Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 21:06:16 +0100 (CET) From: Luigi Rizzo <luigi@info.iet.unipi.it> To: Alexander Prohorenko <white@extrasy.net> Cc: small@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Pico?? Message-ID: <200103122006.VAA94111@info.iet.unipi.it> In-Reply-To: <20010312210435.K18769@extrasy.net> from Alexander Prohorenko at "Mar 12, 2001 09:04:35 pm"
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> Can anybody help me with understanding of a new structure of PicoBSD > floppy image? Earlier, the disk was just a bootable floppy with > kernel and /, /etc structure with gzipped files there, which were > ungzipped and put on a MD image during the boot process (am I right?). The kernel contains an MFS image embedded in it. After loading, the kernel mounts the image, which in the version you mention is preloaded with the files which were previously on the MFS. The /etc/rc script still tries to mount the floppy and update any files on the image with copies from the floppy, but if the floppy mount fails, the system proceeds with the preloaded image. I had mainly two reasons for doing this. First, this way you can load the kernel off the network using etherboot and have a working system without any floppy. Second, you save some (moderate) amount of space because you do not waste the space for a full fragment/block on each file. You can still update your configuration and save it on the floppy for the next reboot (remember to creste the required directories by hand, the update script still does not do this...). > > Currently, the disk looks like just /kernel there. I couldn't get > where are all files appear from? I'd love to understand this in > details to be more productive in my work with Pico's. > > Also, I tried to put the /kernel file to the 30MB SanDisk flash disk > (the kernel file was taken from > /usr/src/release/picobsd/build/build_dir-flogw/kernel, where 'flogw' > is my Pico release). > > Besides, one question more. How could this kernel be put on the floppy, > if it's about 4 times bigger then floppy? :) the kernel is usually compressed with kgzip, which helps a bit. Though i do not know if it compresses by a factor of four... cheers luigi ----------------------------------+----------------------------------------- Luigi RIZZO, luigi@iet.unipi.it . ACIRI/ICSI (on leave from Univ. di Pisa) http://www.iet.unipi.it/~luigi/ . 1947 Center St, Berkeley CA 94704 Phone (510) 666 2927 . ----------------------------------+----------------------------------------- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message
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