How to use USB memory-stick for booting FreeBSD?

Giorgos Keramidas keramida at ceid.upatras.gr
Sun Sep 25 22:15:28 PDT 2005


On 2005-09-25 22:06, Rob <spamrefuse at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I have a USB memory stick of one GigaByte.  I learned that on some
> PCs, the BIOS allows booting from USB memory-stick.
>
> Is this possible with FreeBSD?

Yes.

> If yes, then how do I install FreeBSD on such a USB memory stick, so
> that it becomes a 'bootable USB'?

By installing a FreeBSD base system on it (approx. 170 MB) and a boot
loader, and setting your BIOS to boot from "USB legacy device".

The details evade me right now, but if you meet any problem along the
way I can go back and look at my notes.

If you want to trim the base system down to an absolute minimum, it may
also be worth to try "nanobsd" (which is part of the sources too).  See
the /usr/src/tools/tools/nanobsd hierarchy for more information about
the "nanobsd" build process.



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