Re: How to create an installation image of OpenBSD for a USB stick?
On 2010-3-4 12:22 AM, Ilya Ilembitov wrote: ...Second problem is that I live in a dorn, so I only have access to wireless connection, not wired. And I want to install OpenBSD to a laptop that is currently running Debian Linux. What you are trying to do turns out to be so easy that there's no need to write it up. It turns out that Nick's answer will help you: 1) Use a friend's computer to burn the OpenBSD installation CD, on Debian see wodim or k3b for burning. 2) Boot the CD install the set bsd.rd onto the USB stick, 3) Then if you will have no network until you are done, also copy the sets over to the USB stick and maybe a few packages. 4) Carry the stick over to your computer and boot it, at the boot loader tell it to use /bsd.rd [1] If neither you or your friend are able or willing to burn a CD, install qemu or Virtual Box and boot the installation cd image using that, but like with the steps Nick outlined, install to the USB stick. Googling didn't give me any proper answer. Turns out, There's one of the biggest problems with the search engines: crap makes noise, noise makes a lot of hits in the search results. And then people confuse high profile or common with good or useful. There's also the Microsoft Effect to contend with: the idea that all computer technology is difficult and unreliable. Not true. But the OpenBSD documentation does take getting used to: it is thorough and very useful. Later you can install grub on your USB stick, make a lot of partitions and have installation sets for different architectures or distros. /Lars [1] You can set the stick (or any other storage medium) to boot a specific kernel by configuring /etc/boot.cfg to point to the image. e.g. set image /bsd.rd If you are doing a serial console installation then add in your settings there, too.
Re: How to create an installation image of OpenBSD for a USB stick?
On Thu, 4 Mar 2010, David Vasek wrote: On Thu, 4 Mar 2010, Ilya Ilembitov wrote: Hi, all. I have a pretty tricky challenge before me. My main (and only) machine is a Lenovo Thinkpad X200s. The problem is that it doesn't have an optical drive. Second problem is that I live in a dorn, so I only have access to wireless connection, not wired. And I want to install OpenBSD to a laptop that is currently running Debian Linux. With Thinkpad, the following has never dissapointed me: dd if=floppy47.fs of=/dev/rsd0c (or whatever your USB flashdrive is) Of course, it should be obvious, but with Debian Linux use an appropriate device for of=. It should be /dev/sda if they didn't change their mind recently. Regards, David
Re: How to create an installation image of OpenBSD for a USB stick?
On Thu, 4 Mar 2010, Ilya Ilembitov wrote: Hi, all. I have a pretty tricky challenge before me. My main (and only) machine is a Lenovo Thinkpad X200s. The problem is that it doesn't have an optical drive. Second problem is that I live in a dorn, so I only have access to wireless connection, not wired. And I want to install OpenBSD to a laptop that is currently running Debian Linux. With Thinkpad, the following has never dissapointed me: dd if=floppy47.fs of=/dev/rsd0c (or whatever your USB flashdrive is) and then just boot off it. This procedure either works or not with machines from other manufacturers, but if a Thinkpad is your only concern, it's damn quick. In fact, I haven't tried it with recent Lenovo branded Thinkpads, but I hope they didn't change the BIOS to worse. You have to try. If the RAMDISK kernel won't give you a working network driver, copy the installation sets to another USB flashdrive (or even the same, you won't need it after the boot), mount it and install. Regards, David
Re: How to create an installation image of OpenBSD for a USB stick?
Nick Holland wrote: Isn't it cool how we use the EXACT SAME process to build a USB stick as we use to build a hard disk, isn't it? And that same stick can be used for running or installing? It's the Unix Way -- simple tools usable in powerful ways. Sad that those other OSs need Special Procedures and Images to build a flash booting system. Nick thanks for this voice of sanity. I have never seen a thread on this mailing list with so many incompetent answers. Best, Predrag
How to create an installation image of OpenBSD for a USB stick?
Hi, all. I have a pretty tricky challenge before me. My main (and only) machine is a Lenovo Thinkpad X200s. The problem is that it doesn't have an optical drive. Second problem is that I live in a dorn, so I only have access to wireless connection, not wired. And I want to install OpenBSD to a laptop that is currently running Debian Linux. Googling didn't give me any proper answer. Turns out, nearly every BSD favour (FreeBSD, NetBSD, DragonFly BSD) has either an image for sticks or some straightawy script to get the job done. But not OpenBSD. All I could find was: -involving a second machine running OpenBSD for network installation -involving a second machine running OpenBSD to create the flash using installboot and some other BSD-specific tools. Seems like in most cases people install OpenBSD on diskless laptops when it comes to netbooks but not primary machines. Which is not my case. Is there a script of some sort that could convert an OpenBSD install46.iso to an img file for a stick using some more common (non-BSD specific) tools? The best howto I could find is this one: http://www.azbsd.org/~marco/openbsd/flashkeyinstaller/ But it involves installboot and some other tools that are not available on a GNU system. What could I do? Or perhaps somebody could create and host an image (with all the filesets for 4.6) or just put it on some filehosting service? It's still just some 250-300 megs. -- wbr, Ilembitov
Re: How to create an installation image of OpenBSD for a USB stick?
On Thu, 4 Mar 2010, Ilya Ilembitov wrote: Hi, all. I have a pretty tricky challenge before me. My main (and only) machine is a Lenovo Thinkpad X200s. The problem is that it doesn't have an optical drive. Second problem is that I live in a dorn, so I only have access to wireless connection, not wired. And I want to install OpenBSD to a laptop that is currently running Debian Linux. Googling didn't give me any proper answer. Turns out, nearly every BSD favour (FreeBSD, NetBSD, DragonFly BSD) has either an image for sticks or some straightawy script to get the job done. But not OpenBSD. All I could find was: -involving a second machine running OpenBSD for network installation -involving a second machine running OpenBSD to create the flash using installboot and some other BSD-specific tools. Seems like in most cases people install OpenBSD on diskless laptops when it comes to netbooks but not primary machines. Which is not my case. Is there a script of some sort that could convert an OpenBSD install46.iso to an img file for a stick using some more common (non-BSD specific) tools? The best howto I could find is this one: http://www.azbsd.org/~marco/openbsd/flashkeyinstaller/ But it involves installboot and some other tools that are not available on a GNU system. What could I do? Or perhaps somebody could create and host an image (with all the filesets for 4.6) or just put it on some filehosting service? It's still just some 250-300 megs. -- wbr, Ilembitov I have a Thinkpad x200 Don't you have access to an external drive? You could install OpenBSD in a virtual machine, and make up the usb disk from there. You could also try this http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ I think I used it to use gpart.
Re: How to create an installation image of OpenBSD for a USB stick?
I have used UNetbootin http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ to build an OpenBSD USB stick image from the OpenBSD ISO image. I don't remember the exact details, but it was pretty straightforward. I built it on a friend's XP machine but looks like there's a Linux version too. -- Ron McDowell San Antonio TX shweg...@gmail.com wrote: On Thu, 4 Mar 2010, Ilya Ilembitov wrote: Hi, all. I have a pretty tricky challenge before me. My main (and only) machine is a Lenovo Thinkpad X200s. The problem is that it doesn't have an optical drive. Second problem is that I live in a dorn, so I only have access to wireless connection, not wired. And I want to install OpenBSD to a laptop that is currently running Debian Linux. Googling didn't give me any proper answer. Turns out, nearly every BSD favour (FreeBSD, NetBSD, DragonFly BSD) has either an image for sticks or some straightawy script to get the job done. But not OpenBSD. All I could find was: -involving a second machine running OpenBSD for network installation -involving a second machine running OpenBSD to create the flash using installboot and some other BSD-specific tools. Seems like in most cases people install OpenBSD on diskless laptops when it comes to netbooks but not primary machines. Which is not my case. Is there a script of some sort that could convert an OpenBSD install46.iso to an img file for a stick using some more common (non-BSD specific) tools? The best howto I could find is this one: http://www.azbsd.org/~marco/openbsd/flashkeyinstaller/ But it involves installboot and some other tools that are not available on a GNU system. What could I do? Or perhaps somebody could create and host an image (with all the filesets for 4.6) or just put it on some filehosting service? It's still just some 250-300 megs. -- wbr, Ilembitov I have a Thinkpad x200 Don't you have access to an external drive? You could install OpenBSD in a virtual machine, and make up the usb disk from there. You could also try this http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ I think I used it to use gpart.
Re: How to create an installation image of OpenBSD for a USB stick?
On Wed, 3 Mar 2010, Ron McDowell wrote: I have used UNetbootin http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ to build an OpenBSD USB stick image from the OpenBSD ISO image. I don't remember the exact details, but it was pretty straightforward. I built it on a friend's XP machine but looks like there's a Linux version too. The Linux version works well - it will build bootable USB image from any bootable ISO. Lee
Re: How to create an installation image of OpenBSD for a USB stick?
Ilya Ilembitov wrote: Hi, all. I have a pretty tricky challenge before me. My main (and only) machine is a Lenovo Thinkpad X200s. The problem is that it doesn't have an optical drive. Second problem is that I live in a dorn, so I only have access to wireless connection, not wired. And I want to install OpenBSD to a laptop that is currently running Debian Linux. Googling didn't give me any proper answer. Turns out, nearly every BSD favour (FreeBSD, NetBSD, DragonFly BSD) has either an image for sticks or some straightawy script to get the job done. But not OpenBSD. Isn't it cool how we use the EXACT SAME process to build a USB stick as we use to build a hard disk, isn't it? And that same stick can be used for running or installing? It's the Unix Way -- simple tools usable in powerful ways. Sad that those other OSs need Special Procedures and Images to build a flash booting system. What's next, different installers for IDE and SCSI disks? (I'm installing Solaris on a machine right now. I'm NOT in a good mood about crappy installers at the moment) All I could find was: -involving a second machine running OpenBSD for network installation -involving a second machine running OpenBSD to create the flash using installboot and some other BSD-specific tools. oh, you were complaining about that feature? huh. Seems like in most cases people install OpenBSD on diskless laptops when it comes to netbooks but not primary machines. Which is not my case. no idea what you said there, but I'm pretty sure it is quite wrong. After all the time I've spent saying workstation/server, what's the difference?, now you are splitting a line between primary machines and laptops or between netbooks and laptops... Is there a script of some sort that could convert an OpenBSD install46.iso to an img file for a stick using some more common (non-BSD specific) tools? The best howto I could find is this one: http://www.azbsd.org/~marco/openbsd/flashkeyinstaller/ But it involves installboot and some other tools that are not available on a GNU system. What could I do? Or perhaps somebody could create and host an image (with all the filesets for 4.6) or just put it on some filehosting service? It's still just some 250-300 megs. There's a really simple solution, it's called a friend (I know, strange concept to some of us in the computer world. Best explanation I can give is someone whom you have fixed their computer, they might otherwise have no reason to talk to you, but now they might actually feel an obligation to tolerate you, and might be willing to help you in gratitude). You ask to borrow the friend's computer (which has a CDR drive), ask them to burn you the image, then ask them to let you boot that disk and install to your USB flash drive: http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html#noflopcd http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq14.html#flashmemLive Other than the ISO file, you write nothing to their disk, and you can burn the ISO from any OS you want, and that OS is not involved in the flash disk creation process in any way. The machine you install the flash drive on doesn't even have to be able to boot from a USB drive. As someone who helps with release testing, I can assure you, I DO NOT want to see Yet Another Install Media that does something that can't be done easily with the existing tools. Nick.
Re: How to create an installation image of OpenBSD for a USB stick?
Hi, I have a pretty tricky challenge before me. My main (and only) machine is a Lenovo Thinkpad X200s. The problem is that it doesn't have an optical drive. Second problem is that I live in a dorn, so I only have access to wireless connection, not wired. And I want to install OpenBSD to a laptop that is currently running Debian Linux. Not tricky at all, look at liveusb-openbsd.sf.net You find images ready to install on USB there, different sizes of live images and also an installation image. On the page you find also _very_ simple advice of how to create these images for yourself using qemu, i.e. if you want to run -current. I used the live image to test if my hardware works (it did - Asus EEE 901) and then created a -current installation USB stick. regards Matthias
