From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Mar 8 15:34:28 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 118E01065672; Mon, 8 Mar 2010 15:34:28 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jhb@freebsd.org) Received: from cyrus.watson.org (cyrus.watson.org [65.122.17.42]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D4E228FC14; Mon, 8 Mar 2010 15:34:27 +0000 (UTC) Received: from bigwig.baldwin.cx (66.111.2.69.static.nyinternet.net [66.111.2.69]) by cyrus.watson.org (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 84FA846B1A; Mon, 8 Mar 2010 10:34:27 -0500 (EST) Received: from jhbbsd.localnet (smtp.hudson-trading.com [209.249.190.9]) by bigwig.baldwin.cx (Postfix) with ESMTPA id DF2288A021; Mon, 8 Mar 2010 10:34:26 -0500 (EST) From: John Baldwin To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Date: Mon, 8 Mar 2010 09:46:10 -0500 User-Agent: KMail/1.12.1 (FreeBSD/7.3-CBSD-20100217; KDE/4.3.1; amd64; ; ) References: <20100304213329.GJ57205@bunrab.catwhisker.org> <7d6fde3d1003060041p225e8718n29a8e75a718237a@mail.gmail.com> <201003060729.01225.jpaetzel@freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: <201003060729.01225.jpaetzel@freebsd.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset="iso-8859-15" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <201003080946.10876.jhb@freebsd.org> X-Greylist: Sender succeeded SMTP AUTH, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.0.1 (bigwig.baldwin.cx); Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:34:26 -0500 (EST) X-Virus-Scanned: clamav-milter 0.95.1 at bigwig.baldwin.cx X-Virus-Status: Clean X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.5 required=4.2 tests=AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.2.5 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.2.5 (2008-06-10) on bigwig.baldwin.cx Cc: Josh Paetzel , Garrett Cooper , randi@freebsd.org, David Wolfskill Subject: Re: Scripting sysinstall(8) to create & use multiple slices on a disk? X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:34:28 -0000 On Saturday 06 March 2010 8:28:54 am Josh Paetzel wrote: > I'd also like to mention John saying you can build a custom mfsroot to use > additional tools during install...I go a different tack on this. I'm a huge > fan of python, and like to use it for installers. Rather than build a custom > mfsroot with python what I prefer to do is build a chroot that the target > machine boots diskless off. Then I chroot into that directory and install > whatever tools I want using ports/packages. I find that getting FreeBSD to > boot diskless is so easy that I've had it accidentally happen more than once > when I wanted something else to happen. Installing ports in a chroot is also > pretty trivial. Building a custom mfsroot has a bit of a learning curve with > a fairly expensive trial and error penalty. I agree that building a custom mfsroot from scratch would be a bit of a PITA. I generally cheat by just patching src/release//boot_crunch.conf to add the tools I want to use. I find dialog(1) useful for popping up sysinstall-style dialog boxes from shell scripts. I have also seen folks build a completely separate MFS root separate from the release process. While that was more tedious to get started, it was certainly more flexible. -- John Baldwin