From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jan 7 15:01:32 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8114A1065670 for ; Wed, 7 Jan 2009 15:01:32 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from steve@ibctech.ca) Received: from ibctech.ca (v6.ibctech.ca [IPv6:2607:f118::b6]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 326CB8FC1C for ; Wed, 7 Jan 2009 15:01:32 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from steve@ibctech.ca) Received: (qmail 23254 invoked by uid 89); 7 Jan 2009 15:13:57 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO ?IPv6:2607:f118::5?) (steve@ibctech.ca@2607:f118::5) by 2607:f118::b6 with ESMTPA; 7 Jan 2009 15:13:57 -0000 Message-ID: <4964C3CF.7000804@ibctech.ca> Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:01:35 -0500 From: Steve Bertrand User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.17 (Windows/20080914) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Matthias Apitz References: <2b5f066d0901070525l3b928eb8j20fe48c67eeacba6@mail.gmail.com> <20090107151702.48136fb1.freebsd@edvax.de> <20090107143450.GA12360@rebelion.Sisis.de> In-Reply-To: <20090107143450.GA12360@rebelion.Sisis.de> X-Enigmail-Version: 0.95.7 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Cc: Brian McCann , Polytropon , freebsd-questions Subject: Re: FreeBSD USB Install X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:01:32 -0000 Matthias Apitz wrote: > El día Wednesday, January 07, 2009 a las 03:17:02PM +0100, Polytropon escribió: > >> On Wed, 7 Jan 2009 08:25:45 -0500, "Brian McCann" wrote: >>> Hi all. I'm trying to install FreeBSD 7.1 off the CD to a USB thumb >>> drive, but every time I try it fails. sysinstall says "Unable to make >>> new root filesystem on /dev/da0s1a1. Command returned status 38". >>> When I switch to the debug console, I get "cg 0: bad magic number". >>> This thumb drive was being used on my Windows machine previously, then >>> I re-formatted it as UFS to use it on a FreeBSD machine...so I know >>> the thumb drive itself works. Can someone shed some light on this >>> problem? >> I could only suggest to eliminate all slices and partitions on the >> thumb drive (such as it was a new "disk" right from the factory) >> and let sysinstall put slice and partitions onto it. > > The problem is that 'from the factory' sometimnes they come already Windows-like > formated; I've wiped out all with: > > # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/da0 bs=1m > > (double check that /dev/da0 is really the device you want to clean) sysinstall will provide you an option to erase any existing 'partitions' that exist on the drive during install, so the 'dd' is redundant. I've never installed directly to a thumbdrive before. Normally I'd install to a hard disk, pear it down, and then effectively copy the system to the thumb drive manually. I end up with a system as such (so I don't need a hard disk): router# df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity Mounted on /dev/da0a 939M 410M 454M 47% / devfs 1.0K 1.0K 0B 100% /dev /dev/md0 31M 20K 28M 0% /tmp /dev/md1 15M 36K 14M 0% /var/run /dev/md2 31M 318K 28M 1% /var/log /tmp 31M 20K 28M 0% /var/tmp That said, installing to a USB disk through sysinstall should technically (AFAIK) be no different than installing to a standard SCSI hard disk (da0). What options are you supplying when you reach the 'FDISK Partition Editor' screen? Also, if you are installing the system via sysinstall that is running on an already installed FreeBSD, you must use the 'w' option before 'q'. Quit within the disk editor while running under FreeBSD does not imply 'write'. (This being opposed to booting from a CD to install). Steve