Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:18:32 +0200 From: Lars Engels <lars.engels@0x20.net> To: Ed Schouten <ed@80386.nl> Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: A simple and hopefully usable FreeBSD live CD Message-ID: <20100823111832.huqfznovq8os8csg@0x20.net> In-Reply-To: <20100822185029.GV2978@hoeg.nl> References: <20100822185029.GV2978@hoeg.nl>
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This message is in MIME format and has been PGP signed. --=_3iqws48xsc2s Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15; DelSp="Yes"; format="flowed" Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Quoting Ed Schouten <ed@80386.nl>: > Hello all, > > A couple of major releases ago, we had a FreeBSD disc1.iso which also > included the livefs. Nowadays the livefs comes on a separate disc. This > livefs disc has a couple of issues in my opinion: > > - The livefs disc does not feature any installsets, which means if your > system has 1 CD-ROM drive, you have to resort to network connectivity > to obtain the installsets to perform a manual install. > > - The livefs installation places everything in /dist and does some odd > tricks to get the basic things working, which means that any tool that > assumes a specific pathname doesn't work anymore. I remember the GEOM > tools were once broken because of this. You also have to add symlinks > here and there to make something as simple as scp(1) work, because the > ssh(1) binary is in the wrong place. > > I think I already mentioned it on some of the lists, but I've spent some > time creating a better FreeBSD live CD (or at least I tried to). > Basically the CD is just a stock FreeBSD installation (base + manpages + > kernel) with a small mfsroot between the boot process to let it use > unionfs and tmpfs before calling into /sbin/init. > > You can just run adduser, dhclient and fire up a SSH daemon. It's > exactly the same as an installation of FreeBSD on a harddisk, with the > only exception that any changes don't survive a reboot. It also has a > copy of all the installsets, which means you can do installations and > recoveries. > > I've attached a copy of the script I use to generate the CD. Just make > sure you have FreeBSD-9.0-CURRENT-201008-amd64-disc1.iso placed in the > same directory as the script and that you have an up-to-date HEAD source > tree in /usr/src, with a GENERIC kernel already built. You also need to > have cdrtools installed. After that, you should be able to run gencd.sh > as root (needed for retaining file permissions), which should generate a > FreeBSD-9.0-CURRENT-201008-amd64-ed.iso. > > Right now it still requires the source tree, because the fixes for tmpfs > needed to make it all work aren't in the 201008 snapshot. By the time > 201009 is released, the script can easily be modified to use the kernel > binaries. > > I'm sending this email for two different reasons: > > 1. Be sure to give the CD a try and share your experiences. Does it > work? Does it crash? Is it usable for you? If not, why not? > > 2. Would a CD like this be a good addition to the provided install > media? Does it actually solve shortcomings of the existing media? > > If people think it's a nice CD to work with, I could consider > integrating it into release(7). Thanks! > > -- > Ed Schouten <ed@80386.nl> > WWW: http://80386.nl/ > Hi Ed, could you please upload the resulting ISO so that people who don't =20 want to create it themselves can test your CD? TIA Lars --=20 Lars Engels E-Mail: lars.engels@0x20.net --=_3iqws48xsc2s Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Description: PGP Digital Signature Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (FreeBSD) iEYEABECAAYFAkxyPOgACgkQKc512sD3afiYpwCfVSSIFZ6nw4zxG5IQVWisbXau 2tQAn0Y3h4pXHJe6myQNL7ZB/4/7GGvs =d8xd -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --=_3iqws48xsc2s--
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