From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Apr 6 00:30:37 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 78C491065674 for ; Tue, 6 Apr 2010 00:30:37 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tajudd@gmail.com) Received: from mail-iw0-f182.google.com (mail-iw0-f182.google.com [209.85.223.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2C5188FC1C for ; Tue, 6 Apr 2010 00:30:36 +0000 (UTC) Received: by iwn12 with SMTP id 12so2561229iwn.14 for ; Mon, 05 Apr 2010 17:30:36 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:in-reply-to:references :date:received:message-id:subject:from:to:cc:content-type; bh=a9f6MtMR8s87xvIv5r0jtv0uOrlXgdkBLV3nKovhE/4=; b=HJZjNtSdLAnIf9PvZ7BkDLQyFtCJUaH2HDulsAlZK+Mec6u/uIx1z+tISBgVFUk6Em 6B64fCyN+QH9m72OOAbixaVJzxFcTbMtgMrLN7w5fVSlC9fxUYjAjKX52kQ0/p0ncHuh eIo8+azDkp2Wd24zBAn6FfW6ikGsnhVtyeIqA= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type; b=lAWyTg37DllqPM9K+kC4RkopMfRFhedaOpNEruKJryijAM9P3f7fCT0EtJgLQ4/8EX G2WcpcMmeoxc6yLIXKNksnOJFFzJ8wYMRUOTTPVpOozFcnmccDmrDHRuOSlYHnk0A8vQ n2siU6XXB+SRbdTJDPFF81pUEjdxdD0S67GOA= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.231.152.209 with HTTP; Mon, 5 Apr 2010 17:30:34 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <7B9397B189EB6E46A5EE7B4C8A4BB7CB3B6F7D05@MBX03.exg5.exghost.com> References: <7B9397B189EB6E46A5EE7B4C8A4BB7CB3B6F7D05@MBX03.exg5.exghost.com> Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2010 18:30:34 -0600 Received: by 10.231.182.211 with SMTP id cd19mr3006051ibb.55.1270513834561; Mon, 05 Apr 2010 17:30:34 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: From: Tim Judd To: Peter Steele Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Cc: "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" Subject: Re: How customized can an mfsroot be? 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, 06 Apr 2010 00:30:37 -0000 On 4/5/10, Peter Steele wrote: > We have a USB boot stick based cloning process that we're considering > porting to a DVD based media. I'm not sure though that it's possible due to > the restrictions I've seen in the mfsroot environment we'd have to use. For > example, in our USB disk procedure, we create partitions using gpart and set > up mirroring for the OS partitions. We even recognize 3Ware controllers and > automatically create logical RAID sets from the available drives. In some > earlier work I did with a pxe boot server a couple of years ago, I know that > I could not setup mirrors via sysinstall and I assume that hasn't changed in > FreeBSD 8. Is it possible to customize the mfsroot environment to run a > larger variety of commands to allow us to duplicate the cloning process we > use with USB boot sticks or is this project likely not doable? > I'm working through my own livecd boot mechanism currently. >From my experience, there is a limit on how much space you can fit into the kernel.. for modules. mfs_root is considered a module. Based on previous projects such as freesbie, mfsbsd, etc, you can run between a 50-100MB compressed mfs_root to find how much data you can store on that medium. But ... why are you constricting yourself to use mfs_root? I have many times ran FreeBSD completely from CDrom, which will give you all 700 (or a DVD, 4.3G) usable space. I'd be happy to help, if you have questions. but please direct the questions to the mailing list. --Tim