From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Oct 31 08:02:05 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DDB5716A4CE for ; Sun, 31 Oct 2004 08:02:05 +0000 (GMT) Received: from ares.wolfpond.org (ns1.wolfpond.org [62.212.96.219]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7ECC043D31 for ; Sun, 31 Oct 2004 08:02:03 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from ftigeot@wolfpond.org) Received: from aoi.wolfpond.org (aoi.wolfpond.org [IPv6:2001:7a8:24db:1:20c:76ff:feb4:27e1]) by ares.wolfpond.org (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id i9V8216S093476; Sun, 31 Oct 2004 09:02:01 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from ftigeot@aoi.wolfpond.org) Received: from aoi.wolfpond.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by aoi.wolfpond.org (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id i9V822hG012508; Sun, 31 Oct 2004 09:02:02 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from ftigeot@aoi.wolfpond.org) Received: (from ftigeot@localhost) by aoi.wolfpond.org (8.13.1/8.13.1/Submit) id i9V821ts012507; Sun, 31 Oct 2004 09:02:01 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from ftigeot) Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2004 09:02:01 +0100 From: Francois Tigeot To: JT Message-ID: <20041031080201.GA82423@aoi.wolfpond.org> References: <008f01c4bf0f$89a58fc0$070a0a0a@JTUFFIN> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <008f01c4bf0f$89a58fc0$070a0a0a@JTUFFIN> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: USB Key Disk Boot X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2004 08:02:06 -0000 On Sun, Oct 31, 2004 at 02:04:41PM +0800, JT wrote: > > Has anyone already developed or had experience with getting FreeBSD to run off a USB key disk? > > I am looking to run a minimal FreeBSD build on a USB key disk as a network monitoring system, but I am having great difficulty getting information on how to do so. FreeBSD is my preferred *nix OS, but if I am not able to get a USB boot solution in a reasonable time, I will have to move my project to a Linux based solution as there are already Linux USB boot systems out there. > > All assistance is appreciated. I think that even if I could get some info on the BSD bootup sequence/etc I might be able to build something workable. I have no experience with USB booting but if your bios is not too exotic, it should be doable. I have created a minimal system you can boot from regular disks, tftp and flash based devices. I suspect it should also be able to boot from USB keys. The trick is to use FreeBSD's boot loader to load a ramdisk image with the kernel. The kernel itself has no knowledge of the boot device, all it knows is / is md0 and there is no need to mount filesystems. This page should give some insights on how to create your own ramdisk: http://www.thinbsd.org/doc.html -- Francois Tigeot