From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Aug 1 21:29:41 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 465B316A469 for ; Wed, 1 Aug 2007 21:29:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from lreid@cs.okstate.edu) Received: from a.cs.okstate.edu (a.cs.okstate.edu [139.78.113.1]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 24FAB13C483 for ; Wed, 1 Aug 2007 21:29:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from lreid@cs.okstate.edu) Received: from [172.18.0.137] (unknown [70.168.226.150]) by a.cs.okstate.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1B8B1A093A; Wed, 1 Aug 2007 16:29:39 -0500 (CDT) Message-ID: <46B0FB3D.20707@cs.okstate.edu> Date: Wed, 01 Aug 2007 16:29:33 -0500 From: Reid Linnemann User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.0 (X11/20070615) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Ross Penner References: <46B0D50F.8050402@cs.okstate.edu> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Installing from USB Flash Drive 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: Wed, 01 Aug 2007 21:29:41 -0000 Written by Ross Penner on 08/01/07 16:21>> > On 8/1/07, *Reid Linnemann* < lreid@cs.okstate.edu > > wrote: > > Written by Ross Penner on 08/01/07 13:34>> > > Hi everybody, > > > > I'm trying to install a system on a machine that doesn't have an > optical > > drive. I plan on using a USB flash drive to do the job and found a > > messages from hackers@freebsd.org > > ( > http://www.mail-archive.com/freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org/msg55434.html > ) > > about just such a thing. The script provided converts the CD > image into > > one suitable for a flashmemory stick. I used and coverted it > without > > issue. The instructions say to use dd to prepare the flash drive so > > executed > > #dd if=flashbsd.iso of=/dev/da0 > > I'm not entirely confident that that was the correct procedure, > as I'm > > quite unfamilar with dd. Unfortunetly, I can't seem to get the > drive to > > boot. I can mount the filesystem so it seems that prepareing the > drive > > was succesful. I'm using a via chipset and yes, the bios is set > to boot > > from USB-FDD. I used the 6.2 boot only image. > > > > Thanks for any insight you can provide me. > > > > Ross > > > > That seems correct to me. You may want to 'bsdlabel -B /dev/da0' after > writing the ufs image to it. The script you referenced does this to the > image before you write it to the flash drive, so the boot code should > already be there... but it appears to have gotten lost. > > > Perhaps it never worked in the first place? > > rosbot# bsdlabel -B /dev/da0 > bsdlabel: partition c doesn't cover the whole unit! > bsdlabel: An incorrect partition c may cause problems for standard > system utilities > > I didn't do anything to the drive before dd'ing to it. Should have it > been prepared somehow? I assumed dd would > take care of partitions. There is a da0a and a da0c in /dev/ . > No, that's just a warning message and does not prevent the bootcode from being installed. Have you ever booted any other system from this flash disk on this machine?