4 files changed, 95 insertions, 41 deletions

diff --git a/UPDATING b/UPDATING
index c60143c6184e..58d12856c581 100644
--- a/UPDATING
+++ b/UPDATING
@@ -27,6 +27,11 @@ NOTE TO PEOPLE WHO THINK THAT FreeBSD 16.x IS SLOW:
 	world, or to merely disable the most expensive debugging functionality
 	at runtime, run "ln -s 'abort:false,junk:false' /etc/malloc.conf".)
 
+20260512:
+	"bsdinstall script" will now do a pkgbase installation by default.  To
+	revert to the legacy distset installation, set "DISTRIBUTIONS" in
+	your installerconfig.
+
 20260412:
 	The /etc/rc.d/NETWORKING script no longer provides the legacy
 	NETWORK alias. Third-party or local RC scripts that still use
diff --git a/usr.sbin/bsdinstall/bsdinstall.8 b/usr.sbin/bsdinstall/bsdinstall.8
index 282b88328e99..a35c8f56ada7 100644
--- a/usr.sbin/bsdinstall/bsdinstall.8
+++ b/usr.sbin/bsdinstall/bsdinstall.8
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
 .\" ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
 .\" POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
 .\"
-.Dd April 20, 2026
+.Dd May 12, 2026
 .Dt BSDINSTALL 8
 .Os
 .Sh NAME
@@ -109,9 +109,12 @@ for more information on this target.
 .Pp
 The
 .Ev DISTRIBUTIONS
-environment variable is set to
-.Dq base.txz kernel.txz
-by default for this target.
+environment variable is unset by default for this target.
+Instead, the
+.Ev COMPONENTS
+environment variable is effectively set to
+.Dq base kernel kernel-dbg
+for this target.
 .It Cm keymap
 If the current controlling TTY is a
 .Xr syscons 4
@@ -321,8 +324,17 @@ overridden when making scripted or customized installers.
 The directory to use for temporary files.
 Default:
 .Dq Pa /tmp
+.It Ev COMPONENTS
+The set of components to install for scripted installations using
+base system packages, e.g.,
+.Dq base lib32 kernel-dbg tests .
+Default: "base kernel-dbg"
 .It Ev DISTRIBUTIONS
-The set of distributions to install, e.g., "base.txz kernel.txz ports.txz".
+The set of distributions to install for traditional installations, e.g.,
+.Dq base.txz kernel.txz ports.txz .
+If unset, then
+.Nm
+will install using base system packages.
 Default: unset unless noted otherwise in the
 .Sx TARGETS
 section.
@@ -609,18 +621,18 @@ A typical bsdinstall script, using the default filesystem layout and the UFS
 filesystem, looks like this:
 .Bd -literal -offset indent
 PARTITIONS=DEFAULT
-DISTRIBUTIONS="kernel.txz base.txz"
+COMPONENTS="base debug"
 
 #!/bin/sh
 sysrc ifconfig_DEFAULT=DHCP
 sysrc sshd_enable=YES
-pkg install puppet
+pkg install -y puppet
 .Ed
 .Pp
 For a scripted installation involving a ZFS pool spanning multiple disks,
 the script instead looks like this:
 .Bd -literal -offset indent
-DISTRIBUTIONS="kernel.txz base.txz"
+COMPONENTS="base debug"
 export ZFSBOOT_VDEV_TYPE=stripe
 export ZFSBOOT_DISKS="ada0 ada1"
 export nonInteractive="YES"
@@ -628,7 +640,20 @@ export nonInteractive="YES"
 #!/bin/sh
 echo "ifconfig_DEFAULT=DHCP" >> /etc/rc.conf
 echo "sshd_enable=YES" >> /etc/rc.conf
-pkg install puppet
+pkg install -y puppet
+.Ed
+.Pp
+To install using traditional distributions sets instead of packages, set
+.Ev DISTRIBUTIONS
+to the list of distribution sets to install, like this:
+.Bd -literal -offset indent
+PARTITIONS=DEFAULT
+DISTRIBUTIONS="kernel.txz base.txz"
+
+#!/bin/sh
+sysrc ifconfig_DEFAULT=DHCP
+sysrc sshd_enable=YES
+pkg install -y puppet
 .Ed
 .Pp
 On
@@ -653,7 +678,7 @@ arbitrary commands can be run here to extend the installer.
 In addition to the variables in
 .Sx ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES ,
 in particular
-.Ev DISTRIBUTIONS ,
+.Ev COMPONENTS ,
 the preamble can contain a variable
 .Ev PARTITIONS
 which is passed to the
diff --git a/usr.sbin/bsdinstall/scripts/pkgbase.in b/usr.sbin/bsdinstall/scripts/pkgbase.in
index 89ddc244171e..2c7d6bcae904 100755
--- a/usr.sbin/bsdinstall/scripts/pkgbase.in
+++ b/usr.sbin/bsdinstall/scripts/pkgbase.in
@@ -180,7 +180,18 @@ local function select_components(components, options)
 	}
 	append_list(bsddialog_args, checklist_items)
 
-	local exit_code, output = bsddialog(bsddialog_args)
+	local exit_code = 0
+	local output = ""
+	if options.non_interactive then
+		local env_components = os.getenv("COMPONENTS")
+		if env_components then
+			output = env_components:gsub(" ", "\n")
+		else
+			output = "base\nkernel-dbg"
+		end
+	else
+		exit_code, output = bsddialog(bsddialog_args)
+	end
 	-- This should only be possible if bsddialog is killed by a signal
 	-- or buggy, we disable the cancel option and esc key.
 	-- If this does happen, there's not much we can do except exit with a
@@ -300,6 +311,8 @@ local function parse_options()
 	for _, a in ipairs(arg) do
 		if a == "--jail" then
 			options.jail = true
+		elseif a == "--non-interactive" then
+			options.non_interactive = true
 		else
 			io.stderr:write("Error: unknown option " .. a .. "\n")
 			os.exit(1)
diff --git a/usr.sbin/bsdinstall/scripts/script b/usr.sbin/bsdinstall/scripts/script
index 21da2ea7c366..93d07c7899c3 100755
--- a/usr.sbin/bsdinstall/scripts/script
+++ b/usr.sbin/bsdinstall/scripts/script
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ f_include $BSDCFG_SHARE/variable.subr
 # PARTITIONS
 # DISTRIBUTIONS
 # BSDINSTALL_DISTDIR
+# COMPONENTS
 
 #
 # Default name of the ZFS boot-pool
@@ -97,7 +98,6 @@ awk 'BEGIN {pathb=ARGV[2]; ARGV[2]=""} /^#!/{b=1} {
     >$TMPDIR/bsdinstall-installscript-preamble
 
 . $TMPDIR/bsdinstall-installscript-preamble
-: ${DISTRIBUTIONS="kernel.txz base.txz"}; export DISTRIBUTIONS
 export BSDINSTALL_DISTDIR
 
 # Re-initialize a new log if preamble changed BSDINSTALL_LOG
@@ -118,37 +118,48 @@ else
 fi
 bsdinstall mount
 
-# Fetch missing distribution files, if any
-exec 5>&1
-export BSDINSTALL_DISTDIR=$(`dirname $0`/fetchmissingdists 2>&1 1>&5)
-FETCH_RESULT=$?
-exec 5>&-
+if [ -n "$COMPONENTS" -a -n "$DISTRIBUTIONS" ]; then
+	error "Cannot set both COMPONENTS and DISTRIBUTIONS"
+elif [ -z "$DISTRIBUTIONS" ]; then
+	# If COMPONENTS is set, or neither is, install with pkgbase
+	bsdinstall pkgbase --non-interactive
+else
+	# Otherwise, unpack distsets
 
-[ $FETCH_RESULT -ne 0 ] && error "Could not fetch remote distributions"
+	# Fetch missing distribution files, if any
+	exec 5>&1
+	export BSDINSTALL_DISTDIR=$(`dirname $0`/fetchmissingdists 2>&1 1>&5)
+	FETCH_RESULT=$?
+	exec 5>&-
 
-# Unpack distributions
-bsdinstall checksum
-if [ -t 0 ]; then
-	# If install is a tty, use distextract as normal
-	bsdinstall distextract
-else
-	# Otherwise, we need to use tar (see https://reviews.freebsd.org/D10736)
-	for set in $DISTRIBUTIONS; do
-		f_dprintf "Extracting $BSDINSTALL_DISTDIR/$set"
-		# XXX: The below fails if any mountpoints are FAT, due to
-		# inability to set ctime/mtime on the root of FAT partitions,
-		# which is needed to support e.g. EFI system partitions. tar has
-		# no option to ignore this (distextract ignores them internally
-		# through a hack), and returns 1 on any warning or error,
-		# effectively turning all warnings into fatal errors.
-		# 
-		# Work around this in an extremely lame way for the specific
-		# case of EFI system partitions only. This *ONLY WORKS* if
-		# /boot/efi is empty and does not handle analogous problems on
-		# other systems (ARM, PPC64).
-		tar -xf "$BSDINSTALL_DISTDIR/$set" -C $BSDINSTALL_CHROOT --exclude boot/efi
-		mkdir -p $BSDINSTALL_CHROOT/boot/efi
-	done
+	[ $FETCH_RESULT -ne 0 ] && error "Could not fetch remote distributions"
+
+	bsdinstall checksum
+	if [ -t 0 ]; then
+		# If install is a tty, use distextract as normal
+		bsdinstall distextract
+	else
+		# Otherwise, we need to use tar (see
+		# https://reviews.freebsd.org/D10736)
+		for set in $DISTRIBUTIONS; do
+			f_dprintf "Extracting $BSDINSTALL_DISTDIR/$set"
+			# XXX: The below fails if any mountpoints are FAT, due
+			# to inability to set ctime/mtime on the root of FAT
+			# partitions, which is needed to support e.g. EFI
+			# system partitions. tar has no option to ignore this
+			# (distextract ignores them internally through a hack),
+			# and returns 1 on any warning or error, effectively
+			# turning all warnings into fatal errors.
+			#
+			# Work around this in an extremely lame way for the
+			# specific case of EFI system partitions only. This
+			# *ONLY WORKS* if /boot/efi is empty and does not
+			# handle analogous problems on other systems (ARM,
+			# PPC64).
+			tar -xf "$BSDINSTALL_DISTDIR/$set" -C $BSDINSTALL_CHROOT --exclude boot/efi
+			mkdir -p $BSDINSTALL_CHROOT/boot/efi
+		done
+	fi
 fi
 
 # Configure bootloader if needed