From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Tue Oct 4 15:10:53 2016 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 39A8EAF3657 for ; Tue, 4 Oct 2016 15:10:53 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from smithi@nimnet.asn.au) Received: from sola.nimnet.asn.au (paqi.nimnet.asn.au [115.70.110.159]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 72597F71 for ; Tue, 4 Oct 2016 15:10:51 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from smithi@nimnet.asn.au) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by sola.nimnet.asn.au (8.14.2/8.14.2) with ESMTP id u94Ehdb5017380; Wed, 5 Oct 2016 01:43:39 +1100 (EST) (envelope-from smithi@nimnet.asn.au) Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2016 01:43:39 +1100 (EST) From: Ian Smith To: Warren Block cc: David Christensen , Perry Hutchison , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD-10.3-RELEASE-i386-memstick.img installer changes contents of USB flash drive In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20161005013435.E6806@sola.nimnet.asn.au> References: <20160929014801.W6806@sola.nimnet.asn.au> <20161001235138.N6806@sola.nimnet.asn.au> <20161004010853.E6806@sola.nimnet.asn.au> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 04 Oct 2016 15:10:53 -0000 On Mon, 3 Oct 2016 17:00:25 -0600, Warren Block wrote: > On Tue, 4 Oct 2016, Ian Smith wrote: > > > > I'd think you could just dd(1) the contents of the single installer disk > > > partition into a big-enough MBR partition. Repeat for each image, then > > > use boot0cfg. > > > > Sure, for old-style raw BSD images, but that won't work for images with: > > 1) PMBR, 2) primary GPT, 3) efifat partition, 4) gptboot partition then > > 5) the UFS partition - which is all we want to copy to a bootable BSD > > slice - then 6) 1M(??) swap. We need to use /boot/boot bootblocks for > > each slice; still, it may be easy to locate and dd just that partition > > out of the mdconfig'd image - or mount it and copy; some tests needed. > > What is the difficulty? 1-4 are not needed for an MBR disk anyway. The UFS > partition is the same either way, and gpart can install the bootcode that > lives in the start of a UFS filesystem also. You're right, I'm probably over-thinking it. Any moment now 11.0 will be out and I'll grab a memstick.img and dvd1.iso and play till it goes, though I expect to hold my own upgrades to 10.3 for the time being. > It would be easier to not use boot0, which is not very powerful. Syslinux or > Grub can multiboot with a lot more options, although you do need to make room > for them. Of course you're right, but I think I can get by with 4 bootable images, and I'd prefer doing it all with native tools whenever possible. Thanks for all your help, Ian