Root on USB stick

[Russell Haley]

On Wed, Jun 8, 2016 at 8:56 AM, Russell Haley <russ.haley at gmail.com> wrote:
> Sorry top post only on my phone and I'm trying to remember from a year ago without my notes...
>
> Isn't rootfs something that we can pass through u-boot variables?‎ I'm sure I've done it but I can't remember how...

Okay, that was the ftd file, sorry. :(

>
> I also seem to remember that if ubldr can't find the rootfs it prompts for you to enter something manually‎, which might be good enough for development purposes? Or am I imagining that? I remember the prompt, but not what process launched it.

Also wrong, The prompt I am thinking of is loader looking for the
kernel: from loader(8)

https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=loader&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+10.3-RELEASE+and+Ports&arch=default&format=html

    load [-t type] file ...
    Loads a kernel, kernel loadable module (kld), disk image, or file
    of opaque contents tagged as being of the type type.  Kernel and
    modules can be either in a.out or ELF format.  Any arguments
    passed after the name of the file to be loaded will be passed as
    arguments to that file.  Use the md_image type to make the kernel
    create a file-backed md(4) disk.  This is useful for booting from
    a temporary rootfs.  Currently, argument passing does not work
    for the kernel.


*Note that man says we cannot pass arguments to the kernel.


I would say your best bet is to use Crochet and create a new image and
tweek the kernel conf file manually.


The file is

https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/sys/arm/conf/RPI2?view=markup

and the line to tweek is:

options ROOTDEVNAME=\"ufs:mmcsd0s2\"




>   Original Message
> From: Erich Dollansky
> Sent: Wednesday, June 8, 2016 3:52 AM
> To: Lou Katz
> Cc: freebsd-arm at freebsd.org
> Subject: Re: Root on USB stick
>
> Hi,
>
> On Sun, 5 Jun 2016 23:32:42 -0700
> Lou Katz <pi at metron.com> wrote:
>
>> Where does the FreeBSD boot loader for Pi2 know about or find out
>> where the root partition is? I need to boot from an image in the
>> micro slot that I cannot remove (because I broke the push-pull
>> mechanism) but use a root parition on another card accessed through a
>> USB port.
>>
>> There seems to have been a way to do this with FreeBSD 10, but I
>> cannot find it in FreeBSD 11.
>>
>> Thank you
>
> there is an entry in the kernel configuration file where to find root
> by default.
>
> But you would need a custom kernel for this.
>
> Erich
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