From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Apr 7 18:40:19 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3F262106564A for ; Wed, 7 Apr 2010 18:40:19 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from psteele@maxiscale.com) Received: from server505.appriver.com (server505a.appriver.com [98.129.35.4]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 00F9E8FC20 for ; Wed, 7 Apr 2010 18:40:18 +0000 (UTC) X-Policy: GLOBAL - maxiscale.com X-Primary: psteele@maxiscale.com X-Note: This Email was scanned by AppRiver SecureTide X-ALLOW: psteele@maxiscale.com ALLOWED X-Virus-Scan: V- X-Note: Spam Tests Failed: X-Country-Path: UNITED STATES->UNITED STATES->UNITED STATES X-Note-Sending-IP: 98.129.23.14 X-Note-Reverse-DNS: ht01.exg5.exghost.com X-Note-WHTLIST: psteele@maxiscale.com X-Note: User Rule Hits: X-Note: Global Rule Hits: G179 G180 G181 G182 G186 G187 G198 G285 X-Note: Encrypt Rule Hits: X-Note: Mail Class: ALLOWEDSENDER X-Note: Headers Injected Received: from [98.129.23.14] (HELO ht01.exg5.exghost.com) by server505.appriver.com (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 5.3.2) with ESMTPS id 35706082 for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Wed, 07 Apr 2010 13:40:17 -0500 Received: from mbx03.exg5.exghost.com ([169.254.1.132]) by ht01.exg5.exghost.com ([98.129.23.14]) with mapi; Wed, 7 Apr 2010 13:40:17 -0500 From: Peter Steele To: "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" Date: Wed, 7 Apr 2010 13:40:16 -0500 Thread-Topic: How customized can an mfsroot be? Thread-Index: AcrWT7U+B11HNX59QBueXOLqdDrELAAKxxWg Message-ID: <7B9397B189EB6E46A5EE7B4C8A4BB7CB3B6F8720@MBX03.exg5.exghost.com> References: <7B9397B189EB6E46A5EE7B4C8A4BB7CB3B6F7D05@MBX03.exg5.exghost.com> <7B9397B189EB6E46A5EE7B4C8A4BB7CB3B6F7FAD@MBX03.exg5.exghost.com> <7B9397B189EB6E46A5EE7B4C8A4BB7CB3B6F7FDD@MBX03.exg5.exghost.com> <7B9397B189EB6E46A5EE7B4C8A4BB7CB3B6F8066@MBX03.exg5.exghost.com> <7B9397B189EB6E46A5EE7B4C8A4BB7CB3B6F84AD@MBX03.exg5.exghost.com> <4BBC32A4.1080906@infracaninophile.co.uk> In-Reply-To: Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: RE: How customized can an mfsroot be? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 07 Apr 2010 18:40:19 -0000 >I'm probably missing something here, but I'm not sure that's correct. If = the OP wants his own /var, then diskless(8) describes how >/var can be automagically populated (see also /etc/rc.initdiskless). The = nanobsd.sh script (designed with flash drives in mind) uses >this method. I looked into adopting something similar some time back but = decided on an alternative solution so I can't provide anything >more than a general comment. > >As a side comment, I'd add I hope the OP publishes the results of his effo= rts to benefit others who may want to do the same. >From what I can tell, diskless talks about network booting via a PXE server= . That's a little different than what I'm doing--booting from a read-only CD-ROM. With network booting, you can create your own customized mfsroot wi= th whatever you want in /var. I could have setup a mfsroot based boot for my CD-ROM, but there are other restrictions to the mfsroot environ= ment that I wanted to avoid. In my read-only CD-ROM boot case, /var is created as a MFS device automatically and populated, but a basic di= rectory layout only is used. Nothing from the CD-ROM /var is copied into th= e MFS /var that is created. I cannot figure out how BSD can do this automagically, so I'll have to have= a duplicate copy of /var on the CD and populate it from that. What I've tr= ied that works well is when I'm about to run mkisofs to create the .iso from, I= rename my /var to /var2 and create an empty /var. When the iso is booted, a default MFS based /var is created with a specific collection of directori= es. I have a startup script that copies my /var2 contents into /var and tha= t does the trick. Thanks to all the responders on this. I think I've worked out all of the ki= nks now.