Date: Sat, 04 Oct 2008 09:23:08 +0300 From: Manolis Kiagias <sonic2000gr@gmail.com> To: knowtree@aloha.com Cc: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Installing from USB drive Message-ID: <48E70BCC.3030302@gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <200810040052.m940qGH5026350@yoda.pixi.com> References: <200810040052.m940qGH5026350@yoda.pixi.com>
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knowtree@aloha.com wrote: > In general, is it possible to install FreeBSD from CD-ROM using a USB > plug-in drive? > > More specifically, I am thinking about picking up a Fujitsu LifeBook P1620 > convertable tablet PC. It does not have a built-in optical drive, but > Fujitsu does list two external USB drives, one a Dual-Layer DVD Writer, the > other a DVD/CD-RW combo drive. I submitted my question to their tech > support and am awaiting an answer, but in the meantime I thought I should > ask here, too. > > Besides the obvious question of whether or not the P1620 will boot from a > USB optical drive, I wonder if the FreeBSD boot loader knows how to load > the installation kernal from a USB drive. Then there is the issue of making > this a dual boot system. > > By the way, the T1010 has a built-in optical drive, and the T2010 has it in > the docking station. This makes the T1010 the best choice in terms of > compatibility, but I like the smaller size of the P1620 and rarely use an > optical drive. Too bad the P1620 is not like the Apple Air, which can use > an optical drive in another computer on the network to install OS X and > applications. > > Gary Dunn > Honolulu > Open Slate Project > http://openslate.net/ > mailto:osp@aloha.com > If your BIOS can boot from a USB CD-ROM, you will be able to install FreeBSD with no problems. All recent BIOS can - and even older ones actually. I have a couple of machines with 865G chipset (not exactly state of the art) and they boot just fine. The eeePC boots and installs fine from a USB CD. Before the kernel (which also holds the drivers) is loaded, everything you need to read from disk / CD has to go through the BIOS at some point. After the kernel executes it will easily locate the CD (it will look like a SCSI CD-ROM in FreeBSD) and install from it. As for making a dual boot system, there are of course various ways. Depends on what the other OS is. If you plan to dual boot with Windows Vista for example, I suggest you do not install the FreeBSD boot loader when asked, but instead to use a clever utility (EasyBCD) on the Windows side: http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1 Quick and painless :)
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