From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Oct 7 21:10:36 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 033BD106566C; Sun, 7 Oct 2012 21:10:36 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from Devin.Teske@fisglobal.com) Received: from mx1.fisglobal.com (mx1.fisglobal.com [199.200.24.190]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B51B98FC12; Sun, 7 Oct 2012 21:10:35 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smtp.fisglobal.com ([10.132.206.16]) by ltcfislmsgpa06.fnfis.com (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id q97LAXfx010998 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=AES128-SHA bits=128 verify=NOT); Sun, 7 Oct 2012 16:10:33 -0500 Received: from [10.0.0.103] (10.14.152.61) by smtp.fisglobal.com (10.132.206.16) with Microsoft SMTP Server (TLS) id 14.2.309.2; Sun, 7 Oct 2012 16:10:32 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1283) From: Devin Teske In-Reply-To: <5071EAB2.4060003@freebsd.org> Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2012 14:10:29 -0700 Message-ID: References: <0655B56F-AD43-402B-872C-568378E650F9@fisglobal.com> <86k3v21qsx.fsf@ds4.des.no> <3EB58454-7820-43C4-911E-7DEF2D02C880@fisglobal.com> <86fw5q15f9.fsf@ds4.des.no> <5071EAB2.4060003@freebsd.org> To: Julian Elischer X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1283) X-Originating-IP: [10.14.152.61] X-Proofpoint-Virus-Version: vendor=fsecure engine=2.50.10432:5.7.7855, 1.0.431, 0.0.0000 definitions=2012-10-07_05:2012-10-06, 2012-10-07, 1970-01-01 signatures=0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Cc: Garrett Cooper , =?iso-8859-1?Q?Dag-Erling_Sm=F8rgrav?= , Devin Teske , freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Subject: Re: New Boot Loader Menu X-BeenThere: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: Devin Teske List-Id: Discussion related to FreeBSD architecture List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 07 Oct 2012 21:10:36 -0000 On Oct 7, 2012, at 1:48 PM, Julian Elischer wrote: > On 10/7/12 12:52 PM, Garrett Cooper wrote: >> I'd like to see sketches or a general idea of what you have in mind befo= re investing too much time in a direction that doesn't bear a lot of fruit.= I'm sure others here agree. > It'd be interesting to see if we could get a boot loader that has an opti= on to boot a backup > image, or maybe off network.. I know that by the time we got this far we = are supposed to be > beyond that, but who knows what is actually possible. >=20 > I'd love to see a picoBSD image available for booting in emergencies. Whe= ther in it's own partition, > or just a file in the root partition (or wherever) that can be loaded as = a root filesystem. > having the ability to recover from really bad screwups is why you need th= e menus in the first place usually. >=20 > not sure what is really possible. >=20 *huge smiles* Have you been talking to old VICORians about what I've been working on here= ? haha It's like you stole a page out of my playbook. I've been working on this for years (slowly making the infrastructure chang= es in DruidBSD to accommodate this, and slowly trying to work that code bac= k into FreeBSD). NOTE: DruidBSD at it's core (when it's not being re-purposed as a multi-med= ia FreeBSD universal installation platform) is actually smaller than PicoBS= D. In the past month, I used DruidBSD maybe 5-dozen times to rescue an unboota= ble system. Which system? the system I was developing the boot loader on (h= aha). Everytime I would make a mistake (and subsequently end up in BTX halt, pani= c free guard1, or other fatal condition), I simply reboot, boot DruidBSD, a= nd within 3 keystrokes I have my system mounted read-write with all the too= ls I need to fix it. In less than 20 seconds, I've often corrected my mista= ke and have a working system again. NOTE: You can try it out yourself. I made publicly-available the latest ver= sion recently as part-of the FreeBSD-9.0_Druid-1.0b57.iso up on druidbsd.sf= .net (boot the ISO, select "freebsd", then select "Interactive Disk Repair = Shell" and answer guided questions to create a working environment copaceti= c to fixing even the worst situations). It even has a mode where it will st= art SSHD from the boot media so that *someone-ELSE* can log in remotely and= fix your non-bootable system (which we've had to use before -- it's a real= life-saver when someone in Manila for example has no FreeBSD knowledge but= can at least boot a system with a CD and answer some basic questions). Here's a screenshot that shows that DruidBSD has had the ability to swap ou= t the root filesystem image with a "rescue image" for nearly a decade (this= one screenshot taken 3 years ago): http://twitpic.com/16spp2 --=20 Devin _____________ The information contained in this message is proprietary and/or confidentia= l. If you are not the intended recipient, please: (i) delete the message an= d all copies; (ii) do not disclose, distribute or use the message in any ma= nner; and (iii) notify the sender immediately. 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