Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2009 11:41:52 -0700 From: Tim Judd <tajudd@gmail.com> To: new_guy <byte8bits@gmail.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: bsd.rd for FreeBSD install Message-ID: <ade45ae90903031041g2246285ag88d7e37d1670cb42@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <22292723.post@talk.nabble.com> References: <22292723.post@talk.nabble.com>
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On Mon, Mar 2, 2009 at 10:36 AM, new_guy <byte8bits@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hi, > > We normally use OpenBSD, but would like to try FreeBSD on a test system. > Usually, when updating from one OpenBSD release to another, we do so by > downloading the latest bsd.rd and booting from that to complete the > install. > Our machines have no optical drives. Does FreeBSD have a similar method to > installation? > > Thanks! > -- > View this message in context: > http://www.nabble.com/bsd.rd-for-FreeBSD-install-tp22292723p22292723.html > Sent from the freebsd-questions mailing list archive at Nabble.com. > Being relatively familiar with both, let me input my advice. first of all, Open and Free use different DOS-partition partition IDs, OpenBSD being A6, and FreeBSD being A5. This would be the first road block to overcome. Second, there isn't a produced single file to boot FreeBSD in a ramdisk image from the FreeBSD folks. There is one out there called mfsbsd that does that. Creating a ramdisk based kernel would work, and you'd need to shove what's in the bootonly CD into that kernel image. I doubt you'll be able to produce a kernel for FreeBSD on OpenBSD. Haven't tried it, but I bet the pmake syntax for FreeBSD will give OpenBSD problems. Running a PXE/NFS/DHCP boot server would be the first thing I'd go into to do a completely CD/DVD-less system. But you have to start from somewhere... You have to boot FreeBSD from external medium so you can prepare a hard drive. Is it a problem to float a USB CD/DVD drive around to install? would a bootserver help you in your efforts? There's just so many ways to approach this, your initial post isn't helping me to lean one way or another. Can you provide your factors why your systems are CD/DVD-less? Do these systems boot from PXE/network? when you answer these questions, something might come into mind that would benefit you most... but the different partition IDs is going to become a hurlde without a external boot medium. Let me know, --TJ
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