Reply: Mini-Freebsd system on ram, to reduce noise?

Sun Nov 26 14:37:18 PST 2006

There are also builds for FreeBSD-5 and Freebsd-6
-5
http://www.ultradesic.com/index.php?section=86
-6
http://www.ultradesic.com/index.php?section=125

I use minibsd (FreeBSD-4) very successfully as a network monitor
in 32M RAM, booting from a 32M CF card, with a 66MHz processor.
There are two partitions on the card - 
the root (r/o) and /config (r/o on boot, r/w during
rc.shutdown to save my configs and scripts)

Runs vi, tcpdump, net-snmp.... 
No moving parts (HDs, Fans, nada..)

mjt

Murray Taylor

Special Projects Engineer
Bytecraft Systems
--

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It
takes a
touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite
direction."
--Albert Einstein 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org 
> [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org] On Behalf Of Lars Udo
> Sent: Monday, 27 November 2006 6:13 AM
> To: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> Subject: Reply: Mini-Freebsd system on ram, to reduce noise?
> 
> Hello, fellow FreeBSD-users. I'm planning to build MiniBSD 
> (from freebsd)
> with, these instructions: https://neon1.net/misc/minibsd.html
> i'v red it few times and came to realize, that if i could get that
> small FreeBSD why wouldnt i run it in RAM?
> 
> I have Intel 333 Mhz / 256 sdram / 10Gb hd.. and few nics.
> 
> i could boot up system and then move it into ram, lets say 
> that i'd create
> 128 Mb size of memorydisk in ram.
> 
> All data will be wiped during reboot, but i'll keep the 
> original image on
> harddisk, which will shutdown until all system-files are 
> moved into RAM..
> 
> Is this anyway possible?
> 
> It would reduce noise-level here in my livingroom, so thats 
> all i need,
> beside NAT/Firewall :)
> 
> all suggestions are considered, but monowall or picobsd are 
> no options,
> because i need to learn it myself rather than "go'n buy & setup"
> 
> how do i create memorybased filesystem?
> 
> ----------------------------------------
> mdconfig -t malloc -s 128m -u 5
> newfs -U /dev/md5
> mount /dev/md5 /
> dd if=/mnt/ad0 of=/
> umount /mnt/ad0
> (drop the harddisk)
> --------------------------------------
> 
> something like that?
> 
> thanks, for reading :)
> 
> Greetings
> 
> Lars
> -----------------------------------------------
> | Anonymous said...
> | so what.
> | why is glory in the real world better than the glory in a fake one?
> | evolution made us to survive, not to live.
> -----------------------------------------------------
> 
> 1...Firewall
> 
> 
> 
> Everything I have read tends to point to "roll your own" firewall as
> 
> a better alternative. In other words, learn to use it.
> 
> I know it's difficult, but it will be worth it. The
> 
> "go'n buy & setup" sound like M$-plug-and-play. It would create a
> 
> generic firewall. It may or may-not full protect your system. I would
> 
> recommend reading
> 
> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/fire
> walls.html
> 
> as well as reading the freebsd questions mail archives.
> 
> 
> 
> 2...The following quote:
> 
> "which will shutdown until all system-files are moved into RAM"
> 
> maybe you ment to say move out of ram before shutdown.
> 
> If you have a "UPS", then good, otherwise consider getting one. You
> 
> could end up with a corrupt file system.
> 
> 
> 
> 3...Do you have a cd-rom drive? You could run Freesbie:
> 
> www.freesbie.org
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> Alexander
> 
> FreeBSD 6.0-RELEASE i386
>  -----
> 
> Hello
> 
> Sorry, if this reply goes wrong..  but i meant, that i am not 
> novice user..
> i'v been reading this
> http://www.ultradesic.com/index.php?section=125tutorial now, and it
> applies better on Freebsd
> 6.0, so i have good startup.. my goals are following:
> 
> I'm trying to make MiniBSD from FreeBSD 6.0 that would fit on 
> less than 128
> Mb of ram, so i could run whole system in ram... i wouldnt 
> need to run HD
> either cd-rom 24/7 to keep noise... and i could save some electricity
> 
> Ram is fast and silent to run minibsd in it.. is there any 
> disadvantage?
> - Shutting down, clears ram.. but if i have static image on 
> HD that never
> corrupts.
> - on every boot, i boot from HD and while booting i'd make a 
> memory based
> disk in ram, and copy that minibsd of mine into ram.. as long 
> as computer is
> on.. that minibsd has all the firewall-rules & nat etc..
> and after, i have copied that minibsd image into the ram..
> 
> i could "umount /mnt/ad2; atacontrol detatch ad2"
> 
> this is almost as same setup than livecd. but cd-rom drive is 
> big and slow.
> 
> damn, i cant explain this straight and easy...
> 
> i want to make a setup like livecd.. and copy whole system in 
> to ram.. where
> it is  on memorydisk and umount all harddrives and 
> cd-rom-drives.. but when
> needed, i can bring my HD up for some changes or just to save 
> some data that
> i'd like to keep safe.. (harddisk are hard to crash when they 
> dont spin :)
>  ((yes, its not cool to keep personal data on firewall-pc i 
> know.. but i
> hope you get the idea ))
> 
> i have now fully working firewall & nat & altq and i have 
> used netbsd &
> freebsd for several years.. i might look like stupid if i 
> have used so many
> years of these systems.. but the reason is that i have a job 
> & girl & life
> .. so i dont have time to spend 24/7 on researching how could i get it
> working.. so i ask for you people.. just a little push, i'm 
> not expecting
> 100% working advices.. just that is there any cons & pros and 
> anything that
> comes to your mind that would help me? :)
> 
> damn.. still didnt make any sense..
> 
> bootprosess, would be something like:
> 
> 1. boot kernel from harddisk..
> 2. while booting, create memorybased disk that is 50% of my 
> ram (128Mb)
> 3. apply all firewall rules & bring up sshd
> 4. mount memorydisk as / (root)
> 5. dd if=minibsd.image of=/
> 6. atacontrol detatch 'harddisk'
> 
> and the result would be that i have everything running in RAM 
> and harddisk
> is energysaving state.. like 'poweroff' or idle or something..
> 
> and if i need to make changes.. i log in as root and attach 
> harddisk, and
> get it up and running.. and mount it as under /mnt/ad2 with 
> write flags so
> that i can changes rules and they will be applied on next reboot.
> 
> (my girl uses to shutdown all computers at nighttime)
> 
> now i have acpi-button, and it shuts down properly.. but i 
> would like to
> shut down harddisk at daytimes if i dont need to use it.. and 
> if i need, i
> can bring it up..
> 
> did anyone get any sense out my eplainins?
> 
> Greetings
> 
> Lars
> 
> 
> -- 
> Anonymous said...
> 
> so what.
> 
> why is glory in the real world better than the glory in a fake one?
> 
> evolution made us to survive, not to live.
> _______________________________________________
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> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
> To unsubscribe, send any mail to 
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> 
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