Re: Use a USB flash drive to install a snapshot
* Lars Noodin [EMAIL PROTECTED] [2008-09-18 04:22]: A drawback to the CD-RWs I find ...is that it seems to be impossible to get new ones these days. -- Henning Brauer, [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] BS Web Services, http://bsws.de Full-Service ISP - Secure Hosting, Mail and DNS Services Dedicated Servers, Rootservers, Application Hosting - Hamburg Amsterdam
Re: Use a USB flash drive to install a snapshot
Henning Brauer wrote: * Lars Noodin [EMAIL PROTECTED] [2008-09-18 04:22]: A drawback to the CD-RWs I find ...is that it seems to be impossible to get new ones these days. I find the grocery stores have 50- and 100- unit spindles of CD-RW over in the music section. YMMV. Can't say about the quality of the plastic, or dialetrics/dyes since I don't have material on them for more than a few months at a time at most. 2 GB, 4 GB, and 8 GB CF are also common in stores now. However, even moreso than with CDs there is the problem of associating human readable descriptions with the physical object. SD is kind of a nice size, but the smaller ones are probably way too small. I have two new ones that are not much bigger than my little fingernail and am not sure how to properly deal with the size yet. -Lars
Use a USB flash drive to install a snapshot
Has anyone been able to configure a usb flash drive to boot a snapshot install? I don't like to burn so many cd's. I tried to install via PXE, but the laptop I use (Thinkpad X24) doesn't support PXE. I've been able to install 4.3 from usb flash drive thanks to these instructions: http://www.azbsd.org/~marco/openbsd/flashkeyinstaller/
Re: Use a USB flash drive to install a snapshot
Joe S wrote: Has anyone been able to configure a usb flash drive to boot a snapshot install? ... It should be a matter of installing to the flash drive a first time, instead of the the hard disk. Then copy the sets and then point /etc/boot.conf to /bsd.rd Once that is in place, you have /bsd.rd there to update that way, too. -Lars
Re: Use a USB flash drive to install a snapshot
On Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 10:44:38AM -0700, Joe S wrote: | Has anyone been able to configure a usb flash drive to boot a snapshot | install? I don't like to burn so many cd's. I tried to install via | PXE, but the laptop I use (Thinkpad X24) doesn't support PXE. I've | been able to install 4.3 from usb flash drive thanks to these | instructions: http://www.azbsd.org/~marco/openbsd/flashkeyinstaller/ For CD's, I tend to use a couple of CD-RW's - most machines these days can read 'em, it's not such a waste of CDRs and you only have to carry around one if you have a laptop with CD-RW drive. In answer to your question, I have a 32GB Corsair Voyager with a complete OpenBSD install on it. It's an easy portable environment that I carry around all day and can use on many (but not all) modern (i386) systems. Gives asking people if you can use their computer for a bit a whole new dimension (but you may want to explain that you don't change anything about their Windows enviroment before going that route). I also have a somewhat recent set of installation files on there so I can install OpenBSD (i386 and amd64) easily. Cheers, Paul 'WEiRD' de Weerd -- [++-]+++.+++[---].+++[+ +++-].++[-]+.--.[-] http://www.weirdnet.nl/
Re: Use a USB flash drive to install a snapshot
On Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 10:44 AM, Joe S [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Has anyone been able to configure a usb flash drive to boot a snapshot install? I don't like to burn so many cd's. I tried to install via PXE, but the laptop I use (Thinkpad X24) doesn't support PXE. I've been able to install 4.3 from usb flash drive thanks to these instructions: http://www.azbsd.org/~marco/openbsd/flashkeyinstaller/ Let me clarify what I'm trying to do. I'm not trying to install OpenBSD on a flash drive. I'm trying to install OpenBSD on a laptop, with the flash drive being the bootable source of the installation, much like a CD. I can't PXE and I'm trying to find a way to avoid burning CD's, although I may buy some CD-RW's if I have to.
Re: Use a USB flash drive to install a snapshot
On Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:18:38 -0700, Joe S wrote Let me clarify what I'm trying to do. I'm not trying to install OpenBSD on a flash drive. I'm trying to install OpenBSD on a laptop, with the flash drive being the bootable source of the installation, much like a CD. I can't PXE and I'm trying to find a way to avoid burning CD's, although I may buy some CD-RW's if I have to. Ah... now I understand. Warning: I just typed it up. Things may fail, as I have not tested it. Assumption: sd0 is your stick. You don't care about what's on it. Assumption: you're installing 4.3, and have the bootable cd image in your local directory. Change the script accordingly. # mkdir in out # vnconfig svnd0 cd43.iso # mount /dev/svnd0c in # fdisk -iy sd0 # disklabel -E sd0 create an a partition # newfs sd0a # mount -o async,noatime /dev/sd0a out # (cd in; tar cf - .)|(cd out; tar xpf -) # cp -p /usr/mdec/boot out # rm out/etc/boot.conf # /usr/mdec/installboot -v out/boot /usr/mdec/biosboot sd0 # umount in out # vnconfig -u vnd0
Re: Use a USB flash drive to install a snapshot
Joe S wrote: On Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 10:44 AM, Joe S [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Has anyone been able to configure a usb flash drive to boot a snapshot install? I don't like to burn so many cd's. I tried to install via PXE, but the laptop I use (Thinkpad X24) doesn't support PXE. I've been able to install 4.3 from usb flash drive thanks to these instructions: http://www.azbsd.org/~marco/openbsd/flashkeyinstaller/ Let me clarify what I'm trying to do. I'm not trying to install OpenBSD on a flash drive. I'm trying to install OpenBSD on a laptop, with the flash drive being the bootable source of the installation, much like a CD. I can't PXE and I'm trying to find a way to avoid burning CD's, although I may buy some CD-RW's if I have to. As others already pointed out: -Install OpenBSD on a flash drive. -Copy a bsd.rd on the flash drive. You can even copy one for amd64 (and call it bsd_amd64.rd), i386 (bsd_i386.rd), etc... -Copy the install packages on the flash drive, e.g. in /openbsd/amd64/*, /openbsd/i386/*, etc... -Boot the portable from the flash drive. At the boot prompt enter bsd_amd64.rd. -Select the hard drive of the portable as installation target. -Select the appropriate directory of the sources, e.g. /openbsd/amd64. -Complete the install. -Reboot the portable without the flash drive. The portable should now start booting from the hard drive. PS: No CD's were harmed during this installation process. This is how I installed OpenBSD on my eeepc. Final note: it's possible that you have to change /etc/fstab to reflect the hardware change after removing the flash drive (e.g. sd1 becomes sd0). The rest is up to you. HTH, Stijn
Re: Use a USB flash drive to install a snapshot
Stijn wrote: As others already pointed out: -Install OpenBSD on a flash drive. It's possible to install OpenBSD such that the one and only set installed is bsd.rd. Just deselect all the others, don't set up the network and answer the other questions carefully. That makes a bootable usb stick with just the installation material. If you want, you can also copy INSTALL.i386 (or your architecture) and the tarballs for the sets. Then you'll have the ability to install from usb drive to the main drive. You can also carry around a few live cds on the same stick using different methods so that you can boot and work on a machine you don't want to erase. -Lars
Re: Use a USB flash drive to install a snapshot
Paul de Weerd wrote: For CD's, I tend to use a couple of CD-RW's - most machines these days can read 'em, it's not such a waste of CDRs and you only have to carry around one if you have a laptop with CD-RW drive. That's how I've been doing it for a few years. A sturdy 20-CD wallet at Ikea costs 1 EUR or something like that and is fairly easy to keep in the pack. Labelling can be a challenge. A drawback to the CD-RWs I find is that too many people, even those that should know better, do not handle the CDs safely and end up destroying them physically in short order. Some drives seem to be prone to scratching on insertion or retrieval, too, if the user is not both mindful and mentally present. -Lars
