Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2018 13:01:08 +0200 From: Victor <vdemart@gmail.com> To: freebsd-arm@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Booting the raspberry pi 2 from a usb hd (SOLVED) Message-ID: <BC9AD163-EE6F-4604-816D-6B2DE7BC1A86@gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <op.zp7x75e9kndu52@sjakie> References: <A147F11E-3B87-4CB9-98AB-BC5CFB46C712@gmail.com> <op.zp7x75e9kndu52@sjakie>
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Dear All, As I pointed out my problem is that I have a postgresql db on my pi2 = heavily operating in read/write mode and therefore I expect a quick = deterioration of the sd card. reading the very fragmented pieces of info on the problem and combining = them all in the end I found a solution for using a complete = FreeBSD-armv6-12.0-RPI2-310476 installation (I mean thee root = filesystem) on an external usb device connected to my raspberry pi 2. First of all I specify that the sd card MUST be in the raspberry for the = very first boot of FreeBSD because the dos programs involved read the = /etc/fstab and the various loader files from /dev/mmcsd0s2, that is on = the sd card itself.=20 This is the procedure to follow: 1) As usual copy the image of file into the sd card via dd which in my = Mac OS X is called /dev/disk1 sudo dd if =3D FreeBSD-armv6-12.0-RPI2-310476.img of=3D/dev/disk1 bs=3D1M = conv=3Dsync 2) Start the fresh installation of FreeBSD from the pi2 and verify what = the external drive is called. In my case /dev/da0. Therefore the root = filesystem will be in /dev/da0s2a. 3) Modify /etc/fstab in this way: #/etc/fstab # Custom /etc/fstab for FreeBSD embedded images #/dev/ufs/rootfs / ufs rw 1 1 /dev/da0s2a / ufs rw 1 1 /dev/msdosfs/MSDOSBOOT /boot/msdos msdosfs rw,noatime 0 0 tmpfs /tmp tmpfs rw,mode=3D1777,size=3D50m 0 0 4) Create - because in the stock image there is not such a file - a = loader.conf file under the /boot directory with the following content: #/boot/loader.conf #Allowance of some more time for the recognition of the usb devices kern.cam.boot_delay=3D10000=20 #Inform where the root filesystem is vfs.root.mountfrom=3D"ufs:/dev/da0s2a" 5) Halt FreeBSD remove the sd card and copy it onto the external usb = drive (/dev/disk2 on my Mac): =20 sudo dd if =3D /dev/disk1 of=3D/dev/disk2 bs=3D1M conv=3Dsync 6) Insert again the sd card and the usb drive in your pi2 and ....start Now you are using FreeBSD booted from the sd card but using the root = filesystem on your external drive for the heavy read/write work!=20 It works like a charm! Be careful. The external hard drive shouldn't be too demanding in terms = of electricity for the tiny raspberry. Do not use the "old" external = hard-disk but the new and more expensive ssd drives. Believe me, in = spite of the usb 2 the increase in speed is incredible. Ciao Vittorio =20
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