From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Nov 3 16:08:58 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 711C413F; Sat, 3 Nov 2012 16:08:58 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from yerenkow@gmail.com) Received: from mail-ob0-f182.google.com (mail-ob0-f182.google.com [209.85.214.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 16F788FC0C; Sat, 3 Nov 2012 16:08:57 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail-ob0-f182.google.com with SMTP id wc20so5638716obb.13 for ; Sat, 03 Nov 2012 09:08:51 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type; bh=hjTlvHT+3HBjaGVm2MlfWTBExcyCDMeylP8xJ8SQfcY=; b=T1ETB0Ase29FiMremMPXbkXMxwPFODt9cm4LuH0QjlLQUVILoknpK4qJM1nenjna4/ M7eNSeekGu/myiWAqpptc/co3nIOv+kaflqEQlfKBvN5scAL7wBYGuSX06FDSB5iG4xd Pal62t4OpcYIhw9hNZ/1/3XaRkFSHx2JBTi/KZW0tHWBkKmpNZFfCOjaypMabStHSHxQ 1gKhsSRFMMqBgVOdvNCKp+ath/JNjDbB9D+c5lt2TEfVQQ9JuZ/Zf8DbGTUSMyXv8hO3 VMaFNR0QZESSty32if2ihmLCxIMethbLhTxeblZ/ze6CRg3e5skBu4NphDh/lgAk3ml/ dfLQ== MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.60.26.72 with SMTP id j8mr4066323oeg.68.1351958931508; Sat, 03 Nov 2012 09:08:51 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.60.58.165 with HTTP; Sat, 3 Nov 2012 09:08:51 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: References: <1167404891.20121103170049@serebryakov.spb.ru> <1351956625.1120.44.camel@revolution.hippie.lan> Date: Sat, 3 Nov 2012 18:08:51 +0200 Message-ID: Subject: Re: FreeBSD as read-only firmware From: Alexander Yerenkow To: Mehmet Erol Sanliturk Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.14 Cc: Ian Lepore , lev@freebsd.org, freebsd-current X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 03 Nov 2012 16:08:58 -0000 Actually in my case, base system image r24243.vmdk, have exactly two partitions (gpt's freebsd-boot, and roots = freebsd-ufs), and second one is used only in read-only :) For virtual machines approach, base image can be even ISO, which will be implied RO for system, and upgrade is just switch ISO. For real hardware, it can be done with such approach - make two partitions with fixed size, and when you need upgrade - just `dd` new image to other partition, mark it as [bootonce] (And if all is ok, as [bootme]), reboot = and you have new OS very quick, with same configs (except for some LARGE changes which could happen in /etc and touch your configs), and with same packages. BTW, when you mount /etc-rw union over /etc, when you'll need upgrade, mergemaster could take less time, less places for errors - since you had to merge only changed files(which present on /etc-rw). I think these days with current hw, no one will complain against lost 1Gb to achieve clean and simple OS upgrade. I'm not saying about possible way to shrink it further (no debug, gzip, etc) - get lesser partition, but still RO, and get ability to make something dd if=/dev/gpt/rootfs bs=1M | sha256 -- Regards, Alexander Yerenkow