Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2020 22:28:38 +0100 From: Miguel C <miguelmclara@gmail.com> To: "Rodney W. Grimes" <freebsd-rwg@gndrsh.dnsmgr.net> Cc: Maxim Sobolev <sobomax@sippysoft.com>, FreeBSD Current <freebsd-current@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: CTF: UEFI HTTP boot support Message-ID: <CADGo8CUYMCVoE4mOew1WCBZ5jGYRXCeVfiLHwFtYAqampa1ajQ@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <202006171800.05HI0jET086509@gndrsh.dnsmgr.net> References: <CAH7qZfvj=gvTnXhYK-bdEDxMG=jM49TnF1SMox2=GNfNPa7FYw@mail.gmail.com> <202006171800.05HI0jET086509@gndrsh.dnsmgr.net>
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On Wed, Jun 17, 2020 at 7:00 PM Rodney W. Grimes < freebsd-rwg@gndrsh.dnsmgr.net> wrote: > > On Tue., Jun. 16, 2020, 8:35 a.m. Rodney W. Grimes, < > > freebsd-rwg@gndrsh.dnsmgr.net> wrote: > > > > > > I've been trying out FreeBSD with raspberry Pi4 (4GB) and wanted to > see > > > > what the state of HTTP BOOT is in FreeBSD, so I bumped into this! > > > > > > > > I'm curious if it should be possible to point to a img/iso directly > (I > > > > tried to use the img.xz unpacked it and make it available on a local > web > > > > server and that didn't seem to work for me) but maybe thats cause > those > > > > images miss something, so arm64 aside does that work for amd64? I.E. > > > using > > > > the bootonly.iso? > > > > > > One problem you run into in attemtping this is even if you get an > > > image downloaded and started that image is being provided by some > > > memory device driver that emulates some type of iso device. > > > FreeBSD does not have a driver for that device so once the kernel > > > gets to the point of mounting its root file system it falls on > > > its face with a mountroot failure. > > > > > > > I donno what you are talking about Rodney, frankly! You information might > > be way outdated, like 15 years outdated. :) FreeBSD comes with very > decent > > compressed image support in MD(4)+geom_uzip, which could be just UFS > > snapshot or something created with mkimg utility. That said image could > be > > then either loaded after the kernel or embedded into one. Using this > > approach we deploy our systems here, both kernel and all root + python > > interpreter + custom gui installer fit into 40mb ISO but apart from > loader > > bits it's just two files. > > Max, > Let me try explain what this user is actually experienceing, > and that is taking a box stock linux distro, sticking it on a webserver > and using PXE/HTTP booting to a running system. FreeBSD can not > achieve that today WITHOUT some additional work. All that > stuff like UFS snapshot, mkimg utlity, embeding the image is a ton > of work compared to what others are doing. > Well actually I've been using opensbd to test not linux, I'm using https://rpi4-uefi.dev/ (not the sotck firmware). This firmware deos have UEFI HTTP support and as stated bellow UEFI 2.5 supports booting from just a iso or img file, ofc the OS needs to support this too. You can even point it to the internet FWIW but I was actually downloading miniroot67.img (openbsd installer) and serving it locally! Creating a HTTP Boot entry manually in UEFI works perfect with this and I can get to the shell, and even use it to install to a USB drive or sdcad. > > This person probably does not even have a running FreeBSD box to do > any of your suggested solutions on. > > No really I do have FreeBSD boxes, I just wanted to clarify that; I'm not too familiar with the process of making system images but I can learn. > So give me some credit, I have only been doing "diskless" since 1982, > and actually do exactly what the OP is doing with Esxi, Ubuntu, Windows > Installers, etc. Just my choice of protocol at the PXE layer is NFS > instead of HTTP, but my config files can do HTTP with 1 variable change > and point a web server at the root of my boot images tree. > > I even have a menu entry that sends me off to: > https://netboot.xyz/ Regards, > Rod > > > > > -Max > > > > > > > > > > > > And on the other hand is there any doc on how to set up dhcp/http > > > specific > > > > to FreeBSD similar to > https://en.opensuse.org/UEFI_HTTPBoot_Server_Setup > > > ? > > > > > > Since Linux uses this idea of a kernel payload and an initrd payload > > > to boot with it is much easier to get these 2 things over the network > > > and then have a workable system. FreeBSD does not have the initrd > > > payload and that complicates things, you need a functionaly filesystem > > > avaliable at the end of kernel initilization. > > > > > > > > I looked into > https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/network-diskless.html > > > > but that doesn't seem to be up to date (or at least it focuses only > on > > > PXE > > > > and TFTP). > > > > > > Yes, old but workable. I have a more advanced system that supports NFS > > > booting using NFS support in PXE. The only thing done via tftp is to > > > upgrade the PXE running on the client to one that speaks NFS, then the > > > kernel is loaded via NFS and the root file system is later provided > > > via NFS. The use of NFS provides very fast boots, and I do not need > > > a web server to do it :-). > > > > > > > For clarification my ultimate goal is to use a few pi4's as "thin > > > clients", > > > > so eventually I will have to setup an image of the system with the > needed > > > > software (freerdp) but for starters I just wanted to check if > pointing > > > > directly to a img/iso would work and that does not seem to be the > case. > > > > > > I would strongly suggest use of NFS instead of trying to provide an > > > ISO image, as you no longer need to store the ISO in memory on the > > > client box, and with a pi4 your already memory contrained. > > > > > > > Thanks. > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > freebsd-current@freebsd.org mailing list > > > > https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-current > > > > To unsubscribe, send any mail to " > > > freebsd-current-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" > > > -- > > > Rod Grimes > > > rgrimes@freebsd.org > > > _______________________________________________ > > > freebsd-current@freebsd.org mailing list > > > https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-current > > > To unsubscribe, send any mail to " > freebsd-current-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" > > > > > > > > -- > Rod Grimes > rgrimes@freebsd.org >
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