Re: USB Key Disk Boot

On Wed, 3 Nov 2004 08:13, joe mcguckin wrote:
> Most USB keys don't have a rw/ro switch. Is there a kernel flag you can set
> to tell FreeBSD that boot device is flash and that writes should be kept to
> a minimum? Can swap space be completely done away with?

There is the kernel option NO_SWAPPING.

As for writes to an FS.. I think you might want to check out some of the 
diskless work which uses MFS to hold things.

> Thanks!
>
> Joe
>
> On 11/2/04 11:51 AM, "Doug White" <dwhite_at_gumbysoft.com> wrote:
> > 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
> >>>
> >>> IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Australian Defence
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> >>> requested to contact the sender and delete the email.
> >>>
> >>>
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-- 
Daniel O'Connor software and network engineer
for Genesis Software - http://www.gsoft.com.au
"The nice thing about standards is that there
are so many of them to choose from."
  -- Andrew Tanenbaum
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