From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jan 7 18:26:45 2009 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 03F1F106564A for ; Wed, 7 Jan 2009 18:26:45 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd-questions-local@be-well.ilk.org) Received: from mail1.sea5.speakeasy.net (mail1.sea5.speakeasy.net [69.17.117.3]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CE9FF8FC16 for ; Wed, 7 Jan 2009 18:26:44 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd-questions-local@be-well.ilk.org) Received: (qmail 27263 invoked from network); 7 Jan 2009 18:26:44 -0000 Received: from dsl092-078-145.bos1.dsl.speakeasy.net (HELO be-well.ilk.org) ([66.92.78.145]) (envelope-sender ) by mail1.sea5.speakeasy.net (qmail-ldap-1.03) with SMTP for ; 7 Jan 2009 18:26:44 -0000 Received: from lowell-desk.lan (lowell-desk.lan [172.30.250.6]) by be-well.ilk.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 59BDF5081F; Wed, 7 Jan 2009 13:26:41 -0500 (EST) Received: by lowell-desk.lan (Postfix, from userid 1147) id AC6511CD0E; Wed, 7 Jan 2009 13:26:40 -0500 (EST) To: Steve Bertrand References: <49640DE5.7090308@ibctech.ca> From: Lowell Gilbert Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:26:40 -0500 In-Reply-To: <49640DE5.7090308@ibctech.ca> (Steve Bertrand's message of "Tue\, 06 Jan 2009 21\:05\:25 -0500") Message-ID: <44eizfm0pr.fsf@lowell-desk.lan> User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.3 (berkeley-unix) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Questions -" Subject: Re: Upgrade a USB-stick contained system 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: Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:26:45 -0000 Steve Bertrand writes: > I run numerous systems (mostly networking gear) from 2GB USB thumb > sticks. These systems do not have hard disks. > > To update one of these systems, I'd generally copy the thumb drive > filesystem to a hard disk in another PC, upgrade it, and then transfer > the necessary data back to the USB drive. I'd like to change this approach. > > What I'd like to do, is boot the USB drive in another machine that has a > hard drive, and mount any necessary directories for the duration of the > upgrade into the USB drive (such as /usr/src, /usr/ports etc) from the > hard drive. When I'm done, the cruft stays on the physical hard disk, > while the upgraded system on the USB drive is physically replaced back > into the original system. > > This is purely a disk-space issue on the USB disk. What I want to know, > is *exactly* what _working_ directories/filesystems are required to > build a new system... working directories that can be dissolved with no > repercussions by using umount. For the base system, /usr/src and /usr/obj. For ports, /usr/ports. They can be mounted in other places and pointed at with variables, but there's no reason not to use the standard places for this application. -- Lowell Gilbert, embedded/networking software engineer, Boston area http://be-well.ilk.org/~lowell/