From owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Feb 5 14:39:22 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-small@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A818D16A4CF for ; Thu, 5 Feb 2004 14:39:22 -0800 (PST) Received: from imgate01.cybertime.net (imgate01.cybertime.net [216.117.206.24]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7160443D55 for ; Thu, 5 Feb 2004 14:39:19 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from hostmaster@cybertime.net) Received: from cybertime.net (mail.cybertime.net [216.117.209.200]) AE19AD707E for ; Thu, 5 Feb 2004 14:47:00 -0800 (PST) Received: from techoffice [216.117.206.15] by cybertime.net (SMTPD32-8.05) id A6126E7100E8; Thu, 05 Feb 2004 14:39:14 -0800 Message-ID: <022601c3ec3a$9a9218b0$0fce75d8@cybertime.net> From: "Cybertime Hostmaster" To: References: <200402051205.i15C59F05666@cygnus.degree2.com> Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2004 14:51:34 -0800 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1158 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1165 Subject: Re: PicoBSD diskless embedded 'where to start' X-BeenThere: freebsd-small@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Dedicated and Embedded Systems List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 05 Feb 2004 22:39:22 -0000 > I'm trying to put together a diskless embedded system based on > the PicoBSD scripts supplied with FreeBSD 4.8R. Just as a point of interest, any special reason why PicoBSD? > 1) I need to build a PicoBSD system that will boot from a flash device > (SanDisk at the moment, may need support for M-Systems DiskOnChip later) The smallest M-Systems seems to have is 16 MB. http://www.m-sys.com/Content/Products/DiskOnChip.asp > 2) The system will run out of RAM, there will be no HDD available. > 3) The flash will have two partitions, the boot image and compressed > memory-resident runtime will be stored in the lower, read-only one. > The upper one will be for precious data required across boots. It sounds like you will have more room than a floppy. Pico makes some hard choices based off of fitting into a floppy. If you are going to allow a bit more space, you might want to look at a different BSD. But if you have something already developed for Pico, it may be worth it to stay with them. m0n0BSD is another good choice from what I have seen. http://m0n0.ch/bsd/ That one will fit on an 8 MB CF and have plenty of room to spare. So the 16 MB DiskOnChip would be a huge volume of space. Heck, you could have 2 copies of the whole OS to go from one to another while upgrading. --Eric