How to install PC-BSD on an encrypted ZFS file system

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
Sep 5, 2010

[ Thanks to finid
for this link. ]

“As a desktop distribution built atop FreeBSD, PC-BSD
makes available to the desktop user all the cool technologies
inside FreeBSD. One of those cool technologies is ZFS, the
Zettabyte File System, a file system developed by Sun Microsystems
(acquired by Oracle Corporation) for the Solaris operating system.
ZFS has no parallel in the Linux/BSD world. It packs features that
no other file system in the Linux kernel has (btrfs is a potential
answer for ZFS in the Linux kernel, but it is still a work in
progress).

“This post presents a step by step guide on how to install
PC-BSD 8.1, the latest version of PC-BSD, on a single-disk,
encrypted ZFS file system. While using ZFS on a single disk system
does not take full advantage of the powerful features of ZFS, this
configuration allows a user who might not have access to a multiple
disk machine to play with some of the basic features of ZFS.

“Experienced BSD users likely will not need this tutorial, but
if you are new to the BSD world, this ability to use ZFS should be
a very good reason to distro-hop, if temporarily, to PC-BSD. Note
that the minimum memory requirements for running ZFS is 512 MB.
Failure to adhere to this simple requirement could lead to
unpredictable results.”


Complete Story

Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

Linux Today Logo

LinuxToday is a trusted, contributor-driven news resource supporting all types of Linux users. Our thriving international community engages with us through social media and frequent content contributions aimed at solving problems ranging from personal computing to enterprise-level IT operations. LinuxToday serves as a home for a community that struggles to find comparable information elsewhere on the web.

Property of TechnologyAdvice. © 2026 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.