Re: FAI Support for FreeBSD
On Sun, Jan 31, 2010 at 08:09:51PM +0100, Michael Tautschnig thus spake: On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 09:55:42PM +0100, Thomas Lange thus spake: >>On Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:42:53 -0800, Jason Helfman said: > > >> - Is the tool parted available? > > No. >Oh, that's bad. Our partinioning tool depends on parted, and rewriting >it is not possible. > > > bsdlabel > > fdisk > > newfs >If BSD fdisk is the same as for Linux, we can use our old tool, which >works with fdisk. Here is the source for fdisk: http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/~checkout~/src/sbin/fdisk/fdisk.c?rev=1.95.2.1.2.1;content-type=text%2Fplain Although a bit late to chime in, I'd like to note that the previous partitioning tool (setup_harddisks) actually used (and pretty much relied on) sfdisk. Would that also be available on FreeBSD? Never too late to chime in :) Yes, sfdisk is a port. Not sure how up-to-date this port, is though, or if that would matter. Port: sfdisk-0.2 Path: /usr/ports/sysutils/sfdisk Info: Standalone sysinstall's fdisk Maint: s...@rm-rf.kiev.ua B-deps: R-deps: WWW: On the other hand, according, to http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/index.shtml, parted should actually be available as a port. However, a quick web search didn't turn up any such binaries. Unfortunately, parted is not in the ports tree. Here is a area where the ports can be searched: http://www.freebsd.org/ports/ -j Best, Michael
Re: FAI Support for FreeBSD
> On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 09:55:42PM +0100, Thomas Lange thus spake: > >>On Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:42:53 -0800, Jason Helfman > >>said: > > > > >> - Is the tool parted available? > > > No. > >Oh, that's bad. Our partinioning tool depends on parted, and rewriting > >it is not possible. > > > > > bsdlabel > > > fdisk > > > newfs > >If BSD fdisk is the same as for Linux, we can use our old tool, which > >works with fdisk. > > Here is the source for fdisk: > http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/~checkout~/src/sbin/fdisk/fdisk.c?rev=1.95.2.1.2.1;content-type=text%2Fplain > Although a bit late to chime in, I'd like to note that the previous partitioning tool (setup_harddisks) actually used (and pretty much relied on) sfdisk. Would that also be available on FreeBSD? On the other hand, according, to http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/index.shtml, parted should actually be available as a port. However, a quick web search didn't turn up any such binaries. Best, Michael pgpj2czPkAArT.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: FAI Support for FreeBSD
On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 09:55:42PM +0100, Thomas Lange thus spake: On Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:42:53 -0800, Jason Helfman said: >> - Is the tool parted available? > No. Oh, that's bad. Our partinioning tool depends on parted, and rewriting it is not possible. > bsdlabel > fdisk > newfs If BSD fdisk is the same as for Linux, we can use our old tool, which works with fdisk. Here is the source for fdisk: http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/~checkout~/src/sbin/fdisk/fdisk.c?rev=1.95.2.1.2.1;content-type=text%2Fplain
Re: FAI Support for FreeBSD
Perfect! Thank you. I build our own custom ISO, and the ISO set contains the bootonly ISO, so this is perfect. Shouldn't be too difficult. Crossing fingers :) I can't get to this right away, but down the line I can. On Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 12:15:38AM +0100, Thomas Lange thus spake: On Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:05:53 -0800, Jason Helfman said: > Can you expand on "create the nfsroot," and what this is and what it should > contain? It should contain a minimal set of commands that are needed to run a system ( the jail). Also a kernel and an initrd (does BSD have such things?) that can be loaded via PXE and tftp is needed. FAI needs a netboot environment so that the kernel and initrd mounts its root file system via NFS. Maybe this helps: https://www.tnpi.net/computing/freebsd/pxe-netboot.shtml http://www.freebsdwiki.net/index.php/Installing_FreeBSD_with_netboot That's all for the beginning. -- regards Thomas
Re: FAI Support for FreeBSD
> On Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:05:53 -0800, Jason Helfman said: > Can you expand on "create the nfsroot," and what this is and what it should > contain? It should contain a minimal set of commands that are needed to run a system ( the jail). Also a kernel and an initrd (does BSD have such things?) that can be loaded via PXE and tftp is needed. FAI needs a netboot environment so that the kernel and initrd mounts its root file system via NFS. Maybe this helps: https://www.tnpi.net/computing/freebsd/pxe-netboot.shtml http://www.freebsdwiki.net/index.php/Installing_FreeBSD_with_netboot That's all for the beginning. -- regards Thomas
Re: FAI Support for FreeBSD
On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 09:55:42PM +0100, Thomas Lange thus spake: On Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:42:53 -0800, Jason Helfman said: >> - Is the tool parted available? > No. Oh, that's bad. Our partinioning tool depends on parted, and rewriting it is not possible. > bsdlabel > fdisk > newfs If BSD fdisk is the same as for Linux, we can use our old tool, which works with fdisk. > You can use "jails" for this. It is native to the FreeBSD OS. > http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/jails.html OK. >> - Is there something similar to aufs-modules? > I'm told this is a "unionfs," but I am not sure. > Here is some information I found on this assumption. > http://people.freebsd.org/~daichi/unionfs/ Unionfs is also fine. > pkg_add can add packages, and resolves dependencies. That will be the easiest part. >> First, the major difficult part will be creating the nfsroot and >> booting and mounting a file system via NFS. I guess this is much different to Linux. > I'll help as much as I can :) Since I do not have access to a BSD system, someone else has to do the main work. I can only help if there are any questions convering FAI. I also guess, it's possible but not that easy to get FAI running for BSD. First, try to create the nfsroot and try to boot a system via PXE using the nfsroot. Can you expand on "create the nfsroot," and what this is and what it should contain? -- regards Thomas -- Jason Helfman
Re: FAI Support for FreeBSD
> On Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:42:53 -0800, Jason Helfman said: >> - Is the tool parted available? > No. Oh, that's bad. Our partinioning tool depends on parted, and rewriting it is not possible. > bsdlabel > fdisk > newfs If BSD fdisk is the same as for Linux, we can use our old tool, which works with fdisk. > You can use "jails" for this. It is native to the FreeBSD OS. > http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/jails.html OK. >> - Is there something similar to aufs-modules? > I'm told this is a "unionfs," but I am not sure. > Here is some information I found on this assumption. > http://people.freebsd.org/~daichi/unionfs/ Unionfs is also fine. > pkg_add can add packages, and resolves dependencies. That will be the easiest part. >> First, the major difficult part will be creating the nfsroot and >> booting and mounting a file system via NFS. I guess this is much different to Linux. > I'll help as much as I can :) Since I do not have access to a BSD system, someone else has to do the main work. I can only help if there are any questions convering FAI. I also guess, it's possible but not that easy to get FAI running for BSD. First, try to create the nfsroot and try to boot a system via PXE using the nfsroot. -- regards Thomas
Re: FAI Support for FreeBSD
On Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 11:42:53AM -0800, Jason Helfman thus spake: - FAI reads some information from /proc. We have to check, if BSD will give FAI all needed information What information is needed. There is no /proc filesystem in BSD. My apologies but there *IS* a procfs in FreeBSD, but for security reasons, it is not mounted. mount -t procfs procfs /proc Thanks, Jason
Re: FAI Support for FreeBSD
On Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 06:53:31PM +0100, Thomas Lange thus spake: On Mon, 11 Jan 2010 09:34:16 -0800, Jason Helfman said: > I am interested if FAI can be modified to support FreeBSD and the ports > infrastructure? I would be particularly interested in native support, if > that can be done. Since I do not have any experiences with BSD, I need some information about differences between Linux and BSD. Here are several questions I have: - What type of disklabel does FreeBSD use? It uses bsdlabel: http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=bsdlabel&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+8.0-RELEASE&format=html - Is the tool parted available? No. I believe other tools can be used for this, though. bsdlabel fdisk newfs - Which bootloader can be used? grub? Loader is used for this. Here is a link to the booting process: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/boot.html - FAI reads some information from /proc. We have to check, if BSD will give FAI all needed information What information is needed. There is no /proc filesystem in BSD. - Is there a tool for creating a minimal chroot environment? Debian has debootstrap for that. You can use "jails" for this. It is native to the FreeBSD OS. http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/jails.html - Is there something similar to aufs-modules? I'm told this is a "unionfs," but I am not sure. Here is some information I found on this assumption. http://people.freebsd.org/~daichi/unionfs/ If there's somthing like a live CD for FreeBSD, we will find similar techniques there. Yes, there are livecd iso's for all released version of FreeBSD. There is also a facility to make releases that is native to FreeBSD. http://www.freebsd.org/releases/ - Which command line tool installs packages? Does is resolve package dependencies? pkg_add can add packages, and resolves dependencies. First, the major difficult part will be creating the nfsroot and booting and mounting a file system via NFS. I guess this is much different to Linux. I'll help as much as I can :) -- regards Thomas Thanks! Jason
Re: FAI Support for FreeBSD
> On Mon, 11 Jan 2010 09:34:16 -0800, Jason Helfman said: > I am interested if FAI can be modified to support FreeBSD and the ports > infrastructure? I would be particularly interested in native support, if > that can be done. Since I do not have any experiences with BSD, I need some information about differences between Linux and BSD. Here are several questions I have: - What type of disklabel does FreeBSD use? - Is the tool parted available? - Which bootloader can be used? grub? - FAI reads some information from /proc. We have to check, if BSD will give FAI all needed information - Is there a tool for creating a minimal chroot environment? Debian has debootstrap for that. - Is there something similar to aufs-modules? If there's somthing like a live CD for FreeBSD, we will find similar techniques there. - Which command line tool installs packages? Does is resolve package dependencies? First, the major difficult part will be creating the nfsroot and booting and mounting a file system via NFS. I guess this is much different to Linux. -- regards Thomas
FAI Support for FreeBSD
Hello All, I am interested if FAI can be modified to support FreeBSD and the ports infrastructure? I would be particularly interested in native support, if that can be done. I would be willing to be a tester of this software, as well. Right now, I have access to 7.2 and 8.x testing. Thanks, Jason
