i was bit by this problem, too while testing OpenBSD on a usb drive before committing to it as a daily driver. i would kindly suggest adding a line in the documentation. the issue is trivial for an advanced user, but when turning to openbsd without recent experience, one is quite likely to have this problem and be discouraged.
On Mon 30. Mar 2026 at 16:07, Nick Holland <[email protected]> wrote: > On 3/30/26 08:30, Jan Stary wrote: > > On Mar 29 21:44:02, [email protected] wrote: > >> The install goes true all the steps, > >> however after the creation of the nodes, it hangs > >> multiple minutes long on relinking Uniqe kernel ... > >> then offers messages that disk is full and kernel > >> relinking has failed. > > > > If the relinking on boot says the disk is full, then the disk is full. > > The first thing to check and show here is your disk partitioning, > obviously. > > > >> - has this all to do with "bad practice" installing OS on an USB > > > > No. It's just a disk, albeit slower. > > > >> - can I then savely presume these issues wont happen on a nvme install, > >> correct ? > > > > No, you can't. You need to have enough space. > > > >> - can this situation be considered an actual bug > > > > Hardly. But it's impossible to say, as you don't > > disclose anything about your disk partitions. > > > > What Jan said is precisely correct... but keep in mind, OpenBSD is first > and foremost a security focused system. The standard system will do kernel > and library relinking at each boot, and on slow media (USB thumb drives, > wdc(4) or pciide(4) attached drives, or systems without enough RAM to avoid > going into swap -- 512MB on i386, last I tried), the boot process > is VERY slow. If you end up in swap on a slow USB drive, I could see a > boot > taking an hour or more before the system was usable. (the libraries are > relinked before the system lets you log in; the kernel relinking happens > in the background after you log in, but there's enough disk activity that > ON SLOW MEDIA, the system is mostly unusable. Not a problem with good > performing media). > > IF you are ok with disabling these features, look at /etc/rc to see how to > disable the library relinking (there's a variable) and comment out the code > to do the kernel relinking. > > Once running, OpenBSD runs pretty well on slow media, far better than most > other modern OSs, but ... getting to that state of "running" will take a > while. > > Nick. > >
