From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Nov 19 13:42:47 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5AC2CEA2 for ; Mon, 19 Nov 2012 13:42:47 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from t.mueller1@insightbb.com) Received: from mail.insightbb.com (smtp2.insight.synacor.com [208.47.185.24]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0B7DD8FC14 for ; Mon, 19 Nov 2012 13:42:46 +0000 (UTC) X_CMAE_Category: 0,0 Undefined,Undefined X-CNFS-Analysis: v=2.0 cv=O+27TWBW c=1 sm=0 a=Dm9TOXL4taQ+Gy1KovpL+A==:17 a=0lvjfUfQ8tIA:10 a=jLN7EqiLvroA:10 a=9YQ-1ebCAAAA:8 a=KwsgWi8H5mwA:10 a=zMRIARwpAAAA:8 a=R6QcpChACxYXcoyv2YUA:9 a=OCAqPxjDzhQA:10 a=Dm9TOXL4taQ+Gy1KovpL+A==:117 X-CM-Score: 0 X-Scanned-by: Cloudmark Authority Engine Authentication-Results: smtp02.insight.synacor.com smtp.mail=t.mueller1@insightbb.com; spf=softfail; sender-id=softfail Authentication-Results: smtp02.insight.synacor.com header.from=mueller23@insightbb.com; sender-id=softfail Received-SPF: softfail (smtp02.insight.synacor.com: transitional domain insightbb.com does not designate 74.130.198.7 as permitted sender) Received: from [74.130.198.7] ([74.130.198.7:49218] helo=localhost) by mail.insightbb.com (envelope-from ) (ecelerity 2.2.3.49 r(42060/42061)) with ESMTP id 66/88-25607-0573AA05; Mon, 19 Nov 2012 08:42:40 -0500 Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2012 08:42:40 -0500 Message-ID: <66.88.25607.0573AA05@smtp02.insight.synacor.com> From: "Thomas Mueller" To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: dd command: BSD analog of conv=fsync? Cc: Dan Nelson X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2012 13:42:47 -0000 > In the last episode (Nov 18), Thomas Mueller said: > > What is the (Free)BSD counterpart of conv=fsync in dd command? > > Command in question is > > dd if=GNOME-3.6.0.iso of=/dev/DRIVE bs=8M conv=fsync > > This is for writing to a USB stick, and of course DRIVE is replaced by the > > actual device node; also I believe bs=8M, good for Linux, would be bs=8m > > in FreeBSD. > > I don't really know if "conv=fsync" is necessary, but that's what was > > advised in the GNOME test-drive download page. > It isn't. Writing to raw devices in FreeBSD immediately writes to the > physical media. No flushing is needed. > -- > Dan Nelson > dnelson@allantgroup.com I was able to dd GNOME-3.6.0.iso to that USB stick, a discontinued Kingston Data Traveler model that was inaccessible to NetBSD until they fixed that USB bug recently. I got CAM SCSI error messages in FreeBSD, couldn't access the USB stick in the normal way, but apparently dd worked. These particular Kingston Data Travelers worked normally with previous builds of FreeBSD. That USB stick proved bootable, so I got a test drive of GNOME 3.6.0. I had a difficult time finding my way around the graphical interface,. When I got to a command prompt, I found first there was no nslookup, and then found there was no man command. I thought these were a standard part of (quasi-)Unix OSes. I didn't really get a good impression. Also, the print/text was very small, a recipe for eyestrain. Tom