From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Mar 30 15:17:10 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D25BB106564A for ; Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:17:10 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dan@dan.emsphone.com) Received: from email1.allantgroup.com (email1.emsphone.com [199.67.51.115]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7E93F8FC14 for ; Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:17:10 +0000 (UTC) Received: from dan.emsphone.com (dan.emsphone.com [199.67.51.101]) by email1.allantgroup.com (8.14.0/8.14.0) with ESMTP id o2UFH9ru050135 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO) for ; Tue, 30 Mar 2010 10:17:09 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from dan@dan.emsphone.com) Received: from dan.emsphone.com (smmsp@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by dan.emsphone.com (8.14.4/8.14.3) with ESMTP id o2UFH9oJ099779 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO) for ; Tue, 30 Mar 2010 10:17:09 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from dan@dan.emsphone.com) Received: (from dan@localhost) by dan.emsphone.com (8.14.4/8.14.3/Submit) id o2UFH8r4099778; Tue, 30 Mar 2010 10:17:08 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from dan) Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2010 10:17:08 -0500 From: Dan Nelson To: Fbsd1 Message-ID: <20100330151708.GA16258@dan.emsphone.com> References: <4BB19257.6020108@a1poweruser.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <4BB19257.6020108@a1poweruser.com> X-OS: FreeBSD 8.0-STABLE User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14) X-Virus-Scanned: clamav-milter 0.95.3 at email1.allantgroup.com X-Virus-Status: Clean X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-2.0.2 (email1.allantgroup.com [199.67.51.78]); Tue, 30 Mar 2010 10:17:09 -0500 (CDT) X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.45 Cc: FreeBSD Questions Subject: Re: /boot.config X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:17:10 -0000 In the last episode (Mar 30), Fbsd1 said: > During the boot process I want to change the device used to boot from. > From the default 0:ad(0,a)/boot/loader > to 0:da(0,a)/boot/loader forcing the boot to continue from usb stick. > > Here is the problem, the bios have no option to boot from USB device. So > thinking let the bios point to first drive to start the boot process and > have a /boot.config file to redirect to booting from the USB stick. I am > assuming the '0' zero will mean the first USB device. > > Is there any command i can use to verify the single USB stick is the 0 > device? If you boot DOS from a floppy, can you see the USB stick as B: or C: ? If not, then the BIOS probably has no USB support at all, and you'll need to put a small boot partition somewhere on your hard drive to pull the kernel from. 128MB is large enough for a /boot directory, and you can set vfs.root.mountfrom="ufs:/dev/da0s1a" in loader.conf to make it mount its root filesystem from the USB stick (since at that point the kernel has loaded its own USB drivers). If you do see the USB drive from a DOS boot floppy, try entering "1:da(0,a)?" at the boot block prompt and see if it lists the files in your USB filesystem. If it does, then "1:da(0,a)/boot/loader" should let you boot FreeBSD. -- Dan Nelson dnelson@allantgroup.com