From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Apr 17 08:26:58 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B6E8116A4CE for ; Sat, 17 Apr 2004 08:26:58 -0700 (PDT) Received: from gaff.hhhr.ision.net (gaff.hhhr.ision.net [195.180.9.213]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5FBDD43D5D for ; Sat, 17 Apr 2004 08:26:57 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from ohoyer@ohoyer.de) Received: from gaff.hhhr.ision.net (ohoyer@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by gaff.hhhr.ision.net (8.12.11/8.12.11) with ESMTP id i3HFQsOR031910; Sat, 17 Apr 2004 17:26:54 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from ohoyer@ohoyer.de) Received: from localhost (ohoyer@localhost)i3HFQrm4031907; Sat, 17 Apr 2004 17:26:53 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from ohoyer@ohoyer.de) X-Authentication-Warning: gaff.hhhr.ision.net: ohoyer owned process doing -bs Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2004 17:26:52 +0200 (CEST) From: Olaf Hoyer Sender: ohoyer@gaff.hhhr.ision.net To: Rob Justen In-Reply-To: <200404171433.i3HEXrqQ155498@pimout5-ext.prodigy.net> Message-ID: <20040417171557.G31888@gaff.hhhr.ision.net> References: <200404171433.i3HEXrqQ155498@pimout5-ext.prodigy.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: booting from external Hard drives X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2004 15:26:58 -0000 On Sat, 17 Apr 2004, Rob Justen wrote: > Is it possible to boot Free BSD from a external hard drive Well, depends on the type of external disk. Of course, external SCSI enclosures are quite standard in Server environment, and single disk cases are quite cheap on ebay... So SCSI will work without problems. Booting from other external disks depends on the technology: When there are enclosures, that map themselves as SCSI, like some IDE things, yes. With Serial ATA, we also will see some external storages, once fitting controllers are widespread. But what you have in mind, is probably USB and firewire. This depends on 2 things: 1) The BIOS of the PC has to know about these devices, and has to try to bootstrap from them. 2) the OS has to know, that it is run from a different device like traditional IDE/SCSI, because USB looks different. As far as I know, FreeBSD is not capable of fully booting from external USB storage, but I haven't followed the development in the last few months there. HTH Olaf -- Olaf Hoyer ohoyer@gaff.hhhr.ision.net Fuerchterliche Erlebniss geben zu raten, ob der, welcher sie erlebt, nicht etwas Fuerchterliches ist. (Nietzsche, Jenseits von Gut und Boese)