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Date:      Tue, 27 Feb 2001 13:21:04 -0800 (PST)
From:      Stefan Molnar <stefan@csudsu.com>
To:        Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com>
Cc:        Chris Shenton <cshenton@OutBounderInc.com>, <hackers@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: ThinkNIC booting FreeBSD? [WAS: Re: Silent FreeBSD]
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.31.0102271320240.79141-100000@digital.csudsu.com>
In-Reply-To: <3A9B5AD8.10EB0A1D@softweyr.com>

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Wes, you do not even need the flash to netboot, since it supports
PXE.   And it boots very nicely

On Tue, 27 Feb 2001, Wes Peters wrote:

> Chris Shenton wrote:
> >
> > In message <3A4B7498.267D52E8@softweyr.com> Wes Peters writes:
> >
> > > We have several NIC's around here (the New Internet Computer, see
> > > http://www.thinknic.com/ for details) and will be adding a couple of these
> > > so we can boot FreeBSD or NetBSD on them in the next little while.  A NIC
> > > running FreeBSD on a silent CF disk strikes me as an ideal bedroom computer;
> > > you can leave it on all the time and just let the screen sleep when you're
> > > not using it.
> >
> > Been thinking seriously about buying a couple of these; hard to beat
> > the $200 price point. Chat on one of the NIC lists indicates they had
> > two fans and will now ship with three fans; this seems like it will
> > make it rather noisey -- especially since they're diskless and should
> > be quiet.
>
> They are quiet.  I didn't notice any fans in the ones we disassembled at
> work.  The Geode processor runs QUITE hot, though.  They make good hand-
> warmers when it's snowing outside.
>
> > Since I prefer FreeBSD to Linux, I'd rather run BSD than the Linux on
> > the CD it runs from.  Is it possible to create an ISO of a bootable
> > and runnable FreeBSD? What happens with stuff like /tmp and /var/log?
>
> You wouldn't want it; performance running off the CD-ROM is terrible.
> Get a 2.5" hard drive and stick it to the case top with double-sticky
> tape.
>
> > Failing this, I'd probably net-boot the NICs off a bigger FreeBSD
> > machine, and NFS mount /home dirs and /usr/local type of software.
>
> That would probably give you better performance than the CD-ROM.  The
> NIC has a small flash disk in it as well; you could probably put the
> boot loader and enough /boot filesystem on that to autoboot.
>
> > That way when I built a tool or package it would be available to any
> > of the FreeBSD boxes in the house. Seems like a great bang/buck
> > ratio. Any comments on this approach?
>
> Sounds good to me.  Maybe I should setup a netboot server at work and
> have a hack at it.  We've got a couple of IDE->CompactFlash adapters
> I could play with without scrogging the NIC-standard flash device.
>
> --
>             "Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"
>
> Wes Peters                                                         Softweyr LLC
> wes@softweyr.com                                           http://softweyr.com/
>
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