USB Key Disk Boot

[Chuck Swiger]

joe mcguckin wrote:
[ ...top-posting recovered... ]
> 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?

Look at /etc/fstab, and consider the "ro" & "noatime" options.

> Can swap space be completely done away with?

Certainly.  It would be a very good idea to configure the system with more 
than enough physical RAM, and to take some care selecting the software being 
run on the system.

[ If you stick to small, simple C programs like natd, dhcpd, etc, you should 
be fine.  Try to avoid complex systems and scripting languages like Perl-- for 
example, trying to do SMTP + SpamAssassin + amavis + antivirus on a Compact 
Flash-based host would be a bad idea. ]

-- 
-Chuck