bootable FreeBSD on USB-Flash-Drive [SOLUTION] ???
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 -- Matthias Apitz Manager Technical Support - OCLC 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.oclc.org/ http://www.UnixArea.de/ b http://gurucubano.blogspot.com/ We should all learn from the peoples of The Netherlands, France and Ireland. Aprendamos todos de los pueblos de Holanda, Francia e Irlanda. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
bootable FreeBSD on USB-Flash-Drive [SOLUTION]
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