Quoting Stuart Henderson <[email protected]>:
On 2012-01-28, Vijay Sankar <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi,
Sorry for the long message. I am not able to figure out a good
solution for the following:
Right now, what I do to test ports etc., is download install51.iso,
run it within qemu, and then do the work. To test the port on a
different server (which is on a different network), I end up burning a
new CD or use PXE boot within my LAN when that is possible, so that
the latest version is on a USB stick. However, I would like to have
-current or -beta on a USB drive without having to burn a CD or use
PXE boot.
Is it possible to install OpenBSD on a USB drive from within qemu and
then use that USB drive to boot a laptop?
I don't know about doing this with qemu, but you can fdisk/disklabel,
mount, untar sets, create fstab, and run installboot(8) manually from
a running OS..
Thank you very much for the five clues you gave me here. It is
perfect! As you very politely hinted, I was using the wrong tool for
what I was trying to achieve.
Also, for the archives, many people sent me suggestions in private
messages. I replied to them and thanked them in private but would like
to thank them again through the list as well. I tried each of their
suggestions and this is what I noticed. Jotting it down for the
archives just in case it saves time for anyone.
SUGGESTIONS FROM LIST AND THE RESULTS
1) TRY WITH A DIFFERENT USB STICK: I purchased a 2GB and another 8GB
USB stick and retried the installation. On the new 2GB drive as well
as the 8GB drive, installation from qemu worked but I could not reboot
using the drive on a laptop. disklabel continued to give me wrong
information as mentioned in my initial message.
2) WIPE OUT "SECURITY" STUFF ON THE USB DISK: I did an fdisk and
disklabel on the 2GB drive. As soon as I did that, qemu installation
worked without any problems and I was able to take the drive and boot
a laptop with it. I now see the following from the host as well as the
guest.
disklabel sd6
# /dev/rsd6c:
type: ESDI
disk: ESDI/IDE disk
label: QEMU HARDDISK
duid: 9fa6e404f695e65d
flags:
bytes/sector: 512
sectors/track: 63
tracks/cylinder: 64
sectors/cylinder: 4032
cylinders: 999
total sectors: 4028416
boundstart: 63
boundend: 3999744
drivedata: 0
16 partitions:
# size offset fstype [fsize bsize cpg]
a: 3869377 63 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1
b: 130281 3869440 swap
c: 4028416 0 unused
3) TRY RAW AND BLOCK MODES: I was able to install using /dev/sd6c as
well as /dev/rsd6c with the 2GB drives once it was partitioned
properly. The install script did not partition the 2GB drive into many
chunks -- it kept a and b that I had configured with fdisk.
4) TRY RAW AND BLOCK MODES: With the new 8GB drive, I was able to
install as mentioned earlier. It would not boot on a laptop but would
boot when used with qemu. But once I did an fdisk -i, wiped out what
was there and created the partitions, installation worked with
/dev/rsd6c as well as /dev/sd6c and I can boot from within qemu as a
guest VM or on a laptop. Interestingly, all I did was create a 7.2GB
sd6a and sd6b as swap but the installation program did create all the
different partitions (unlike the 2GB disk).
Here is the disklabel from the qemu host:
disklabel sd6
# /dev/rsd6c:
type: ESDI
disk: ESDI/IDE disk
label: QEMU HARDDISK
duid: 56f7b68cb1c83aea
flags:
bytes/sector: 512
sectors/track: 63
tracks/cylinder: 16
sectors/cylinder: 1008
cylinders: 15520
total sectors: 15644912
boundstart: 64
boundend: 15631245
drivedata: 0
16 partitions:
# size offset fstype [fsize bsize cpg]
a: 211392 64 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1
b: 211395 211456 swap
c: 15644912 0 unused
d: 321792 422880 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1
e: 287456 744672 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1
f: 1890752 1032128 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1
g: 1077088 2922880 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1
h: 4289408 3999968 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1
i: 2116160 8289376 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1
j: 2700416 10405536 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1
k: 2525152 13105952 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1
5) USE DUID: That has been my practice since it became available. Use
of duid helped me here as well since I did not have to change
/etc/fstab.
6) USE VIRTUALBOX: I tried with VirtualBox on my iMac and it worked
well once the disk was partitioned properly. I don't use the iMac much
since I discovered how awesome xxxterm is, So I did not spend a lot of
time with VirtualBox, if it is helpful to do any additional tests,
please let me know and I can do that.
7) STUART's SUGGESTION: This is perfect for me since I don't have to
use anything other that the base OS. Installation with this approach
is a 6 minute operation instead of a 18 minute chore!!
I will now go back to watching Planet 51 :)
Thanks again,
Vijay
Vijay Sankar, M.Eng., P.Eng.
ForeTell Technologies Limited
[email protected]
Vijay Sankar, M.Eng., P.Eng.
ForeTell Technologies Limited
[email protected]
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