Date: Sun, 07 Oct 2012 15:33:30 -0700 From: Julian Elischer <julian@freebsd.org> To: Devin Teske <dteske@freebsd.org> Cc: Garrett Cooper <yanegomi@gmail.com>, =?windows-1252?Q?Dag-Erling_Sm=F8rgrav?= <des@des.no>, Devin Teske <devin.teske@fisglobal.com>, freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Subject: Re: New Boot Loader Menu Message-ID: <5072033A.4090308@freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: <DA8D6935-039D-4228-ABB6-59F43398D2F8@fisglobal.com> References: <0655B56F-AD43-402B-872C-568378E650F9@fisglobal.com> <86k3v21qsx.fsf@ds4.des.no> <3EB58454-7820-43C4-911E-7DEF2D02C880@fisglobal.com> <86fw5q15f9.fsf@ds4.des.no> <D61F7ED5-76C3-453D-878A-F0C678198C87@fisglobal.com> <A5FE9B8C-742B-45E0-85EB-1092A7D58D04@gmail.com> <5071EAB2.4060003@freebsd.org> <DA8D6935-039D-4228-ABB6-59F43398D2F8@fisglobal.com>
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On 10/7/12 2:10 PM, Devin Teske wrote: > > On Oct 7, 2012, at 1:48 PM, Julian Elischer wrote: > >> On 10/7/12 12:52 PM, Garrett Cooper wrote: >>> I'd like to see sketches or a general idea of what you have in >>> mind before investing too much time in a direction that doesn't >>> bear a lot of fruit. I'm sure others here agree. >> It'd be interesting to see if we could get a boot loader that has >> an option to boot a backup >> image, or maybe off network.. I know that by the time we got this >> far we are supposed to be >> beyond that, but who knows what is actually possible. >> >> I'd love to see a picoBSD image available for booting in >> emergencies. Whether in it's own partition, >> or just a file in the root partition (or wherever) that can be >> loaded as a root filesystem. >> having the ability to recover from really bad screwups is why you >> need the menus in the first place usually. >> >> not sure what is really possible. >> > > *huge smiles* > > Have you been talking to old VICORians about what I've been working > on here? haha > > It's like you stole a page out of my playbook. > > I've been working on this for years (slowly making the > infrastructure changes in DruidBSD to accommodate this, and slowly > trying to work that code back into FreeBSD). > > NOTE: DruidBSD at it's core (when it's not being re-purposed as a > multi-media FreeBSD universal installation platform) is actually > smaller than PicoBSD. Pico, or Nano? I know that Pico no longer fits on a single floppy but it's still pretty damned small. > > In the past month, I used DruidBSD maybe 5-dozen times to rescue an > unbootable system. Which system? the system I was developing the > boot loader on (haha). so, the question is, were does the boot come from and where does it load the image from? usb-key? > > Everytime I would make a mistake (and subsequently end up in BTX > halt, panic free guard1, or other fatal condition), I simply reboot, > boot DruidBSD, and within 3 keystrokes I have my system mounted > read-write with all the tools I need to fix it. In less than 20 > seconds, I've often corrected my mistake and have a working system > again. to some extent I'd like to see some recoverability like this for default freeBSD. even the old "create a bootable usb fixit-key" during install might be enough. (keep it in an envelope taped to the side of the machine :-). > > NOTE: You can try it out yourself. I made publicly-available the > latest version recently as part-of the FreeBSD-9.0_Druid-1.0b57.iso > up on druidbsd.sf.net <http://druidbsd.sf.net>; (boot the ISO, select > "freebsd", then select "Interactive Disk Repair Shell" and answer > guided questions to create a working environment copacetic to fixing > even the worst situations). It even has a mode where it will start > SSHD from the boot media so that *someone-ELSE* can log in remotely > and fix your non-bootable system (which we've had to use before -- > it's a real life-saver when someone in Manila for example has no > FreeBSD knowledge but can at least boot a system with a CD and > answer some basic questions). true, though I'd like to see if it can be done without the whole extra CD.. > > Here's a screenshot that shows that DruidBSD has had the ability to > swap out the root filesystem image with a "rescue image" for nearly > a decade (this one screenshot taken 3 years ago): > > http://twitpic.com/16spp2 > > -- > Devin > _____________ > The information contained in this message is proprietary and/or > confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please: (i) > delete the message and all copies; (ii) do not disclose, distribute > or use the message in any manner; and (iii) notify the sender > immediately. In addition, please be aware that any message addressed > to our domain is subject to archiving and review by persons other > than the intended recipient. Thank you.
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