FreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE.

Boot with Version Shortcut#

Specify just a version to auto-download and boot:

freebsd-up 14.3-RELEASE
freebsd-up 15.0-BETA3
freebsd-up 13.4-RELEASE

Boot from URL#

Download and boot from a specific URL:

freebsd-up https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/15.0/FreeBSD-15.0-BETA3-amd64-disc1.iso

Boot from Local File#

freebsd-up /path/to/your/freebsd.iso

Customize VM Configuration#

Specify custom CPU type, core count, memory allocation, and persistent storage:

# Custom CPU and memory
freebsd-up --cpu host --memory 4G 14.3-RELEASE

# Specify number of CPU cores
freebsd-up --cpus 4 --memory 8G 15.0-BETA3

# Attach a disk image for persistent storage
freebsd-up --drive ./freebsd-disk.img --disk-format qcow2 14.3-RELEASE

# Download to specific location
freebsd-up --output ./downloads/freebsd.iso 15.0-BETA3

# Combine all options
freebsd-up --cpu qemu64 --cpus 2 --memory 1G --drive ./my-disk.qcow2 --disk-format qcow2 --output ./my-freebsd.iso

Get Help#

./main.ts --help
# or
./main.ts -h

Alternative Execution Methods#

If the script isn't executable, you can run it directly with Deno:

deno run --allow-run --allow-read --allow-env main.ts [options]

🔧 Command Line Options#

FreeBSD-Up supports several command-line options for customization:

  • -c, --cpu <type> - CPU type to emulate (default: host)
  • -C, --cpus <number> - Number of CPU cores (default: 2)
  • -m, --memory <size> - Amount of memory for the VM (default: 2G)
  • -d, --drive <path> - Path to VM disk image for persistent storage
  • --disk-format <format> - Disk image format: qcow2, raw, etc. (default: raw)
  • -o, --output <path> - Output path for downloaded ISO files
  • -h, --help - Show help information
  • -V, --version - Show version information

Examples#

# Use different CPU type
freebsd-up --cpu qemu64 14.3-RELEASE

# Allocate more memory
freebsd-up --memory 4G 15.0-BETA3

# Use more CPU cores
freebsd-up --cpus 4 14.3-RELEASE

# Attach a persistent disk image
freebsd-up --drive ./freebsd-storage.qcow2 --disk-format qcow2 14.3-RELEASE

# Save ISO to specific location
freebsd-up --output ./isos/freebsd.iso https://example.com/freebsd.iso

# Combine multiple options with persistent storage
freebsd-up --cpu host --cpus 4 --memory 8G --drive ./vm-disk.qcow2 --disk-format qcow2 --output ./downloads/ 14.3-RELEASE

🖥️ Console Setup#

When FreeBSD boots, you'll see the boot menu. For the best experience with the serial console:

  1. Select option 3. Escape to loader prompt
  2. Configure console output: 
    set console="comconsole"
boot

This enables proper console redirection to your terminal.

⚙️ VM Configuration#

The script creates a VM with the following default specifications:

  • CPU: Host CPU with KVM acceleration (configurable with --cpu)
  • Memory: 2GB RAM (configurable with --memory)
  • Cores: 2 virtual CPUs (configurable with --cpus)
  • Storage: ISO-only by default; optional persistent disk (configurable with --drive)
  • Network: User mode networking with SSH forwarding
  • Console: Enhanced serial console via stdio with proper signal handling
  • Default Version: FreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE (when no arguments provided)

Available CPU Types#

Common CPU types you can specify with --cpu:

  • host (default) - Use host CPU features for best performance
  • qemu64 - Generic 64-bit CPU for maximum compatibility
  • Broadwell - Intel Broadwell CPU
  • Skylake-Client - Intel Skylake CPU
  • max - Enable all supported CPU features

Available Disk Formats#

Common disk formats you can specify with --disk-format:

  • raw (default) - Raw disk image format for maximum compatibility
  • qcow2 - QEMU Copy On Write format with compression and snapshots
  • vmdk - VMware disk format
  • vdi - VirtualBox disk format

🔧 Customization#

Modifying VM Settings via Command Line#

The easiest way to customize VM settings is through command-line options:

# Increase memory to 4GB
freebsd-up --memory 4G

# Use a different CPU type
freebsd-up --cpu qemu64

# Increase CPU cores to 4
freebsd-up --cpus 4

# Add persistent storage
freebsd-up --drive ./freebsd-data.qcow2 --disk-format qcow2

# Combine options with persistent storage
freebsd-up --cpu host --cpus 4 --memory 8G --drive ./vm-storage.qcow2 --disk-format qcow2 14.3-RELEASE

Creating Disk Images#

Before using the --drive option, you may need to create a disk image:

# Create a 20GB qcow2 disk image
qemu-img create -f qcow2 freebsd-data.qcow2 20G

# Create a 10GB raw disk image
qemu-img create -f raw freebsd-data.img 10G

Advanced Customization#

To modify other VM settings, edit the QEMU arguments in the runQemu function in main.ts:

const cmd = new Deno.Command("qemu-system-x86_64", {
  args: [
    "-enable-kvm",
    "-cpu",
    options.cpu,
    "-m",
    options.memory,
    "-smp",
    options.cpus.toString(), // Number of CPU cores
    "-chardev",
    "stdio,id=con0,signal=off", // Enhanced console handling
    "-serial",
    "chardev:con0",
    // Conditional drive attachment for persistent storage
    ...(options.drive
      ? [
        "-drive",
        `file=${options.drive},format=${options.diskFormat},if=virtio`,
      ]
      : []),
    // ... other options
  ],
  // ...
});

Supported Version Formats#

The script automatically recognizes and handles these version formats:

  • 14.3-RELEASE - Stable releases
  • 15.0-BETA3 - Beta versions
  • 13.4-RC1 - Release candidates
  • Any format matching: X.Y-RELEASE|BETAX|RCX

To change the default version when no arguments are provided, modify the DEFAULT_VERSION constant in main.ts.

📁 Project Structure#

freebsd-up/
├── main.ts          # Main script with Cliffy CLI integration
├── deno.json        # Deno configuration with dependencies
├── deno.lock        # Dependency lock file
└── README.md        # This file

Dependencies#

The project uses the following key dependencies:

🤝 Contributing#

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to:

  • Report bugs
  • Suggest features
  • Submit pull requests
  • Improve documentation

📝 License#

This project is open source. Check the repository for license details.

🔗 Useful Links#

NOTE

This tool is designed for development and testing purposes. For production FreeBSD deployments, consider using proper installation methods.