USB Key Disk Boot
joe mcguckin
joe at via.net
Tue Nov 2 14:58:00 PST 2004
Doug,
Thanks for the info.
Most USB keys don't have a rw/ro switch. Is there a kernel flag you can set
to tell FreeBSD that boot device is flash and that writes should be kept to
a minimum? Can swap space be completely done away with?
Thanks!
Joe
On 11/2/04 11:51 AM, "Doug White" <dwhite at gumbysoft.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 2 Nov 2004, joe mcguckin wrote:
>
>> You neglect to state the minimum size USB key for a standard FreeBSD
>> install.
>
> My 4.X router at home has a fairly complete system install in 128MB.
> Thats without any special pruning whatsover, just base+crypto. With some
> work (minibsd, nanobsd, etc.), you can do alot better than that.
>
> Note that I creatd that from a second system and dd'd the flash card over
> so UFS wouldnt' burn out the flash, but I suppose you could install direct
> to it if you odn't plan on writing to the key afterward. UFS does exra
> bad things to flash (think superblock updates), so you don't want to
> leave it read/write for very long.
>
>>
>> -joe
>>
>>
>> On 11/2/04 12:07 AM, "Thyer, Matthew" <Matthew.Thyer at dsto.defence.gov.au>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> To install onto this device:
>>>
>>> Simply boot your installation media (CD) and do your installing on the
>>> device
>>> "da0" (the first SCSI device - this is likely to be your USB Key unless you
>>> already have SCSI hard disk drives in your system).
>>>
>>> As for booting, you will have to understand how to change your BIOS to
>>> ensure
>>> the correct boot order. Many BIOS's will boot on these devices if you have
>>> "USB-ZIP" as the first boot device. If that doesn't work try "USB-HDD" or
>>> just "USB".
>>>
>>> If your Key device is too small to accommodate a minimal install of FreeBSD
>>> then you will need to investigate the more embedded solutions such as
>>> PicoBSD.
>>> This is an advanced topic which will require an experienced UNIX specialist
>>> to
>>> implement. You may be able to find various how-to type procedures on the
>>> Web
>>> and the FreeBSD handbook should be very useful but this is not something for
>>> the fainthearted.
>>>
>>> As for the booting process, it is described in the manual page for "boot".
>>>
>>>
>>> Matthew Thyer Phone: +61 8 8259 7249
>>> Science Corporate Information Systems Fax: +61 8 8259 5537
>>> Defence Science and Technology Organisation, Edinburgh
>>> PO Box 1500 EDINBURGH South Australia 5111
>>>
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>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
--
Joe McGuckin
ViaNet Communications
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Palo Alto, CA 94303
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