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From: Jim Dennis <jimd@mistery.mcafee.com>
Message-Id: <199605250237.TAA15273@mistery.mcafee.com>
Subject: Re: Custom Distributions
To: jnoetzel@intermind.com (Jeremy Noetzelman)
Date: Fri, 24 May 1996 19:37:35 -0700 (PDT)
Cc: questions@freebsd.org
In-Reply-To: <2.2.32.19960524214807.00a098d0@intermind.com> from "Jeremy Noetzelman" at May 24, 96 02:48:07 pm
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> 
> I've created a custom filesystem and kernel that I wish to install on
> several identical machines. For simplicities sake I'd like to burn it onto a
> CDROM and install it similarly to the way you'd install the 2.1 distribution.
> 
> How is this done?
> 
> Alternatively, I've been thinking about using a CDROM as a boot device, and
> booting from a live filesystem for the / and the /usr filesystems, and using
> a seperate SCSI harddrive for the more volitile /home filesystem. This would
> be my ideal solution, but I'm not sure if it can be done. 

	A friend of mine uses older models of SCSI hard drive, with a 
	set of hardware write-disable pins on them -- which he attaches
	to a switch that he puts in a custom external enclosure.

	He uses NetBSD on SPARC hardware and configures / and /usr to 
	be read-only.

	CD's are much too slow for his applications.  Recently I've been
	eyeing PCMCIA memory cards (16 - 20 Mb) as a minimal hardware
	read/only solution.  Will / and /sbin fit in that? 

	I'd like to just get to the point where I could mount these
	filesystems read-only under FreeBSD.  I wouldn't consider
	a step-by-step guide to be condescending.
	
> I'd appreciate any help you can offer me.
> Jeremy Noetzelman

	I'd like to hear more about this too.

Jim Dennis,
System Administrator,
McAfee Associates