Re: bsd.rd for FreeBSD install
If the machines have floppies, there are downloadable floppy images. Is anyone aware of a simple method to construct a bootable zip-drive image from the floppy images and/or bootonly.iso? ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: bsd.rd for FreeBSD install
On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 1:13 AM, per...@pluto.rain.com wrote: If the machines have floppies, there are downloadable floppy images. Is anyone aware of a simple method to construct a bootable zip-drive image from the floppy images and/or bootonly.iso? problem is to create the zip disk bootable. Never tried this, would be COMPLETELY BIOS dependant, and I know of no sure-fire way to make it work. But the process would be the same. Install a bootloader on the zip disk, either install a bsd system, or copy the bootonly directories and files to the zip disk... then the zip would act as a bootonly cd... I've been shipped, by Iomega, a 750MB zip drive in wrong exchange by Iomega of a 2TB USB drive. I'm a little torqued. --TJ ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: bsd.rd for FreeBSD install
On Monday 02 March 2009 08:36:39 new_guy wrote: We normally use OpenBSD, but would like to try FreeBSD on a test system. Usually, when updating from one OpenBSD release to another, we do so by downloading the latest bsd.rd and booting from that to complete the install. Our machines have no optical drives. Does FreeBSD have a similar method to installation? You can use nanobsd (toolt/tools/nanobsd) on a flash card and possibly through PXE, but I'd never tried that. You'd still have to circumvent the bootstrap of making that image, unless someone on the list wants to share his nanobsd image. If the machines have floppies, there are downloadable floppy images. -- Mel Problem with today's modular software: they start with the modules and never get to the software part. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: bsd.rd for FreeBSD install
On Mon, Mar 2, 2009 at 10:36 AM, new_guy byte8b...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, We normally use OpenBSD, but would like to try FreeBSD on a test system. Usually, when updating from one OpenBSD release to another, we do so by downloading the latest bsd.rd and booting from that to complete the install. Our machines have no optical drives. Does FreeBSD have a similar method to installation? Thanks! -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/bsd.rd-for-FreeBSD-install-tp22292723p22292723.html Sent from the freebsd-questions mailing list archive at Nabble.com. Being relatively familiar with both, let me input my advice. first of all, Open and Free use different DOS-partition partition IDs, OpenBSD being A6, and FreeBSD being A5. This would be the first road block to overcome. Second, there isn't a produced single file to boot FreeBSD in a ramdisk image from the FreeBSD folks. There is one out there called mfsbsd that does that. Creating a ramdisk based kernel would work, and you'd need to shove what's in the bootonly CD into that kernel image. I doubt you'll be able to produce a kernel for FreeBSD on OpenBSD. Haven't tried it, but I bet the pmake syntax for FreeBSD will give OpenBSD problems. Running a PXE/NFS/DHCP boot server would be the first thing I'd go into to do a completely CD/DVD-less system. But you have to start from somewhere... You have to boot FreeBSD from external medium so you can prepare a hard drive. Is it a problem to float a USB CD/DVD drive around to install? would a bootserver help you in your efforts? There's just so many ways to approach this, your initial post isn't helping me to lean one way or another. Can you provide your factors why your systems are CD/DVD-less? Do these systems boot from PXE/network? when you answer these questions, something might come into mind that would benefit you most... but the different partition IDs is going to become a hurlde without a external boot medium. Let me know, --TJ ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
bsd.rd for FreeBSD install
Hi, We normally use OpenBSD, but would like to try FreeBSD on a test system. Usually, when updating from one OpenBSD release to another, we do so by downloading the latest bsd.rd and booting from that to complete the install. Our machines have no optical drives. Does FreeBSD have a similar method to installation? Thanks! -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/bsd.rd-for-FreeBSD-install-tp22292723p22292723.html Sent from the freebsd-questions mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: bsd.rd for FreeBSD install
new_guy wrote: Hi, We normally use OpenBSD, but would like to try FreeBSD on a test system. Usually, when updating from one OpenBSD release to another, we do so by downloading the latest bsd.rd and booting from that to complete the install. Our machines have no optical drives. Does FreeBSD have a similar method to installation? Thanks! As far as I know OpenBSD advises on binary upgrades so I'd say you're probably looking for freebsd-update as it provides binary updates. This utility is great for binary updates to both kernel and world. Do take a look at FreeBSD's Handbook. To update third party applications e.g. ports read this: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/ports.html If you want to compile a custom kernel: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/kernelconfig.html Update and upgrade methods are described here: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/updating-upgrading.html Have fun, Ricardo Jesus. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: bsd.rd for FreeBSD install
You misunderstand. I want to install FreeBSD from a ramdisk image (bsd.rd). Is that possible? It's basically a small kernel that boots the machine, formats the hard drive, setups root and installs the operating system over ftp. -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/bsd.rd-for-FreeBSD-install-tp22292723p22293310.html Sent from the freebsd-questions mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: bsd.rd for FreeBSD install
On Mon, Mar 02, 2009 at 09:36:39AM -0800, new_guy wrote: Hi, We normally use OpenBSD, but would like to try FreeBSD on a test system. Usually, when updating from one OpenBSD release to another, we do so by downloading the latest bsd.rd and booting from that to complete the install. Our machines have no optical drives. Does FreeBSD have a similar method to installation? Hmmm. Having a CD drive makes it so easy. It might be worthwhile to run out and get an external one you can plug in. Installs can also be done from a pair of floppies if you have a floppy drive. The floppy just has the boot and sysinstall stuff. Everything else downloads over the net or can be loaded on some other media such as tape or external disk and installed from there. You can create almost any kind of media if you can make it bootable and put stuff on it and boot from it and bring up sysinstall. But, I do not think you can put that on the slice you want to install to and then do a complete install there. Now, if you have FreeBSD running, you can upgrade it in place. Update and csup are all useful tools to learn for that. But, an initial install wants to be on some media other than where it will be installed. That is mostly because you build your disk filesystem as part of the installation. jerry Thanks! -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/bsd.rd-for-FreeBSD-install-tp22292723p22292723.html Sent from the freebsd-questions mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: bsd.rd for FreeBSD install
new_guy wrote: You misunderstand. I want to install FreeBSD from a ramdisk image (bsd.rd). Is that possible? It's basically a small kernel that boots the machine, formats the hard drive, setups root and installs the operating system over ftp. If that's what you want I definitely misunderstood. Maybe someone of the list can give a hand and help you out. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: bsd.rd for FreeBSD install'
On Mon, Mar 02, 2009 at 06:19:57PM +, Ricardo Jesus wrote: new_guy wrote: You misunderstand. I want to install FreeBSD from a ramdisk image (bsd.rd). Is that possible? It's basically a small kernel that boots the machine, formats the hard drive, setups root and installs the operating system over ftp. If that's what you want I definitely misunderstood. Maybe someone of the list can give a hand and help you out. Wel, that is what a fixit image is - a boot to a ramdisk image. They call it md (memory disk) in FreeBSD land. Check man pages and some more stuff online at various sources. The only problem is that I don't know if the fixit includes sysinstall. You could try it. I would guess that the install image is build in memory too and runs from there rather than from the CD. So, it should be possible with some tinkering - if you have enough memory to run a sysinstall completely from memory. You would then pretty much need to do an install over the net - which you would probably do anyway. So, your big problem, if that works, is figuring out how to create that image booted in to the memory disk without some external media to start it with. jerry ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: bsd.rd for FreeBSD install
On Mon, Mar 02, 2009 at 10:02:25AM -0800, new_guy wrote: You misunderstand. I want to install FreeBSD from a ramdisk image (bsd.rd). That is called md (memory disk) in FreeBSD land. Is that possible? It's basically a small kernel that boots the machine, formats the hard drive, setups root and installs the operating system over ftp. That is what sysinstall is, plus the boot. It is a program that builds the filesystems, sets up the system and loads everything on the disk.The big problem is how to boot and bring it up without any external media. I think some people have done it from network and second Hard drive boots as well as floppy and CD boots. jerry -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/bsd.rd-for-FreeBSD-install-tp22292723p22293310.html Sent from the freebsd-questions mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: bsd.rd for FreeBSD install
Jerry McAllister wrote: On Mon, Mar 02, 2009 at 10:02:25AM -0800, new_guy wrote: You misunderstand. I want to install FreeBSD from a ramdisk image (bsd.rd). That is called md (memory disk) in FreeBSD land. Is that possible? It's basically a small kernel that boots the machine, formats the hard drive, setups root and installs the operating system over ftp. That is what sysinstall is, plus the boot. It is a program that builds the filesystems, sets up the system and loads everything on the disk.The big problem is how to boot and bring it up without any external media. I think some people have done it from network and second Hard drive boots as well as floppy and CD boots. jerry -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/bsd.rd-for-FreeBSD-install-tp22292723p22293310.html Sent from the freebsd-questions mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org One approach could be using an existing install like described here: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/fbsd-from-scratch/article.html Or even going the nanoBSD way: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/nanobsd/article.html But this defeats the OP's originial intent, e.g., ramdisk ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
