$Id: buildingImage.txt,v 1.5 2012/06/09 06:22:27 guru Exp $

Some ideas are stolen from:
http://bsdimp.blogspot.com/2007/10/building-bootable-freebsdi386-images.html

Building bootable FreeBSD/i386 USB keys 

If you want to build world and kernel out of SVN in 'src' and into 'obj', but in
some other place as /usr/[src|obj], for example in /home/guru/head/[src|obj]
use this procedure:

# mkdir -p /home/guru/head/obj
# MAKEOBJDIRPREFIX=/home/guru/head/obj ; export MAKEOBJDIRPREFIX
# cd /home/guru/head
# svn checkout svn://svn.freebsd.org/base/head src

# cd /home/guru/head/src
# make buildworld
# make buildkernel KERNCONF=GENERIC
...

or do the above just in the normal /usr/src (see kernel.txt);

How to install a booting FreeBSD onto an USB key as /dev/da0:

File operations, esp. of a large amount of small files, are very SLOW
on USB keys. That's why we use in general the following procedure:

1. dd(1) the complete /dev/da0 to a plain file, an image of the USB key;
2. use mdconfig(8) to make a memory disk of this file and mount(8) it;
3. do everything of the formatting and installation in this virtual disk;
4. unmount(8) it and dd(1) it back to the USB key;

here we go (use for /dev/da0 what your key is in /var/log/messages):

# dd if=/dev/da0 of=da0.r250588 bs=8m

note: this step is essential to get an image which later fits again to the
real USB key;

attach the file da0.r250588 as memory disk:

# mdconfig -a -t vnode -f da0.r250588
md0

wipe out all blocks to zero on the memory disk:

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/md0 bs=1m
dd: /dev/md0: end of device
14785+0 records in
14784+0 records out
15502147584 bytes transferred in 1459.484517 secs (10621659 bytes/sec)

now use the normal procedure to create a bootable UFS on it:

# fdisk -I md0
# fdisk -B md0
# bsdlabel -w md0s1 auto
# bsdlabel -B md0s1
# bsdlabel -e md0s1  # edit the disk label and change partition "a" from "unused" to "4.2BSD"

build the file system:

# newfs /dev/md0s1a
# mount /dev/md0s1a /mnt

if you have built the kernel and world in some other place as /usr/src:

    # MAKEOBJDIRPREFIX=/home/guru/head/obj ; export MAKEOBJDIRPREFIX
    # cd /home/guru/head/src

or just run 'make' from the default place /usr/src 

    # cd /usr/src

since 20121201 (see src/UPDATING) the system where the build is
done needs a new user 'auditdistd'; we add this with:

# pw useradd -n auditdistd -g audit -c "Auditdistd unprivileged user" -d /var/empty -s /usr/sbin/nologin

now we can install world an kernel:

# make installworld  DESTDIR=/mnt
# make installkernel DESTDIR=/mnt KERNCONF=GENERIC INSTALL_NODEBUG=t
# make distrib-dirs  DESTDIR=/mnt
# make distribution  DESTDIR=/mnt

# echo /dev/da0s1a / ufs rw 1 1 > /mnt/etc/fstab
# cp /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf /mnt/etc

# cat <<EOF > /mnt/etc/rc.conf
wlans_ath0="wlan0"
ifconfig_wlan0="WPA DHCP"
ifconfig_bge0="DHCP"
hostname=tinyCaracas
sshd_enable="YES"
keymap="german.iso"
EOF

# cat <<EOF > /mnt/boot/loader.conf
kern.cam.boot_delay="10000"
kern.cam.scsi_delay="3000"
EOF

to use the above created USB key to install a 2nd system (the EeePC for
example, or the Acer) we need 'src' and 'obj' as well on the key:

    # cd /home/guru/head/
    # mkdir -p /mnt/home/guru/head/

    we could do (to avoid copy of .svn dirs):

    # rsync -av --cvs-exclude src /mnt/home/guru/head/
    # rsync -av --cvs-exclude obj /mnt/home/guru/head/

    or (this worked fine every time):

    # cp -Rp src /mnt/home/guru/head/
    # cp -Rp obj /mnt/home/guru/head/

or from the normal place as:

    # cd /usr
    # cp -Rp src /mnt/usr
    # cp -Rp obj /mnt/usr

add an unpriv user (for beeing able to SSH-in):

# chroot /mnt /usr/sbin/adduser

umount the key, detach the memory disk and dd(1) the image to the USB device:

# umount /mnt
# mdconfig -d -u md0
# dd if=da0.r250588 of=/dev/da0 bs=8m