On Wed, Jan 30, 2008 at 01:16:11PM +0100, frantisek holop wrote:
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> hmm, on Tue, Jan 29, 2008 at 11:21:40AM -0500, Nick Holland said that
> > frantisek holop wrote:
> > >hmm, on Tue, Jan 29, 2008 at 09:45:27AM -0500, Nick Holland said that
> > >>(short version: just do a normal install to the flash disk)
> > >
> > >how do i boot bsd.rd to make an install to the flash disk?
> > >chicken egg.  i dont have an usb cdrom, nor floppy disk.
> > >only usb media.  i need to create a bootable usb media...
> > >
> > >-f
> > 
> > see the referenced thread...
> > 
> > Prep the install device on another machine.  Other machine just needs
> 
> should have been clearer probably...
> i am on the road.  there is no other machine...
> all i have is the eee and the internet and the usb media.
> 
> 
> my understanding of the boot process process for i386 tells me,
> all i need is ia bootsector from someone who already has an openbsd
> bootable usb media and the instructions which bytes to change
> based on what :) (where is boot(8) on my usb media)
> 

The problem is that installboot(8) writes biosboot(8) to the
partition boot record and in that process "inserts the block
number and offset of the inode of the second-stage boot
program boot(8) so that the biosboot(8) program can load it".

So although it is trivial to give you a PBR it is not 
simple to find out how to change it to load boot(8)
on your particular USB media.

Another problem is that for biosboot(8) and boot(8) to work
they and /bsd or /bsd.rd must be on a Berkley Fast File System,
OpenBSD's filesystem.

So, to create the filesystem and prepare it for boot, you
or someone else need both an OpenBSD machine and the
USB media. I know of no ISOLINUX loadable bsd.rd,
although it might be possible. The OpenBSD kernel is not
of the same executable format as the Linux kernel,
so ISOLINUX is not applicable, as I know it.

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> OR
> 
> something like the zaurus process...  install a linux package
> and can run bsd.rd directly from linux.  i think this one is
> becoming more and more needed for i386 too, in this world of
> floppyless, cdromless devices...  a little utility that
> can run bsd.rd from linux/dos...
> 
> > but it would be cheaper to just prep it on another machine. :)
> 
> i definitely agree.  but if someone is so intimate with the
> boot sector code that can give me this info, saves a lot of
> hassle for me.  thats why i wrote to the list, maybe someone
> really is...
> 

If someone would create a bootable USB media containing just
a ffs root partition with /boot and /bsd (renamed bsd.rd),
about 6 MByte should suffice, would it be enough to
dd it into a binary image for you to somehow (have you
got the means?) write it onto the USB media? If your
Eee runs Linux as they are supposed to, it should be
as simple as dd.

Would you prefer 4.2 or a current (Jan 28) snapshot?

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> 
> > (some people will say dd the floppy image onto the flash device, but
> > the functionality of that depends upon your BIOS's USB boot code.
> 
> i havent tried this one yet, but just for the kicks i tried
> cd42.iso an that of course didnt work.
> 

If you haven't, try floppy42.fs instead.
It works on some older machines.

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> -f
> -- 
> recursive, adj.; see recursive

-- 

/ Raimo Niskanen, Erlang/OTP, Ericsson AB