From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Sep 25 10:54:38 2007 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 ACEC416A41A for ; Tue, 25 Sep 2007 10:54:38 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from quakenet1@optusnet.com.au) Received: from mail01.syd.optusnet.com.au (mail01.syd.optusnet.com.au [211.29.132.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3AFAF13C458 for ; Tue, 25 Sep 2007 10:54:38 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from quakenet1@optusnet.com.au) Received: from [10.0.0.3] (c220-239-13-242.belrs4.nsw.optusnet.com.au [220.239.13.242]) by mail01.syd.optusnet.com.au (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id l8PAsYVb030501; Tue, 25 Sep 2007 20:54:35 +1000 In-Reply-To: <46F7DE65.2080003@otenet.gr> References: <74C0DBE7-41EA-42FA-AE01-D82A9FAE3162@optusnet.com.au> <46F7DE65.2080003@otenet.gr> Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v752.2) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Message-Id: Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Jerahmy Pocott Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2007 20:54:34 +1000 To: Manolis Kiagias X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.752.2) Cc: FreeBSD Questions Subject: Re: Booting to Sysinstall 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: Tue, 25 Sep 2007 10:54:38 -0000 On 25/09/2007, at 1:57 AM, Manolis Kiagias wrote: > Jerahmy Pocott wrote: >> Hello, >> >> Okay so here is the situation: >> Server has dead fd and cd drives, or maybe none at all. You want >> to install FreeBSD >> on it. >> >> The idea I had was to create a small partition, copy the contents >> of a cd into, set it >> to boot off that partition, reboot and it would boot up into >> sysinstall. >> >> Would this be possible? Or is it a dumb idea? >> _______________________________________________ >> freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list >> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions >> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions- >> unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >> >> > The problem with this approach is, you actually need to boot the > FreeBSD kernel to continue with the install. Just by marking a > partition as bootable, will not make it boot, and neither copying > the FreeBSD CD contents will. You have to write a suitable boot > sector that will load the rest of the OS, be it DOS, Windows, > FreeBSD or whatever. And the fact remains, to install FreeBSD you > have to boot into the FreeBSD kernel. Okay, well say I used some tools to create a UFS partition, put the contents of the Boot Only iso on it and put the FreeBSD boot loader program into the MBR (it's boot0?) how could I get it to load the kernel? There seem to be a number of different boot straps, boot, cdboot, pxeboot etc, on this iso image.. I experimented with this on an existing installation and for some reason the slice I created to boot into the basic environment to install from ended up booting the existing installation instead of the version in the slice it was booting from?!