Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive
Written by fbsd2 on 08/04/07 07:42 I was really taken with the idea for using a USB flash stick disk drive to install FreeBSD from. I used the script from the mentioned URL below as the starting point. After some changes to the script I got it to work. I was able to boot off the USB flash stick disk drive, But then was faced with a show stopper. During the sysinstall process after it asks for hard drive fdisk and bsdlable info it asks you for where to get the install files from (IE: cdrom, remote ftp, floppy, dos partition, ECT) there is no option to tell the sysinstall program to use USB-dd as source location. So in summary, this idea is un-usable until the sysinstall program gets updated to include an option to use USB-dd as an install source. This brings to light another problem. That is using floppies to install FreeBSD from. PC manufactures are no longer building systems with floppies drives included. Combining the FreeBSD floppy images to a single USB-dd image would be away to continue to offer this method of installing FreeBSD. Included below is my working script to populate a 1GB USB flash stick disk with the FreeBSD cd1 iso file. #!/bin/sh #Purpose = Use to transfer the FreeBSD install cd1 to # a bootable 1GB USB flash drive so it can be used to install from. # First fetch the FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso to your # hard drive /usr. Then execute this script from the command line # fbsd2usb /usr/6.2-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso /usr/6.2-RELEASE-i386-disc1.img # Change system bios to boot from USB-dd and away you go. # NOTE: This script has to be run from root and your 1GB USB flash drive # has to be plugged in before running this script. # On the command line enter fbsd2usb iso-path img-path # You can set some variables here. Edit them to fit your needs. # Set serial variable to 0 if you don't want serial console at all, # 1 if you want comconsole and 2 if you want comconsole and vidconsole serial=0 set -u if [ $# -lt 2 ]; then echo Usage: $0 source-iso-path output-img-path exit 1 fi isoimage=$1; shift imgoutfile=$1; shift # Temp directory to be used later #export tmpdir=$(mktemp -d -t fbsdmount) export tmpdir=$(mktemp -d /usr/fbsdmount) export isodev=$(mdconfig -a -t vnode -f ${isoimage}) ISOSIZE=$(du -k ${isoimage} | awk '{print $1}') SECTS=$((($ISOSIZE + ($ISOSIZE/5))*4)) #SECTS=$((($ISOSIZE + ($ISOSIZE/5))*2)) echo echo ### Initializing image File started ### echo ### This will take about 4 minutes ### date dd if=/dev/zero of=${imgoutfile} count=${SECTS} echo ### Initializing image File completed ### date echo ls -l ${imgoutfile} export imgdev=$(mdconfig -a -t vnode -f ${imgoutfile}) bsdlabel -w -B ${imgdev} newfs -O1 /dev/${imgdev}a mkdir -p ${tmpdir}/iso ${tmpdir}/img mount -t cd9660 /dev/${isodev} ${tmpdir}/iso mount /dev/${imgdev}a ${tmpdir}/img echo echo ### Started Copying files to the image now ### echo ### This will take about 15 minutes ### date ( cd ${tmpdir}/iso find . -print -depth | cpio -dump ${tmpdir}/img ) echo ### Completed Copying files to the image ### date if [ ${serial} -eq 2 ]; then echo -D ${tmpdir}/img/boot.config echo 'console=comconsole, vidconsole' ${tmpdir}/img/boot/loader.conf elif [ ${serial} -eq 1 ]; then echo -h ${tmpdir}/img/boot.config echo 'console=comconsole' ${tmpdir}/img/boot/loader.conf fi echo echo ### Started writing image to flash drive now ### echo ### This will take about 30 minutes ### date dd if=${imgoutfile} of=/dev/da0 bs=1m echo ### Completed writing image to flash drive at ### date cleanup() { umount ${tmpdir}/iso mdconfig -d -u ${isodev} umount ${tmpdir}/img mdconfig -d -u ${imgdev} rm -rf ${tmpdir} } cleanup ls -lh ${imgoutfile} echo ### Script finished ### -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Ross Penner Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2007 2:34 PM To: User questions Subject: Installing from USB Flash Drive Hi everybody, I'm trying to install a system on a machine that doesn't have an optical drive. I plan on using a USB flash drive to do the job and found a messages from [EMAIL PROTECTED] (http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg55434.html) about just such a thing. The script provided converts the CD image into one suitable for a flashmemory stick. I used and coverted it without issue. The instructions say to use dd to prepare the flash drive so executed #dd if=flashbsd.iso of=/dev/da0 I'm not entirely confident that that was the correct procedure, as I'm quite unfamilar with dd. Unfortunetly, I can't seem to get the drive to boot. I can mount the filesystem so it seems that prepareing the drive was succesful. I'm using a via chipset and yes, the bios is set to boot from USB-FDD. I used the 6.2 boot only image. Thanks for any insight you can provide me. Ross -- sig ho! Please don't top-post. You are correct
RE: Installing from USB Flash Drive
You are correct, there is no option for a USB flash drive for your installation media. However, it is not a show stopper - you have the file system media option. You should mount the flash disk and use this option. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Reid Linnemann Sent: Monday, August 06, 2007 8:54 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Ross Penner; User questions Subject: Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive When booting the USB flash drive which contains the install cd1 iso you go into sysinstall by default. There is no way to stay in the sysinstall pgm and issue a mount command for da0 that I can find. Exiting sysinstall just causes a reboot and you are right back at point you just left. Please explain how to mount USB flash drive when it's all ready used to boot from. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive
Written by fbsd2 on 08/06/07 09:08 You are correct, there is no option for a USB flash drive for your installation media. However, it is not a show stopper - you have the file system media option. You should mount the flash disk and use this option. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Reid Linnemann Sent: Monday, August 06, 2007 8:54 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Ross Penner; User questions Subject: Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive When booting the USB flash drive which contains the install cd1 iso you go into sysinstall by default. There is no way to stay in the sysinstall pgm and issue a mount command for da0 that I can find. Exiting sysinstall just causes a reboot and you are right back at point you just left. Please explain how to mount USB flash drive when it's all ready used to boot from. As I recall, the system starts up a shell on ttyv3 and you also have the root menu option Fixit to enter a shell. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: Installing from USB Flash Drive
Written by fbsd2 on 08/06/07 09:08 You are correct, there is no option for a USB flash drive for your installation media. However, it is not a show stopper - you have the file system media option. You should mount the flash disk and use this option. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Reid Linnemann Sent: Monday, August 06, 2007 8:54 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Ross Penner; User questions Subject: Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive When booting the USB flash drive which contains the install cd1 iso you go into sysinstall by default. There is no way to stay in the sysinstall pgm and issue a mount command for da0 that I can find. Exiting sysinstall just causes a reboot and you are right back at point you just left. Please explain how to mount USB flash drive when it's all ready used to boot from. As I recall, the system starts up a shell on ttyv3 and you also have the root menu option Fixit to enter a shell. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Reid Linnemann Sent: Monday, August 06, 2007 11:53 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: User questions Subject: Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive I already tried that. Fixit starts tty4 and I issued mount /dev/da0 /mnt and got mount not found Alt f2 is the default debug session and mount /dev/da0 /mnt worked from there, but still no joy. When sysinstall try's to get the source to install it says unable to transfer distribution source from ufs. Still looks like a showstopper to me. I am ready submitted a bug report to add USB-dd as supported install media in sysinstall. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: Installing from USB Flash Drive
I was really taken with the idea for using a USB flash stick disk drive to install FreeBSD from. I used the script from the mentioned URL below as the starting point. After some changes to the script I got it to work. I was able to boot off the USB flash stick disk drive, But then was faced with a show stopper. During the sysinstall process after it asks for hard drive fdisk and bsdlable info it asks you for where to get the install files from (IE: cdrom, remote ftp, floppy, dos partition, ECT) there is no option to tell the sysinstall program to use USB-dd as source location. So in summary, this idea is un-usable until the sysinstall program gets updated to include an option to use USB-dd as an install source. This brings to light another problem. That is using floppies to install FreeBSD from. PC manufactures are no longer building systems with floppies drives included. Combining the FreeBSD floppy images to a single USB-dd image would be away to continue to offer this method of installing FreeBSD. Included below is my working script to populate a 1GB USB flash stick disk with the FreeBSD cd1 iso file. #!/bin/sh #Purpose = Use to transfer the FreeBSD install cd1 to # a bootable 1GB USB flash drive so it can be used to install from. # First fetch the FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso to your # hard drive /usr. Then execute this script from the command line # fbsd2usb /usr/6.2-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso /usr/6.2-RELEASE-i386-disc1.img # Change system bios to boot from USB-dd and away you go. # NOTE: This script has to be run from root and your 1GB USB flash drive # has to be plugged in before running this script. # On the command line enter fbsd2usb iso-path img-path # You can set some variables here. Edit them to fit your needs. # Set serial variable to 0 if you don't want serial console at all, # 1 if you want comconsole and 2 if you want comconsole and vidconsole serial=0 set -u if [ $# -lt 2 ]; then echo Usage: $0 source-iso-path output-img-path exit 1 fi isoimage=$1; shift imgoutfile=$1; shift # Temp directory to be used later #export tmpdir=$(mktemp -d -t fbsdmount) export tmpdir=$(mktemp -d /usr/fbsdmount) export isodev=$(mdconfig -a -t vnode -f ${isoimage}) ISOSIZE=$(du -k ${isoimage} | awk '{print $1}') SECTS=$((($ISOSIZE + ($ISOSIZE/5))*4)) #SECTS=$((($ISOSIZE + ($ISOSIZE/5))*2)) echo echo ### Initializing image File started ### echo ### This will take about 4 minutes ### date dd if=/dev/zero of=${imgoutfile} count=${SECTS} echo ### Initializing image File completed ### date echo ls -l ${imgoutfile} export imgdev=$(mdconfig -a -t vnode -f ${imgoutfile}) bsdlabel -w -B ${imgdev} newfs -O1 /dev/${imgdev}a mkdir -p ${tmpdir}/iso ${tmpdir}/img mount -t cd9660 /dev/${isodev} ${tmpdir}/iso mount /dev/${imgdev}a ${tmpdir}/img echo echo ### Started Copying files to the image now ### echo ### This will take about 15 minutes ### date ( cd ${tmpdir}/iso find . -print -depth | cpio -dump ${tmpdir}/img ) echo ### Completed Copying files to the image ### date if [ ${serial} -eq 2 ]; then echo -D ${tmpdir}/img/boot.config echo 'console=comconsole, vidconsole' ${tmpdir}/img/boot/loader.conf elif [ ${serial} -eq 1 ]; then echo -h ${tmpdir}/img/boot.config echo 'console=comconsole' ${tmpdir}/img/boot/loader.conf fi echo echo ### Started writing image to flash drive now ### echo ### This will take about 30 minutes ### date dd if=${imgoutfile} of=/dev/da0 bs=1m echo ### Completed writing image to flash drive at ### date cleanup() { umount ${tmpdir}/iso mdconfig -d -u ${isodev} umount ${tmpdir}/img mdconfig -d -u ${imgdev} rm -rf ${tmpdir} } cleanup ls -lh ${imgoutfile} echo ### Script finished ### -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Ross Penner Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2007 2:34 PM To: User questions Subject: Installing from USB Flash Drive Hi everybody, I'm trying to install a system on a machine that doesn't have an optical drive. I plan on using a USB flash drive to do the job and found a messages from [EMAIL PROTECTED] (http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg55434.html) about just such a thing. The script provided converts the CD image into one suitable for a flashmemory stick. I used and coverted it without issue. The instructions say to use dd to prepare the flash drive so executed #dd if=flashbsd.iso of=/dev/da0 I'm not entirely confident that that was the correct procedure, as I'm quite unfamilar with dd. Unfortunetly, I can't seem to get the drive to boot. I can mount the filesystem so it seems that prepareing the drive was succesful. I'm using a via chipset and yes, the bios is set to boot from USB-FDD. I used the 6.2 boot only image. Thanks for any insight you can provide me. Ross -- sig ho! ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
cpio -dump ... (was: Installing from USB Flash Drive)
El día Wednesday, August 01, 2007 a las 03:21:12PM -0600, Ross Penner escribió: On 8/1/07, Reid Linnemann [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Written by Ross Penner on 08/01/07 13:34 Hi everybody, I'm trying to install a system on a machine that doesn't have an optical drive. I plan on using a USB flash drive to do the job and found a messages from [EMAIL PROTECTED] (http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg55434.html ) ... Hello, The above mentioned web page and script shows a usage of cpio(1) which I have never seen before: cpio -dump ${tmpdir}/img I was curious, looked into the man page of cpio(1) and even in the online manual at http://www.gnu.org/software/cpio/manual/cpio.html but did not saw anything about the option '-dump'; can someone bring a light to me? Thx matthias -- Matthias Apitz Manager Technical Support - OCLC PICA GmbH Gruenwalder Weg 28g - 82041 Oberhaching - Germany t +49-89-61308 351 - f +49-89-61308 399 - m +49-170-4527211 e [EMAIL PROTECTED] - w http://www.oclcpica.org/ http://www.UnixArea.de/ b http://gurucubano.blogspot.com/ OCLC PICA GmbH, Geschaeftsfuehrer: Christine Magin-Weeger, Norbert Weinberger Sitz der Gesellschaft: Oberhaching, HRB Muenchen: 113261 ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Installing from USB Flash Drive
Hi everybody, I'm trying to install a system on a machine that doesn't have an optical drive. I plan on using a USB flash drive to do the job and found a messages from [EMAIL PROTECTED] (http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg55434.html) about just such a thing. The script provided converts the CD image into one suitable for a flashmemory stick. I used and coverted it without issue. The instructions say to use dd to prepare the flash drive so executed #dd if=flashbsd.iso of=/dev/da0 I'm not entirely confident that that was the correct procedure, as I'm quite unfamilar with dd. Unfortunetly, I can't seem to get the drive to boot. I can mount the filesystem so it seems that prepareing the drive was succesful. I'm using a via chipset and yes, the bios is set to boot from USB-FDD. I used the 6.2 boot only image. Thanks for any insight you can provide me. Ross -- sig ho! ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive
Written by Ross Penner on 08/01/07 13:34 Hi everybody, I'm trying to install a system on a machine that doesn't have an optical drive. I plan on using a USB flash drive to do the job and found a messages from [EMAIL PROTECTED] (http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg55434.html) about just such a thing. The script provided converts the CD image into one suitable for a flashmemory stick. I used and coverted it without issue. The instructions say to use dd to prepare the flash drive so executed #dd if=flashbsd.iso of=/dev/da0 I'm not entirely confident that that was the correct procedure, as I'm quite unfamilar with dd. Unfortunetly, I can't seem to get the drive to boot. I can mount the filesystem so it seems that prepareing the drive was succesful. I'm using a via chipset and yes, the bios is set to boot from USB-FDD. I used the 6.2 boot only image. Thanks for any insight you can provide me. Ross That seems correct to me. You may want to 'bsdlabel -B /dev/da0' after writing the ufs image to it. The script you referenced does this to the image before you write it to the flash drive, so the boot code should already be there... but it appears to have gotten lost. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive
Written by Andrey Shuvikov on 08/01/07 14:17 On 8/1/07, Ross Penner [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi everybody, I'm trying to install a system on a machine that doesn't have an optical drive. I plan on using a USB flash drive to do the job and found a messages from [EMAIL PROTECTED] (http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg55434.html) about just such a thing. The script provided converts the CD image into one suitable for a flashmemory stick. I used and coverted it without issue. The instructions say to use dd to prepare the flash drive so executed #dd if=flashbsd.iso of=/dev/da0 This will copy CD to USB sector-by-sector recreating CD filesystem (ISO-9660) on the stick. I don't think it's what system expects. I tried to do similar thing some time ago. I don't remember details but what I did was mounting CD-image and copying files from there to preformatted USB stick. The script he referenced built a disk image from the iso-9660 fs to create his flashbsd.iso image - the .iso extension at this point is misleading. The script makes a dedicated freebsd memory disk, puts bootcode and a UFS filesystem on it, and copies the contents of the install CD to the UFS filesystem. It's this image that he is then dd'ing to the flash drive. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive
On 8/1/07, Ross Penner [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi everybody, I'm trying to install a system on a machine that doesn't have an optical drive. I plan on using a USB flash drive to do the job and found a messages from [EMAIL PROTECTED] (http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg55434.html) about just such a thing. The script provided converts the CD image into one suitable for a flashmemory stick. I used and coverted it without issue. The instructions say to use dd to prepare the flash drive so executed #dd if=flashbsd.iso of=/dev/da0 This will copy CD to USB sector-by-sector recreating CD filesystem (ISO-9660) on the stick. I don't think it's what system expects. I tried to do similar thing some time ago. I don't remember details but what I did was mounting CD-image and copying files from there to preformatted USB stick. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive
On 8/1/07, Reid Linnemann [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Written by Ross Penner on 08/01/07 13:34 Hi everybody, I'm trying to install a system on a machine that doesn't have an optical drive. I plan on using a USB flash drive to do the job and found a messages from [EMAIL PROTECTED] (http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg55434.html ) about just such a thing. The script provided converts the CD image into one suitable for a flashmemory stick. I used and coverted it without issue. The instructions say to use dd to prepare the flash drive so executed #dd if=flashbsd.iso of=/dev/da0 I'm not entirely confident that that was the correct procedure, as I'm quite unfamilar with dd. Unfortunetly, I can't seem to get the drive to boot. I can mount the filesystem so it seems that prepareing the drive was succesful. I'm using a via chipset and yes, the bios is set to boot from USB-FDD. I used the 6.2 boot only image. Thanks for any insight you can provide me. Ross That seems correct to me. You may want to 'bsdlabel -B /dev/da0' after writing the ufs image to it. The script you referenced does this to the image before you write it to the flash drive, so the boot code should already be there... but it appears to have gotten lost. Perhaps it never worked in the first place? rosbot# bsdlabel -B /dev/da0 bsdlabel: partition c doesn't cover the whole unit! bsdlabel: An incorrect partition c may cause problems for standard system utilities I didn't do anything to the drive before dd'ing to it. Should have it been prepared somehow? I assumed dd would take care of partitions. There is a da0a and a da0c in /dev/ . ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive
Written by Ross Penner on 08/01/07 16:21 On 8/1/07, *Reid Linnemann* [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Written by Ross Penner on 08/01/07 13:34 Hi everybody, I'm trying to install a system on a machine that doesn't have an optical drive. I plan on using a USB flash drive to do the job and found a messages from [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ( http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg55434.html http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg55434.html) about just such a thing. The script provided converts the CD image into one suitable for a flashmemory stick. I used and coverted it without issue. The instructions say to use dd to prepare the flash drive so executed #dd if=flashbsd.iso of=/dev/da0 I'm not entirely confident that that was the correct procedure, as I'm quite unfamilar with dd. Unfortunetly, I can't seem to get the drive to boot. I can mount the filesystem so it seems that prepareing the drive was succesful. I'm using a via chipset and yes, the bios is set to boot from USB-FDD. I used the 6.2 boot only image. Thanks for any insight you can provide me. Ross That seems correct to me. You may want to 'bsdlabel -B /dev/da0' after writing the ufs image to it. The script you referenced does this to the image before you write it to the flash drive, so the boot code should already be there... but it appears to have gotten lost. Perhaps it never worked in the first place? rosbot# bsdlabel -B /dev/da0 bsdlabel: partition c doesn't cover the whole unit! bsdlabel: An incorrect partition c may cause problems for standard system utilities I didn't do anything to the drive before dd'ing to it. Should have it been prepared somehow? I assumed dd would take care of partitions. There is a da0a and a da0c in /dev/ . No, that's just a warning message and does not prevent the bootcode from being installed. Have you ever booted any other system from this flash disk on this machine? ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive
On 8/1/07, Reid Linnemann [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Written by Ross Penner on 08/01/07 16:21 On 8/1/07, *Reid Linnemann* [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Written by Ross Penner on 08/01/07 13:34 Hi everybody, I'm trying to install a system on a machine that doesn't have an optical drive. I plan on using a USB flash drive to do the job and found a messages from [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ( http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg55434.html http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg55434.html) about just such a thing. The script provided converts the CD image into one suitable for a flashmemory stick. I used and coverted it without issue. The instructions say to use dd to prepare the flash drive so executed #dd if=flashbsd.iso of=/dev/da0 I'm not entirely confident that that was the correct procedure, as I'm quite unfamilar with dd. Unfortunetly, I can't seem to get the drive to boot. I can mount the filesystem so it seems that prepareing the drive was succesful. I'm using a via chipset and yes, the bios is set to boot from USB-FDD. I used the 6.2 boot only image. Thanks for any insight you can provide me. Ross That seems correct to me. You may want to 'bsdlabel -B /dev/da0' after writing the ufs image to it. The script you referenced does this to the image before you write it to the flash drive, so the boot code should already be there... but it appears to have gotten lost. Perhaps it never worked in the first place? rosbot# bsdlabel -B /dev/da0 bsdlabel: partition c doesn't cover the whole unit! bsdlabel: An incorrect partition c may cause problems for standard system utilities I didn't do anything to the drive before dd'ing to it. Should have it been prepared somehow? I assumed dd would take care of partitions. There is a da0a and a da0c in /dev/ . No, that's just a warning message and does not prevent the bootcode from being installed. Have you ever booted any other system from this flash disk on this machine? I havn't. That's about to be my next step. Thanks for your words of advice. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive
On Wed, Aug 01, 2007 at 12:34:15PM -0600, Ross Penner wrote: I'm using a via chipset and yes, the bios is set to boot from USB-FDD. I used the 6.2 boot only image. I don't think that that option, which is for USB floppy drives, is what you want. USB flash memory uses a different protocol and looks like a hard drive. What you want is a USB-HDD or USB Mass Storage option in the boot order. With some BIOSes, USB storage devices don't show up in the normal boot order screen, but rather in a list of hard drives -- sometimes called hard disk priority or something similar. If it still doesn't work, you may want to check your motherboard manual and make sure that it's really capable of booting from USB flash memory. Not all BIOSes are. HTH, Craig ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]