bootable FreeBSD on USB-Flash-Drive [SOLUTION] ???

2008-08-25 Thread Matthias Apitz

Hello,

It is relatively easy to produce a FreeBSD 7.0 booting USB key (for
example for the installation of FreeBSD 7.0 if the target machine has no
CD but only USB externals), if one follow more or less the description in
http://groups.google.com/group/lucky.freebsd.questions/msg/5c759b1c87376b22

I said 'more or less' because the problem is that the procedure at
certain point assumes that you have the installation data (which is on
FreeBSD CD1) accessible, but you have at this moment the LifeFS CD
mounted);

I helped myself doing the process based on my running FreeBSD 7.0
laptop, mounted the CD1 and built the USB key.

I'm asking me (and all) how this could be done having only the FreeBSD
7.0 CDs and no running FreeBSD 7.0 system?

Thx

matthias
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bootable FreeBSD on USB-Flash-Drive [SOLUTION]

2006-03-31 Thread Grossmann Martin
a little success story with freebsd and a tiny usb stick:
[tried with FreeBSD 6.1-BETA4 install-cd and a kingston 256MB
usb-flash-drive]

prepare yourself to work on the command-line ;-)
- attach the usb-stick to the server
- boot the freebsd installation cd-rom
- go to the "fixit" shell
- CHECK YOUR DMESG WHAT DEVICE YOUR USB STICK ACTUALLY IS!!! (here /dev/da0)

create the future "/"-filesystem on your usb-drive:

wipe everything on the usb-drive:
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/da0 bs=1m
create a new partition table on it with a default slice 1 and make it
bootable
# fdisk -BI /dev/da0
label it for booting freebsd:
# bsdlabel -wB /dev/da0s1
you'll have to edit the disklabel (sometimes you'll have to: # export
EDITOR=/mnt2/usr/bin/vi):
# bsdlabel -e /dev/da0s1
... and change partition a from "unused" to "4.2BSD" as partition type
create the future "/" a.k.a. root-filesystem on it:
# newfs -m 0 -o space /dev/da0s1a

mount the filesystem for installation:
# mount /dev/da0s1a /mnt

install freebsd on /mnt:
# export DESTDIR=/mnt
# cd /dist/
# for i in base manpages catpages
# do
#   cd $i; echo y|./install.sh; cd ..;
# done

go to the kernels directory and install a kernel of your choice:
[default is GENERIC kernel; change to "smp" for smp-machines]
# rmdir /mnt/boot/kernel
# cd kernels;
# cat generic.??|tar --unlink -xpzf - -C /mnt/boot
# cd /mnt/boot && mv GENERIC kernel

now, tell freebsd to mount the right root-filesystem:
# echo "/dev/da0  /  ufs  rw,noatime  1  1" >/mnt/etc/fstab

create your rc.conf.local in /mnt/etc to redefine some settings:
# cat