Re: USB image
Tron wrote: Yes, I can boot from cd but would like to try for the big image (if it was available). aah.. silly me - thought it was.. there is a 2.4 version if you're interested in that So if I understand you correctly, once the big image (with x, GUI, etc) would become available, I would: -burn it onto a flash drive yes or cd -change BIOS settings on the laptop to be the network installer yes, if by this you mean 'make it boot from the install media' ... -try out DF on the test box and if I like it install on HD from the network yes. although - I'm not sure how 'live' the 'gui live cd' is - perhaps others can comment? Another option of course is to boot up an emulator like VirtualBox or VMware, etc if you're just interesting in a bit of tinkering and that is an option for you - also I've heard that people are running under Xen/HVM recently although I'm not sure what host environment / Xen version that was.. (and hoping I'm not confusing things from the FreeBSD Xen list :) )
Re: USB image
Thank you Justin and you are right - your link does look interesting. Just prior to receiving your post, I found something similar myself: http://www.ilovefreesoftware.com/14/windows/system-utils/download-unetbootin-free-bootable-usb-flash-drives-cretor.html but after reading the cite you suggested would guess that yours is probably more capable. I would love to test this out myself, but not being familiar with DF I probably would not get far beyond the initial command prompt (as was so cleverly commented on by others) so it would seem a more experienced tester would be better. To further complicate matters, the test box I was thinking of using for DF experimentation apparently cannot boot from USB. (It is an old 700MHz Celeron with a BIOS that cannot be upgraded or easily patched because the mobo is oem ie: unknown...) Therefore, my options seem to be either to dig up a more modern piece of junk and spend some money on bringing it to life or give up on trying to start with DF with a ready GUI and try yet another time to make it through the DF handbook without being sidetracked by life... Regards, Tron. On 9/29/2010 9:10 PM, Justin C. Sherrill wrote: On Wed, September 29, 2010 11:42 pm, Tomas Bodzar wrote: When someone wants to go deeply in some area then there is only one way - a lot of years of learning and experience. It does not change just because we have Internet and PR materials from stupid vendors talks lies. OS is very complex system - take it from the other side - flying is so easy (at least for birds); why do I need to learn that complicated stuff about mathematics, physic, meteorology and so on; why there is not one-click-button-to-fly airplane? How about space travelling? How about submarines? How about cars? Are you able to create your own on same level of quality as from those companies? No? Guess why - because you lack info and experience in that area as it's not so easy and not because someone wants to be rude against you. The best answer when someone says This doesn't work for me isn't You don't know enough but rather Here, let me show you how. To answer the original question, I haven't seen a USB drive solution that didn't involve some other steps - many of them require a Windows user to boot from a live CD image to use dd or equivalent to write to the USB drive, or rarely have a specialized program to write it out (Mandriva). I've heard of Linux installers that were able to understand a fat32 USB drive if files were set up a particular way, but it didn't seem to be easier overall. This looks interesting: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/ Would it work with a DragonFly image? Please, someone try this.
Re: USB image
Tron wrote: USB. (It is an old 700MHz Celeron with a BIOS that cannot be upgraded or easily patched because the mobo is oem ie: unknown...) you should be able to boot from cd, no? this machine is *far* faster than my old trusty 'bigred' - a spray-painted 266mhz amd k6-II haven't booted that guy in a while - but he was alive kicking in the 1.10 days.. or are you trying for the 'big package' image? can't remember the sizes off hand.. also: another option is to use the built-in network installer if the bios supports network booting has a nic basically, plug 2 machines into a LAN (if you have a hub or can borrow one), boot up one select it to be a network installer, and boot up the other one from the network side note - don't try hammer on a small drive - iirc 40G is the bare minimum for a light-workstation kind of setup? (remember you need to have space for file history as well as the files) no idea how this all works with the 'big package' version - perhaps others can comment.. cheers
Re: USB image
Chris Turner wrote: basically, plug 2 machines into a LAN (if you have a hub or can borrow one), boot up one select it to be a network installer, switch / crossover cable / etc should work fine too for sure - just referring to least-common-denominator
Re: USB image
Yes, I can boot from cd but would like to try for the big image (if it was available). Network booting, I have not considered. All my machines are already networked, all are running WinXP. My old P3's support network booting but only one box is likely able to boot from USB (its a CoreDuo laptop so I think it should be modern enough for that). So if I understand you correctly, once the big image (with x, GUI, etc) would become available, I would: -burn it onto a flash drive -change BIOS settings on the laptop to be the network installer -change BIOS on the experimental box to be booted from the network -boot laptop from USB -try out DF on the test box and if I like it install on HD from the network Did I get it right? PS: my HD on test has about 47GB of unpartitioned space so I would like to try Hammer if I can. On 9/30/2010 12:00 AM, Chris Turner wrote: Tron wrote: USB. (It is an old 700MHz Celeron with a BIOS that cannot be upgraded or easily patched because the mobo is oem ie: unknown...) you should be able to boot from cd, no? this machine is *far* faster than my old trusty 'bigred' - a spray-painted 266mhz amd k6-II haven't booted that guy in a while - but he was alive kicking in the 1.10 days.. or are you trying for the 'big package' image? can't remember the sizes off hand.. also: another option is to use the built-in network installer if the bios supports network booting has a nic basically, plug 2 machines into a LAN (if you have a hub or can borrow one), boot up one select it to be a network installer, and boot up the other one from the network side note - don't try hammer on a small drive - iirc 40G is the bare minimum for a light-workstation kind of setup? (remember you need to have space for file history as well as the files) no idea how this all works with the 'big package' version - perhaps others can comment.. cheers
Re: USB image
This looks interesting: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/ Would it work with a DragonFly image? Please, someone try this. I've tried this method today (just for testing) and it doen't work (OTB). The same with unetbootin. So dd should be used. There is a method to put .iso file on usb stick (works/tested on freebsd iso) but since DF has .img file it is rather useless.
Re: USB image
On 9/30/2010 6:52, Sascha Wildner wrote: I think someone wanting to switch from Windows to a free alternative that mostly feels like Windows and doesn't require much Unix knowledge is much better off with one of the Linux distros that try to appeal to this clientel. Just as an additional note: It seems that among the BSDs, actually the MidnightBSD project seems to have these kinds of goals (being usable without problems by grandma or some mother-in-law), at least according to what I heard about it on The BSD Show: http://webbaverse.com/media/tbs-0x0008 Regards, Sascha
Re: USB image
Thanks Dylan, it is clear now. However, given your example of those other Linux ditro's, I am wondering why the DF group decided to build their images this way if there is an alternative. I mean if DF seriously wants to expand its ranks the best way is from the herds of Windows users and most of them know nothing about Unix. So the easier the route to see what DF can do - the more likely is someone to put in the effort. With this USB example alone: first, a newbie has to get the USB image, second realize (probably the hard way 'cause there is no mention of this on the download page) that the writing app is completely different from the one they use to write their CD images with and ultimately see that even though the DF image is small he can't move anything else onto the flash disk (which may be particularly frustrating if they only have the big one they just bought)... I think it is easy to see how many novices may get discouraged with DF and give up almost before they began. Fortunately, I am strongly motivated, have been to DF's IRC channel before and have finally succeeded in signing up on this help list (which also wasn't the most straight forward thing ever... and could not have happened without my knowledge of IRC). My point is, I think you are a great bunch of guys who have done one hell of a job, but if you want to attract not just the most experience computer users, the route from A-B, never mind from A-Z should be easier. Many thanks, Tron. On 9/28/2010 8:56 PM, Dylan Reinhold wrote: Tron, Yes you are correct this would completely re write the stick with this image. The way DFly build their USB images means this is the only way. I know some Linux distro's have some ways to allow you to drop the files on a fat[32] formated drive and run a command to boot. So when you want you disk back do will need to refomat it, saveing the current image might work also. Hope this helps, Dylan On 09/28/2010 05:42 PM, Tron wrote: An off the shelf flash drive allows standard copy operations of files under windows. I imagine that writing a non win OS image would erase everything on that flash drive making it unusable for further storage of other (windows) data. I don't know if USB flash drives are formated for NTFS, FAT32 or what but if I should want to use this drive under windows again, would I have to reformat it after DF (kind of like a hard drive)? Or make an image of an empty USB drive for ease of later restoration /before/ I through on a DF image? Or is it possible to reserve space on a large USB for diff OS's (like partitioning HD's), or..? (Hope the question isn't too idiotic but I haven't done anything like this with flash drives before). On 9/26/2010 4:21 PM, Dylan Reinhold wrote: On 09/26/2010 01:32 PM, tron wrote: If I want to copy the DF USB image onto my USB stick and I am working under WinXP, can I open the archive with 7zip and just copy the resulting files/folders to the stick or will I need a special app for installing the image to the USB stick? (Sorry if this sounds dumb, but I am only used to the world of Windows and the handbook on DF page only discusses installation with CD.) You should be able to use Image Writter https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer Dylan
Re: USB image
Is this app in some way superior to win Image Writter (cause the latter seems much easier to use)? On 9/26/2010 7:15 PM, Justin C. Sherrill wrote: On Sun, September 26, 2010 4:32 pm, tron wrote: If I want to copy the DF USB image onto my USB stick and I am working under WinXP, can I open the archive with 7zip and just copy the resulting files/folders to the stick or will I need a special app for installing the image to the USB stick? (Sorry if this sounds dumb, but I am only used to the world of Windows and the handbook on DF page only discusses installation with CD.) I recently used: http://www.chrysocome.net/dd On a Windows 7 machine to write an image to a USB stick and it worked. It's a little fiddly with the backslashes because it's a Windows system, but oh well.
Re: USB image
Hammer FS (or eg. ZFS on Solaris), SSI, swapcache, tmpfs, dhcpd, make files, compiling, kernel config, pkgsrc and a lot of other stuff is not intended for Need for speed players or script kitties. It's intended for professionals as some other Unix-like systems. End users don't need to care about details because professionals will prepare servers/workstations/laptops for them and their use. Admin don't need to be eg. insurance agent, he/she will just prepare tool for that end user and from the other side; end users don't need to be (or try so much) professionals in IT because it ends mostly with big catastrophe. If someone wants toy full of holes, but with super duper colors and a lot of buttons for clicking then he/she can choose Windows, MacOS or Ubuntu and it's possible that he/she will be able to install it and somewhat use it, but most probably it will not be correctly set in these Internet (viruses, spyware,...) times because he/she will lack informations and experience for proper administration. When someone wants to go deeply in some area then there is only one way - a lot of years of learning and experience. It does not change just because we have Internet and PR materials from stupid vendors talks lies. OS is very complex system - take it from the other side - flying is so easy (at least for birds); why do I need to learn that complicated stuff about mathematics, physic, meteorology and so on; why there is not one-click-button-to-fly airplane? How about space travelling? How about submarines? How about cars? Are you able to create your own on same level of quality as from those companies? No? Guess why - because you lack info and experience in that area as it's not so easy and not because someone wants to be rude against you. Can't understand why so much people is whining in IT area and don't whine in those others :-) Correction, a professional OS that requires its users to be professionals. Not a bunch of whining windows update people that have to call IT to launch excel. In case you hadn't noticed we are old school UNIX users that don't mind fixing whatever problem is at hand. Including writing code or fixing a bug. This is why in the olden days your IT department was worth something and wasn't a bunch of monkeys reading a script. It is exactly your attitude that has ruined the computer industry Marco Peereboom - OpenBSD developer (one of my favorite citations :-)) I'm more and more curious how girls and guys were able to work with computers as there was not any X system, just terminal and they were able to do financial stuff, advocacy, geology, mathematics, office and so on. They were either crazy or had more knowledge or maybe there weren't simply crazy and it was something like challenge for them to learn something new instead of saying - I will not work with that because it has no buttons and GUI. On Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 3:40 AM, Tron t...@hotbox.ru wrote: Thanks Dylan, it is clear now. However, given your example of those other Linux ditro's, I am wondering why the DF group decided to build their images this way if there is an alternative. I mean if DF seriously wants to expand its ranks the best way is from the herds of Windows users and most of them know nothing about Unix. So the easier the route to see what DF can do - the more likely is someone to put in the effort. With this USB example alone: first, a newbie has to get the USB image, second realize (probably the hard way 'cause there is no mention of this on the download page) that the writing app is completely different from the one they use to write their CD images with and ultimately see that even though the DF image is small he can't move anything else onto the flash disk (which may be particularly frustrating if they only have the big one they just bought)... I think it is easy to see how many novices may get discouraged with DF and give up almost before they began. Fortunately, I am strongly motivated, have been to DF's IRC channel before and have finally succeeded in signing up on this help list (which also wasn't the most straight forward thing ever... and could not have happened without my knowledge of IRC). My point is, I think you are a great bunch of guys who have done one hell of a job, but if you want to attract not just the most experience computer users, the route from A-B, never mind from A-Z should be easier. Many thanks, Tron. On 9/28/2010 8:56 PM, Dylan Reinhold wrote: Tron, Yes you are correct this would completely re write the stick with this image. The way DFly build their USB images means this is the only way. I know some Linux distro's have some ways to allow you to drop the files on a fat[32] formated drive and run a command to boot. So when you want you disk back do will need to refomat it, saveing the current image might work also. Hope this helps, Dylan On 09/28/2010 05:42 PM, Tron wrote: An off the shelf flash drive allows
Re: USB image
On Wed, September 29, 2010 11:42 pm, Tomas Bodzar wrote: When someone wants to go deeply in some area then there is only one way - a lot of years of learning and experience. It does not change just because we have Internet and PR materials from stupid vendors talks lies. OS is very complex system - take it from the other side - flying is so easy (at least for birds); why do I need to learn that complicated stuff about mathematics, physic, meteorology and so on; why there is not one-click-button-to-fly airplane? How about space travelling? How about submarines? How about cars? Are you able to create your own on same level of quality as from those companies? No? Guess why - because you lack info and experience in that area as it's not so easy and not because someone wants to be rude against you. The best answer when someone says This doesn't work for me isn't You don't know enough but rather Here, let me show you how. To answer the original question, I haven't seen a USB drive solution that didn't involve some other steps - many of them require a Windows user to boot from a live CD image to use dd or equivalent to write to the USB drive, or rarely have a specialized program to write it out (Mandriva). I've heard of Linux installers that were able to understand a fat32 USB drive if files were set up a particular way, but it didn't seem to be easier overall. This looks interesting: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/ Would it work with a DragonFly image? Please, someone try this.
Re: USB image
On 9/30/2010 3:40, Tron wrote: Thanks Dylan, it is clear now. However, given your example of those other Linux ditro's, I am wondering why the DF group decided to build their images this way if there is an alternative. I mean if DF seriously wants to expand its ranks the best way is from the herds of Windows users and most of them know nothing about Unix. So the easier the route to see what DF can do - the more likely is someone to put in the effort. With this USB example alone: first, a newbie has to get the USB image, second realize (probably the hard way 'cause there is no mention of this on the download page) that the writing app is completely different from the one they use to write their CD images with and ultimately see that even though the DF image is small he can't move anything else onto the flash disk (which may be particularly frustrating if they only have the big one they just bought)... I think it is easy to see how many novices may get discouraged with DF and give up almost before they began. Fortunately, I am strongly motivated, have been to DF's IRC channel before and have finally succeeded in signing up on this help list (which also wasn't the most straight forward thing ever... and could not have happened without my knowledge of IRC). My point is, I think you are a great bunch of guys who have done one hell of a job, but if you want to attract not just the most experience computer users, the route from A-B, never mind from A-Z should be easier. Let's be realistic here. Right now, we don't have the manpower it takes to make DragonFly appealing to the herds of Windows users which know nothing about Unix. I'm sure it would take much much more than just having an easier way to get our USB image onto a USB stick from Windows. If that step were easier (and I'm not saying it shouldn't be) Windows users without a clue about Unix will then just give up one step later after they boot the system and land at the command line. I think someone wanting to switch from Windows to a free alternative that mostly feels like Windows and doesn't require much Unix knowledge is much better off with one of the Linux distros that try to appeal to this clientel. Again, I'm not saying we shouldn't improve, nor do I harbor some elitist attitude. I'm just saying that going really down that road requires a lot more work than we are capable (and willing) to do, as things are. We need to set goals which we can realistically achieve. Regards, Sascha
Re: USB image
On Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 6:10 AM, Justin C. Sherrill jus...@shiningsilence.com wrote: On Wed, September 29, 2010 11:42 pm, Tomas Bodzar wrote: When someone wants to go deeply in some area then there is only one way - a lot of years of learning and experience. It does not change just because we have Internet and PR materials from stupid vendors talks lies. OS is very complex system - take it from the other side - flying is so easy (at least for birds); why do I need to learn that complicated stuff about mathematics, physic, meteorology and so on; why there is not one-click-button-to-fly airplane? How about space travelling? How about submarines? How about cars? Are you able to create your own on same level of quality as from those companies? No? Guess why - because you lack info and experience in that area as it's not so easy and not because someone wants to be rude against you. The best answer when someone says This doesn't work for me isn't You don't know enough but rather Here, let me show you how. Not all the time because sooner or later it's starting to be boring when someone is not able to find eg. info from Download page : If you use a USB .img file, it needs to be copied to a USB key directly. Use 'dd' on unix-like systems, or a similar program on Windows. (there is a link to similar program on Windows) It's quite simple. Man pages and Internet are full of sources. If someone wants to do that then there are no blocks for him/her - just couple of reading. If he/she ask that it still doesn't work and provide some outputs what was tested and still doesn't work then why not to help. Attempting to prove the worth of anything to folks who are not able to figure things out for themselves is much like trying to teach butterflies Calculus. It doesn't work and wastes your time. Of course that I don't know everything as no one knows everything, but at least I'm trying to do my best in case of problems and learning is good for me and my life so I'm trying to learn it first before asking. It's just my opinion and it was my reaction. I'm not developer of Dfly and I like some features of that OS and developers are doing good job. To answer the original question, I haven't seen a USB drive solution that didn't involve some other steps - many of them require a Windows user to boot from a live CD image to use dd or equivalent to write to the USB drive, or rarely have a specialized program to write it out (Mandriva). I've heard of Linux installers that were able to understand a fat32 USB drive if files were set up a particular way, but it didn't seem to be easier overall. This looks interesting: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/ Would it work with a DragonFly image? Please, someone try this.
Re: USB image
: If I want to copy the DF USB image onto my USB stick and I am working :under WinXP, can I open the archive with 7zip and just copy the :resulting files/folders to the stick or will I need a special app for :installing the image to the USB stick? (Sorry if this sounds dumb, but :I am only used to the world of Windows and the handbook on DF page only :discusses installation with CD.) The USB image is a usb/disk image, it has to be directly imaged onto the stick. I'm sorry I don't know how to do that under Windows. -Matt Matthew Dillon dil...@backplane.com
Re: USB image
On 09/26/2010 01:32 PM, tron wrote: If I want to copy the DF USB image onto my USB stick and I am working under WinXP, can I open the archive with 7zip and just copy the resulting files/folders to the stick or will I need a special app for installing the image to the USB stick? (Sorry if this sounds dumb, but I am only used to the world of Windows and the handbook on DF page only discusses installation with CD.) You should be able to use Image Writter https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer Dylan