From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Feb 11 03:07:26 2010 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 D89D91065679 for ; Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:07:26 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from pldrouin@pldrouin.net) Received: from smtp.cyberfingers.net (smtp.cyberfingers.net [198.177.254.227]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B70358FC17 for ; Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:07:26 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [192.168.1.107] (CPE0023695b905f-CM001a666aca96.cpe.net.cable.rogers.com [99.246.67.95]) by smtp.cyberfingers.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id B83FCAB6C1A; Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:04:27 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <4B73746A.1080105@pldrouin.net> Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:07:22 -0500 From: Pierre-Luc Drouin User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.23 (X11/20090817) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Manolis Kiagias References: <4B7320DA.2080606@pldrouin.net> <4B732695.5080701@otenet.gr> <4B732795.70702@pldrouin.net> <4B732C72.1050806@otenet.gr> <4B732E49.4010504@pldrouin.net> <4B732FB8.1090002@otenet.gr> In-Reply-To: <4B732FB8.1090002@otenet.gr> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Cc: "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" Subject: Re: How to create a FreeBSD 8.0 boot CD without boot.flp? 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: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:07:26 -0000 So I just tested the CD and it works perfectly. It boots, automatically configure the interface and launches the SSH daemon. For me this is the perfect tool to perform remote installations/fixing of FreeBSD. I just send the compressed 100 MB ISO image to someone, have him to boot the machine using the CD and then I log on the machine with SSH and do whatever I want. The only thing I had to do in addition to what I mentioned in my previous emails is to create a script in rc.d that runs just after root and that does the following: mount /etc_tmp #Mount memory disk to /etc_tmp cd /etc_tmp && tar -cp -C /etc -f - ./ | tar -xpf - #Copy content of /etc to /etc_tmp mount /etc #nullfs mount /etc_tmp over /etc Obviously I have also changed the root password and created a user that is a member of the wheel group. Manolis Kiagias wrote: > On 11/02/2010 12:08 π.μ., Pierre-Luc Drouin wrote: > >> What I am trying to do is basically to install FreeBSD 8.0 on a CD. I >> followed these instructions to install FreeBSD on a USB stick: >> >> http://typo.submonkey.net/articles/2006/04/13/installing-freebsd-on-usb-stick-episode-2 >> >> >> minus the fdisk/bsdlabel/newfs part . I just set up rc.conf to >> configure the ethernet interface with DHCP and load sshd >> >> then I am now creating an iso image with the boot image. So at the >> root of the CD I will have the boot directory containing the kernel >> subdirectory. >> >> I figured out about the boot image error from mkisofs. I had to copy >> cdboot into the actual boot directory for the image and the path >> specified by the -b option is relative to the root directory of the CD... >> >> So should this work according to you? >> >> Thanks! >> >> > > It is going to be an interesting experiment. The official install > CD/DVDs boot from boot/kernel on the CD but the root filesystem used is > actually in an mfs (memory disk). Also it executes sysinstall instead of > init at the end of the boot sequence. I suppose you can mount the root > filesystem from CD as read-only but you will have to handle things like > /var and /usr and you will probably need some writing capability. I am > sure this can be done in more than a few ways though I've never > researched this myself. >