From owner-freebsd-ppc@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jan 3 03:04:07 2014 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 134AC927 for ; Fri, 3 Jan 2014 03:04:07 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smtpauth3.wiscmail.wisc.edu (wmauth3.doit.wisc.edu [144.92.197.226]) (using TLSv1 with cipher RC4-MD5 (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id D3DC01EF1 for ; Fri, 3 Jan 2014 03:04:06 +0000 (UTC) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Content-type: text/plain; CHARSET=US-ASCII Received: from avs-daemon.smtpauth3.wiscmail.wisc.edu by smtpauth3.wiscmail.wisc.edu (Oracle Communications Messaging Server 7u4-27.01(7.0.4.27.0) 64bit (built Aug 30 2012)) id <0MYT00F001UGH500@smtpauth3.wiscmail.wisc.edu> for freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org; Thu, 02 Jan 2014 21:03:59 -0600 (CST) X-Spam-PmxInfo: Server=avs-3, Version=6.0.3.2322014, Antispam-Engine: 2.7.2.2107409, Antispam-Data: 2014.1.3.21814, SenderIP=0.0.0.0 X-Spam-Report: AuthenticatedSender=yes, SenderIP=0.0.0.0 Received: from wanderer.tachypleus.net (pool-72-66-107-173.washdc.fios.verizon.net [72.66.107.173]) by smtpauth3.wiscmail.wisc.edu (Oracle Communications Messaging Server 7u4-27.01(7.0.4.27.0) 64bit (built Aug 30 2012)) with ESMTPSA id <0MYT00BII1U8NB00@smtpauth3.wiscmail.wisc.edu>; Thu, 02 Jan 2014 21:03:46 -0600 (CST) Message-id: <52C6288F.7050106@freebsd.org> Date: Thu, 02 Jan 2014 22:03:43 -0500 From: Nathan Whitehorn User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD amd64; rv:24.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/24.2.0 To: precutcolours@mailcan.com, freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Install Tips for Newbie with FreeBSD 10 References: <1388713046.8058.65995889.43FA6F1D@webmail.messagingengine.com> In-reply-to: <1388713046.8058.65995889.43FA6F1D@webmail.messagingengine.com> X-Enigmail-Version: 1.6 X-BeenThere: freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.17 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting FreeBSD to the PowerPC List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2014 03:04:07 -0000 On 01/02/14 20:37, precutcolours@mailcan.com wrote: > I'd like tips for installing FreeBSD 10 on a PowerPC G5 + 2 GiB RAM. > > The old OpenFirmware needs an Apple Partition Map to boot but will boot > over USB, which I've tested. > > My plan is to carve the required Apple Partition Map on a 'minimalist' > USB flash stick, with pivot to the 'real' FreeBSD system on a hard disk. > That disk will use a GUID table and ZFS. It's external too (USB or > FireWire). There is no internal disk at all. > > My notion is to rig the thumb drive just for (1) APM and (2) fast > bootup. Reads are fast...writes horrible. The min would be GRUB I guess? > But it could hold a kernel, and maybe more. What's best? You can use APM with ZFS; that's not a problem at all. The only restriction is that the kernel must be on UFS for the time being. You could use GPT, but that will only complicate things and provides no particular benefit. The easy thing is to make a relatively small / partition (UFS) from the installer, install to that, and then set up ZFS on the rest of the disk(s) once you've rebooted into the installed system for home etc. You'll want the 64-bit PowerPC disks to get decent performance out of ZFS, by the way. > I may just need a good fstab, but I'm unacquainted with ZFS, and so open > to advice on it; /tmp will live in RAM; there will be no swap space. > > I want to run a lot from RAM, with sync to disk at intervals or > shutdown. $HOME lives in RAM and syncs. It's only for dotfiles and > prefs. Big data (vids/pics/docs/etc) live elsewhere. Putting $HOME in > RAM is odd but speeds a system and saves the day in power crashes. > > I'd like nightly auto upgrades if possible. Can v10's new packaging > system do them? Does FreeBSD have an app for that? > It can. However, due to some in-progress infrastructure adjustments, the FreeBSD project is not currently providing prebuilt PowerPC packages, so it won't work in your case. -Nathan