Replacing Home Router With PC

[Mark Shroyer]

On 3/12/2010 2:39 PM, C. P. Ghost wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 7:26 PM, Nerius Landys <nlandys at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Yep! Geode-based boxes are great. The ALIX boards are looking like
>>> Soekris gear, which I'm very happy with (of course running FreeBSD):
>>>
>>> http://www.soekris.com/net5501.htm
>>
>> Is there a nice guide that explains how to install FreeBSD onto a
>> headless system (such as one of these small devices) via serial port?
> 
> Basically, you have two options:
> 
> [...]
> 
> 2. Install FreeBSD on a HDD or CF from a working computer, then move
> the disk/card to the embedded device.

A slight variant of this, which I used to get OpenBSD on my Alix board,
is to boot the installer in VMware Workstation with your CF card
connected as a VMware physical disk.  This makes it easy to get up and
running if all you have is a USB CF adapter, because within VMware
FreeBSD will see it as a SCSI disk.  Plus you get to save a CD-R/DVD-R
by mounting the installer ISO in VMware without burning it to disc :)

So don't worry, installing FreeBSD or OpenBSD in this manner is super
easy; it's basically the same as any other installation, just with the
added step of setting up the serial console at the very end.

-- 
Mark Shroyer
http://markshroyer.com/contact/