From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Fri Dec 14 20:08:39 2018 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2610:1c1:1:606c::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DB64A13104CF for ; Fri, 14 Dec 2018 20:08:38 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mout.kundenserver.de (mout.kundenserver.de [212.227.126.133]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 (128/128 bits)) (Client CN "mout.kundenserver.de", Issuer "TeleSec ServerPass DE-2" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 0CF588F6D0 for ; Fri, 14 Dec 2018 20:08:37 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from r56.edvax.de ([92.193.252.129]) by mrelayeu.kundenserver.de (mreue012 [212.227.15.167]) with ESMTPA (Nemesis) id 1N79Ey-1hURHO32w0-017Rww; Fri, 14 Dec 2018 21:08:30 +0100 Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2018 21:08:30 +0100 From: Polytropon To: mayuresh@kathe.in Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: running freebsd completely from memory : possible? 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More or less, everything runs from memory. Yes, I know: The memory content has to come from somewhere, but the CPU executes stuff only from memory, not directly from the hard disk. A PC is not an AS/400, right? ;-) > basically the system would boot off my 'ssd' and get loaded up fully in > memory and run from there and only write back to the 'ssd' on shutdown. This is, more or less, how a FreeBSD live file system works. Historically, the live system CD (#2 in the set) will boot from non-writable media, as the CD is read-only. It will then extract the neccessary structures into a memory file system mounted as /. With a specific configuration, the CD could then even be removed - if all binaries have been copied to RAM, which holds the complete file system (including all the stuff in /usr and even /usr/local). Of course, the more complex such a system is, the more RAM it will require. Many years ago, I have created a "maintenance system" that boots from a USB stick, and upon finishing the process, the USB stick could be removed as the whole system (and all its programs) were in a memeory file system, and the USB stick as initial source for booting, was entirely unmounted. The system would continue to run until it was rebooted (from external "control terminal" via network), and then the system would reboot into its normal environment. Of course, such a memory-based system cannot store anything permanently. RAM content is lost at system shutdown. So you have to make sure you can store stuff (if needed) to a USB stick or a network location (for example via NFS). > my current use-case involves learning to develop under freebsd using c89 > and i have a quad-core intel i5@2.9ghz with 16gib of memory under a > lenovo thinkpad. With 16 GB RAM, you should definitely be able to hold such a development system, including the libraries and header files, all the compiler stuff, editor, debugger... > i don't run a 'gui' and browse the web using lynx and intend to work > with emails using mailx, fetchmail and sendmail (in a personal user > configuration). Have a look at alpine or mutt. Those are text-mode MUAs which are very comfortable to use in a text only environment, and a welcome replacement for mailx. :-) -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...