Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2008 09:57:23 +0800 From: "FBSD1" <fbsd1@a1poweruser.com> To: <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: RE: switching discs during install Message-ID: <NBECLJEKGLBKHHFFANMBEEIBCKAA.fbsd1@a1poweruser.com> In-Reply-To: <4b2381fb0809062307x4b7ef550lfba5d74e9057dccf@mail.gmail.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
All this talk about changing the order of the ports on the install cd's is
just so much hot air because cd's install media belong to the legacy world.
They are fast becoming obsolete just like floppy drives are. Can't even buy
a computer these days with a floppy drive and still FreeBSD distributes
floppy install images. How absurd is that?
FreeBSD needs to come of age in the 21st century and be changed to install
using USB memory flash stick technology. Just a little tweaking of the
sysinstall program to add USB stick as an option for source of install
source would do it.
Here is a little script to populate a USB flash stick with the cd1.iso that
you may find interesting. This way you can combine the cd1 & cd2 install
cd's to a 4GB USB stick and install the system and all the ports you want
without switching any install media. You could even use a USB flash stick as
the target to install FreeBSD on giving you an mobile FreeBSD system you can
plug into any computer and boot from.
#!/bin/sh
#Purpose = Use to transfer the FreeBSD install cd1 to
# a bootable 1GB USB flash drive so it can be used to install from.
# First fetch the FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso to your
# hard drive /usr. Then execute this script from the command line
# fbsd2usb /usr/6.2-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso /usr/6.2-RELEASE-i386-disc1.img
# Change system bios to boot from USB-dd and away you go.
# NOTE: This script has to be run from root and your 1GB USB flash drive
# has to be plugged in before running this script.
# On the command line enter fbsd2usb iso-path img-path
# You can set some variables here. Edit them to fit your needs.
# Set serial variable to 0 if you don't want serial console at all,
# 1 if you want comconsole and 2 if you want comconsole and vidconsole
serial=0
set -u
if [ $# -lt 2 ]; then
echo "Usage: $0 source-iso-path output-img-path"
exit 1
fi
isoimage=$1; shift
imgoutfile=$1; shift
# Temp directory to be used later
#export tmpdir=$(mktemp -d -t fbsdmount)
export tmpdir=$(mktemp -d /usr/fbsdmount)
export isodev=$(mdconfig -a -t vnode -f ${isoimage})
ISOSIZE=$(du -k ${isoimage} | awk '{print $1}')
SECTS=$((($ISOSIZE + ($ISOSIZE/5))*4))
#SECTS=$((($ISOSIZE + ($ISOSIZE/5))*2))
echo " "
echo "### Initializing image File started ###"
echo "### This will take about 4 minutes ###"
date
dd if=/dev/zero of=${imgoutfile} count=${SECTS}
echo "### Initializing image File completed ###"
date
echo " "
ls -l ${imgoutfile}
export imgdev=$(mdconfig -a -t vnode -f ${imgoutfile})
bsdlabel -w -B ${imgdev}
newfs -O1 /dev/${imgdev}a
mkdir -p ${tmpdir}/iso ${tmpdir}/img
mount -t cd9660 /dev/${isodev} ${tmpdir}/iso
mount /dev/${imgdev}a ${tmpdir}/img
echo " "
echo "### Started Copying files to the image now ###"
echo "### This will take about 10 minutes ###"
date
( cd ${tmpdir}/iso && find . -print -depth | cpio -dump ${tmpdir}/img )
echo "### Completed Copying files to the image ###"
date
if [ ${serial} -eq 2 ]; then
echo "-D" > ${tmpdir}/img/boot.config
echo 'console="comconsole, vidconsole"' >>
${tmpdir}/img/boot/loader.conf
elif [ ${serial} -eq 1 ]; then
echo "-h" > ${tmpdir}/img/boot.config
echo 'console="comconsole"' >> ${tmpdir}/img/boot/loader.conf
fi
echo " "
echo "### Started writing image to flash drive now ###"
echo "### This will take about 20 minutes ###"
date
dd if=${imgoutfile} of=/dev/da0 bs=1m
echo "### Completed writing image to flash drive at ###"
date
cleanup() {
umount ${tmpdir}/iso
mdconfig -d -u ${isodev}
umount ${tmpdir}/img
mdconfig -d -u ${imgdev}
rm -rf ${tmpdir}
}
cleanup
ls -lh ${imgoutfile}
echo "### Script finished ###"
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?NBECLJEKGLBKHHFFANMBEEIBCKAA.fbsd1>