Re: USB Key Disk Boot

On Tue, 2 Nov 2004, joe mcguckin wrote:

> You neglect to state the minimum size USB key for a standard FreeBSD
> install.

My 4.X router at home has a fairly complete system install in 128MB.
Thats without any special pruning whatsover, just base+crypto. With some
work (minibsd, nanobsd, etc.), you can do alot better than that.

Note that I creatd that from a second system and dd'd the flash card over
so UFS wouldnt' burn out the flash, but I suppose you could install direct
to it if you odn't plan on writing to the key afterward.  UFS does exra
bad things to flash (think superblock updates), so you don't want to
leave it read/write for very long.

>
> -joe
>
>
> On 11/2/04 12:07 AM, "Thyer, Matthew" <Matthew.Thyer_at_dsto.defence.gov.au>
> wrote:
>
> > To install onto this device:
> >
> > Simply boot your installation media (CD) and do your installing on the device
> > "da0" (the first SCSI device - this is likely to be your USB Key unless you
> > already have SCSI hard disk drives in your system).
> >
> > As for booting, you will have to understand how to change your BIOS to ensure
> > the correct boot order.  Many BIOS's will boot on these devices if you have
> > "USB-ZIP" as the first boot device.  If that doesn't work try "USB-HDD" or
> > just "USB".
> >
> > If your Key device is too small to accommodate a minimal install of FreeBSD
> > then you will need to investigate the more embedded solutions such as PicoBSD.
> > This is an advanced topic which will require an experienced UNIX specialist to
> > implement.  You may be able to find various how-to type procedures on the Web
> > and the FreeBSD handbook should be very useful but this is not something for
> > the fainthearted.
> >
> > As for the booting process, it is described in the manual page for "boot".
> >
> >
> > Matthew Thyer                                 Phone:  +61 8 8259 7249
> > Science Corporate Information Systems         Fax:    +61 8 8259 5537
> > Defence Science and Technology Organisation, Edinburgh
> > PO Box 1500 EDINBURGH South Australia 5111
> >
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> >
> >
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>
>

-- 
Doug White                    |  FreeBSD: The Power to Serve
dwhite_at_gumbysoft.com          |  www.FreeBSD.org