Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:26:40 -0500 From: Lowell Gilbert <freebsd-questions-local@be-well.ilk.org> To: Steve Bertrand <steve@ibctech.ca> Cc: "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Questions -" <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Upgrade a USB-stick contained system Message-ID: <44eizfm0pr.fsf@lowell-desk.lan> In-Reply-To: <49640DE5.7090308@ibctech.ca> (Steve Bertrand's message of "Tue\, 06 Jan 2009 21\:05\:25 -0500") References: <49640DE5.7090308@ibctech.ca>
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Steve Bertrand <steve@ibctech.ca> writes: > I run numerous systems (mostly networking gear) from 2GB USB thumb > sticks. These systems do not have hard disks. > > To update one of these systems, I'd generally copy the thumb drive > filesystem to a hard disk in another PC, upgrade it, and then transfer > the necessary data back to the USB drive. I'd like to change this approach. > > What I'd like to do, is boot the USB drive in another machine that has a > hard drive, and mount any necessary directories for the duration of the > upgrade into the USB drive (such as /usr/src, /usr/ports etc) from the > hard drive. When I'm done, the cruft stays on the physical hard disk, > while the upgraded system on the USB drive is physically replaced back > into the original system. > > This is purely a disk-space issue on the USB disk. What I want to know, > is *exactly* what _working_ directories/filesystems are required to > build a new system... working directories that can be dissolved with no > repercussions by using umount. For the base system, /usr/src and /usr/obj. For ports, /usr/ports. They can be mounted in other places and pointed at with variables, but there's no reason not to use the standard places for this application. -- Lowell Gilbert, embedded/networking software engineer, Boston area http://be-well.ilk.org/~lowell/
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