3 Prerequisites

For going the FreeBSD From Scratch way, you need to have:

• A running FreeBSD system with sources and a ports tree.

• At least one unused partition where the new system will be installed.

• Experience with running mergemaster(8). Or at least no fear doing so.

• If you have no or only a slow link to the Internet: the distfiles for your favorite ports.

• Basic knowledge of shell scripting with the Bourne shell, sh(1).

• Finally, you should also be able to tell your boot loader how to boot the new system, either interactively, or by means of a config file.