From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Oct 10 19:59:52 2008 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 97487106568C for ; Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:59:52 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from k0802647@telus.net) Received: from defout.telus.net (defout.telus.net [199.185.220.240]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4CBC98FC14 for ; Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:59:52 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from k0802647@telus.net) Received: from priv-edtnaa06.telusplanet.net ([75.157.28.2]) by priv-edtnes27.telusplanet.net (InterMail vM.7.08.02.02 201-2186-121-104-20070414) with ESMTP id <20081010200029.HQFK18352.priv-edtnes27.telusplanet.net@priv-edtnaa06.telusplanet.net>; Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:00:29 -0600 Received: from oliver.bc.lan (d75-157-28-2.bchsia.telus.net [75.157.28.2]) by priv-edtnaa06.telusplanet.net (BorderWare Security Platform) with ESMTP id 24ED1B333C3A00B5; Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:59:51 -0600 (MDT) Received: from [10.111.111.112] (unknown [10.111.111.112]) by oliver.bc.lan (Postfix) with ESMTP id F073661E0; Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:59:50 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <48EFB436.4040103@telus.net> Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:59:50 -0700 From: Carl User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.16 (Windows/20080708) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: fbsd1@a1poweruser.com, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Subject: Re: cannot install from existing UFS thumb drive with sysinstall 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: Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:59:52 -0000 FBSD1 wrote: > There is a outstanding PR on sysinstall from usb flash drive which is now > over a year old. The sysinstall install program needs to be updated to use > usb drives as the source of the install media. You could always edit the > sysinstall program source code and make a patch to allow usb sysinstall > media. Other than that you are S.O.L. > > I use this script to build my bootable 1GB USB flash drive [ ... ] Should I assume you've tried the fdisk/disk label method of mounting your flash drive in sysinstall and that it does not actually work either? I've been using FreeBSD for well over a decade and it seems that sysinstall development was all but abandoned a very long time ago. FWIW, the reason I didn't use your script was that in my case I'm actually creating multiple partitions on an 8GB thumb drive and using syslinux such that I can boot any one of several live disk images. FreeBSD seems to be the one distribution that hasn't clued in that USB flash devices are ubiquitous. For my hardware, it also looks like FreeBSD may be having problems with SATA DVD drives too. Since the motherboard has no IDE controller, USB flash drives may be my only hope unless I want to move to another OS. Carl / K0802647