From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Dec 20 14:13:58 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AC48A16A4CE for ; Sat, 20 Dec 2003 14:13:58 -0800 (PST) Received: from smtp4.knology.net (smtp4.knology.net [24.214.63.227]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id ADB9343D5E for ; Sat, 20 Dec 2003 14:13:22 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from dkelly@HiWAAY.net) Received: (qmail 30347 invoked from network); 20 Dec 2003 22:13:06 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO ?10.0.0.68?) (24.214.34.52) by smtp4.knology.net with SMTP; 20 Dec 2003 22:13:06 -0000 Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v609) In-Reply-To: <004501c3c683$db107490$0fce75d8@cybertime.net> References: <004501c3c683$db107490$0fce75d8@cybertime.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Message-Id: Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: David Kelly Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2003 16:13:00 -0600 To: FreeBSD_Questions FreeBSD_Questions , Cybertime Hostmaster X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.609) Subject: Re: IDE to CF issue X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2003 22:13:58 -0000 On Dec 19, 2003, at 5:00 PM, Cybertime Hostmaster wrote: > I have been trying to get FreeBSD onto a CF, and had an assortment of > issues. [...] > Anyone have an idea where to start? Others have been slow to respond so I'll kick in altho its been 9 months since I've done what you are attempting, and then it was 4.8 or 4.7, not 5.1. I wrote my CFs using a USB-to-CF adapter. That might make a difference. disklabel(8) has morphed into bsdlabel(8) with 5.x. The CF was then used as the primary storage device for running FreeBSD on a Soekris NET4501 SBC. There are some CF memory cards which do not support multi block transfers. There is a way around this problem that I think you could find in the mail archives at http://www.soekris.com/. Also pretty sure you'll find more FreeBSD people using CF media there than here. For starters I'd triple check to make sure /dev/ad2 is the correct device for your interface. Just because your friends use ad2 doesn't mean its right for you. IIRC ad8 is a likely candidate. Don't remember this was the name used in 4.x but in 5.x usbdevs(8) should list your CF card if its connected via USB. Also if using usb you need usbd(8) running. Next, /dev/ad2c should be the "entire media surface" partition. Is my impression that if a BSD label is not on the media most device drivers fake a partition table. The scripts I wrote (which I don't have access to) for a former employer nuked the first 32k or 64k of a CF card with /dev/null then used disklabel to create new paying careful attention to make sure I changed both on-media and in-core labels. Most CF cards have a FAT filesystem and partition table on them to start with. Brief experiments converting my script to work with bsdlabel(8) failed. Wasn't being paid to do 5.x so I didn't pursue it further. Know you are saying that you have a filesystem image that you are trying to lay on a CF card. That works OK as long as all of your CF cards are identical and from the same batch. Two CF cards of same model, size, and "manufacturer" are not necessarily the same inside. If you can create your own disk/bsd label on the media, then newfs(8) it, then you will be 90% done. We were placing about 40MB of data on 256MB cards. I found it much faster to script disklabel(8) and newfs(8) then tar(1) or restore(8) our content than to block copy filesystem images. The first wrote little more than 40MB, the other had to write 256MB. -- David Kelly N4HHE, dkelly@HiWAAY.net ======================================================================== Whom computers would destroy, they must first drive mad.