From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Nov 15 02:30:06 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 21BD41065676 for ; Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:30:06 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from cyberleo@cyberleo.net) Received: from mtumishi.cyberleo.net (mtumishi.cyberleo.net [69.72.129.14]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F3F618FC23 for ; Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:30:05 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [172.16.44.14] (h-74-2-96-2.chcgilgm.static.covad.net [74.2.96.2]) by mtumishi.cyberleo.net (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id D0B662693D; Sat, 14 Nov 2009 21:31:45 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <4AFF67A7.6040109@cyberleo.net> Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 20:29:59 -0600 From: CyberLeo Kitsana User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.23 (X11/20091109) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: FreeBSD Questions X-Enigmail-Version: 0.96.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: CyberLeo Subject: [FreeBSD Questions] Filesystem image as root 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: Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:30:06 -0000 I have been thinking and experimenting for weeks, but I cannot figure this out. I have an Intel SS4200 NAS that I wish to use as a ZFS NAS with FreeBSD 8.0. The device has 4 SATA bays, and I don't want to use one for a UFS root disk. I don't want to use up hundreds of megabytes of RAM preloading an mfsroot that can never shrink. The single IDE connector is accessible via the legacy ISA ports, and is thus limited to PIO modes (about 1.6MB/sec max, even with an actual hard drive instead of a CF card). Performance is acceptable when using a geom_uzip image from a CF card on the IDE connector, as a lot of it ends up cached in RAM (and is evictable in case of memory pressure, unlike an mfsroot). Try as I might, I am unable to figure out how to use a uzip imagefile on UFS as a root filesystem, without dedicating a slice/partition to it. There seems to be nothing approximating GNU/Linux's pivot_root, and using a stub init (which cannot be a shellscript...?) to mdconfig and mount the image, then chroot to that to exec /sbin/init appears to lead to instant deadlock. I don't really like the idea of mounting the image somewhere below root, and using symlink spaghetti to get everything proper; especially since I wish to place such essentials as /sbin and /etc thereupon, which leads to a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem with setting up and mounting an image that contains its mdconfig and mount... Am I missing something obvious here, or am I truly treading unexplored territory? -- Fuzzy love, -CyberLeo Technical Administrator CyberLeo.Net Webhosting http://www.CyberLeo.Net Furry Peace! - http://wwww.fur.com/peace/