From cmusser at sonic.net Thu Jun 13 09:40:29 2013 From: cmusser at sonic.net (Charles Musser) Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 16:40:29 -0700 Subject: [flashboot] flashboot on Soekris 4826 Message-ID: <64EB5E7C-3626-48AC-A4EF-40227CDAC44B@sonic.net> I'm trying to work through the procedure for installing Flashboot for the first time. This Soekris has no removable CF, so I'm using PXEboot to start the standard 5.2 bsd.rd kernel and then see if I could noodle my way through it. I formatted the disk with newfs (specifically, I formatted the "a" partition on the disk), copied the "boot" program over, then used installboot. From here, I'm not sure what to do. The overview in Github mentions a bsd.gz file, but I don't know where to find that. Also, there are images on Github, but again, I don't quite understand which one is appropriate. There are disk images and kernels. It seems like a whole image is what's needed here, but I'm not sure. Finally, I don't know the mechanics of importing these images: one possibility is "dd", but that might overwrite whatever installboot did. Do you have any advice on how to try out flashboot on this device? Thanks, Chuck From jrm at crackpot.org Sat Jun 15 23:34:58 2013 From: jrm at crackpot.org (John Makosky) Date: Sat, 15 Jun 2013 08:34:58 -0500 Subject: [flashboot] flashboot on Soekris 4826 In-Reply-To: <64EB5E7C-3626-48AC-A4EF-40227CDAC44B@sonic.net> References: <64EB5E7C-3626-48AC-A4EF-40227CDAC44B@sonic.net> Message-ID: <51BC6D82.4060300@crackpot.org> Chuck, It should be possible to PXE boot to a bsd.rd kernel (or maybe directly to a flashboot kernel?), and then use dd to install a flashboot image to your flash memory. Admittedly, I have never tried this. You could also roll your own very basic boot environment, and transfer a flashboot kernel, as you've been trying. More information can be found at https://github.com/openbsd/flashboot/blob/master/README.md. https://github.com/openbsd/flashboot/blob/master/build-diskimage.sh is a nice encapsulation of what you would need to do with your flash device to make it work, or to roll your own image. At this point, the image files and kernels on Github are based on OpenBSD 5.0, and no longer supported. There has been some activity to update Flashboot to version 5.3, but it does not seem to be ready, yet. I have reported a couple bugs, and am waiting for a little help to get them fixed. Good luck! -John From cmusser at sonic.net Sun Jun 16 07:05:44 2013 From: cmusser at sonic.net (Charles Musser) Date: Sat, 15 Jun 2013 14:05:44 -0700 Subject: [flashboot] flashboot on Soekris 4826 In-Reply-To: <51BC6D82.4060300@crackpot.org> References: <64EB5E7C-3626-48AC-A4EF-40227CDAC44B@sonic.net> <51BC6D82.4060300@crackpot.org> Message-ID: Yep, that's the way to do it. You PXEboot a bsd.rd, drop into the shell, then use FTP and "dd" to blast the image onto the flash device. And yeah, reading build-diskimage.sh is very instructive. I had deduced a fair amount of what needed to be done, but there are several things in there that I probably wouldn't have figured out in a reasonable amount of time. After a couple of days of fooling around with it (with some very generous online help from another list member), I got it going. I started out with those pre-built images (the ones you mention that are based on 5.0), then built my own image by cloning Flashboot from Github, running the scripts and tweaking them slightly to add some additional stuff. It all works. The images I built are based on 5.2. I would have tried 5.3, but my build machine is a virtual host and there was supposedly some difficulty getting 5.3 to work reliably on whatever virtualization they're using. So my initial question about getting the stuff onto the 4826 has been answered, and now I'm moving on to further customization. One big mystery is how to build a system that's "read-write", i.e.. not based entirely on a ramdisk and a "flash" partiion mounted read-only. But that's a new topic entirely. Eventually, I'll post a writeup on how I did it, along with some more general "overview" material that may be useful for the project documentation. Chuck On Jun 15, 2013, at 6:34 AM, John Makosky wrote: > Chuck, > > It should be possible to PXE boot to a bsd.rd kernel (or maybe directly > to a flashboot kernel?), and then use dd to install a flashboot image to > your flash memory. Admittedly, I have never tried this. > > You could also roll your own very basic boot environment, and transfer a > flashboot kernel, as you've been trying. More information can be found > at https://github.com/openbsd/flashboot/blob/master/README.md. > https://github.com/openbsd/flashboot/blob/master/build-diskimage.sh is a > nice encapsulation of what you would need to do with your flash device > to make it work, or to roll your own image. > > At this point, the image files and kernels on Github are based on > OpenBSD 5.0, and no longer supported. There has been some activity to > update Flashboot to version 5.3, but it does not seem to be ready, yet. > I have reported a couple bugs, and am waiting for a little help to get > them fixed. Good luck! > > -John > _______________________________________________ > flashboot mailing list > flashboot at mindrot.org > https://lists.mindrot.org/mailman/listinfo/flashboot From jrm at crackpot.org Sun Jun 16 13:17:43 2013 From: jrm at crackpot.org (John Makosky) Date: Sat, 15 Jun 2013 22:17:43 -0500 Subject: [flashboot] Issue #20: SOEKRIS 4801 boots flashboot with OpenBSD 5.3, but I never see a login prompt Message-ID: <51BD2E57.2080105@crackpot.org> Hello, I posted this a couple days ago: https://github.com/openbsd/flashboot/issues/20 Summary: no login prompt on the serial console of a SOEKRIS net4801 with flashboot/OpenBSD 5.3. Boots fine to single user mode. I suspect a pty problem (permissions, perhaps), but have no evidence to back that up. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers, -John From stu at spacehopper.org Sun Jun 16 18:37:56 2013 From: stu at spacehopper.org (Stuart Henderson) Date: Sun, 16 Jun 2013 09:37:56 +0100 Subject: [flashboot] Issue #20: SOEKRIS 4801 boots flashboot with OpenBSD 5.3, but I never see a login prompt In-Reply-To: <51BD2E57.2080105@crackpot.org> References: <51BD2E57.2080105@crackpot.org> Message-ID: <20130616083756.GG12631@symphytum.spacehopper.org> On 2013/06/15 22:17, John Makosky wrote: > Hello, > > I posted this a couple days ago: > https://github.com/openbsd/flashboot/issues/20 > > Summary: no login prompt on the serial console of a SOEKRIS net4801 with > flashboot/OpenBSD 5.3. Boots fine to single user mode. I suspect a pty > problem (permissions, perhaps), but have no evidence to back that up. > Any help would be greatly appreciated. Check that /etc/ttys has tty00 enabled and the correct speed set. From jrm at crackpot.org Mon Jun 17 00:28:39 2013 From: jrm at crackpot.org (John Makosky) Date: Sun, 16 Jun 2013 09:28:39 -0500 Subject: [flashboot] Issue #20: SOEKRIS 4801 boots flashboot with OpenBSD 5.3, but I never see a login prompt In-Reply-To: <20130616083756.GG12631@symphytum.spacehopper.org> References: <51BD2E57.2080105@crackpot.org> <20130616083756.GG12631@symphytum.spacehopper.org> Message-ID: <51BDCB97.7040504@crackpot.org> On 6/16/13 03:37 , Stuart Henderson wrote: > On 2013/06/15 22:17, John Makosky wrote: >> Summary: no login prompt on the serial console of a SOEKRIS net4801 with >> flashboot/OpenBSD 5.3. Boots fine to single user mode. > Check that /etc/ttys has tty00 enabled and the correct speed set. > Thank you, Stuart. I had mistakenly changed the console line, rather than tty00. I'm coming back to flashboot/OpenBSD after a 4+ year hiatus, and it seems that some cobwebs have accumulated, upstairs. Onward... -John From jakob at kirei.se Mon Jun 17 00:48:16 2013 From: jakob at kirei.se (Jakob Schlyter) Date: Sun, 16 Jun 2013 16:48:16 +0200 Subject: [flashboot] Issue #20: SOEKRIS 4801 boots flashboot with OpenBSD 5.3, but I never see a login prompt In-Reply-To: <51BDCB97.7040504@crackpot.org> References: <51BD2E57.2080105@crackpot.org> <20130616083756.GG12631@symphytum.spacehopper.org> <51BDCB97.7040504@crackpot.org> Message-ID: <818994E6-24B3-49E8-BFC3-DB0447B4720B@kirei.se> On 16 jun 2013, at 16:28, John Makosky wrote: > On 6/16/13 03:37 , Stuart Henderson wrote: >> On 2013/06/15 22:17, John Makosky wrote: >>> Summary: no login prompt on the serial console of a SOEKRIS net4801 with >>> flashboot/OpenBSD 5.3. Boots fine to single user mode. >> Check that /etc/ttys has tty00 enabled and the correct speed set. >> > Thank you, Stuart. I had mistakenly changed the console line, rather > than tty00. I'm coming back to flashboot/OpenBSD after a 4+ year > hiatus, and it seems that some cobwebs have accumulated, upstairs. > Onward... Was the flashboot default /etc/ttys correct? If not, please submit a change request. jakob From stu at spacehopper.org Mon Jun 17 18:44:15 2013 From: stu at spacehopper.org (Stuart Henderson) Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 09:44:15 +0100 Subject: [flashboot] Issue #20: SOEKRIS 4801 boots flashboot with OpenBSD 5.3, but I never see a login prompt In-Reply-To: <818994E6-24B3-49E8-BFC3-DB0447B4720B@kirei.se> References: <51BD2E57.2080105@crackpot.org> <20130616083756.GG12631@symphytum.spacehopper.org> <51BDCB97.7040504@crackpot.org> <818994E6-24B3-49E8-BFC3-DB0447B4720B@kirei.se> Message-ID: <20130617084415.GI10765@symphytum.spacehopper.org> On 2013/06/16 16:48, Jakob Schlyter wrote: > On 16 jun 2013, at 16:28, John Makosky wrote: > > > On 6/16/13 03:37 , Stuart Henderson wrote: > >> On 2013/06/15 22:17, John Makosky wrote: > >>> Summary: no login prompt on the serial console of a SOEKRIS net4801 with > >>> flashboot/OpenBSD 5.3. Boots fine to single user mode. > >> Check that /etc/ttys has tty00 enabled and the correct speed set. > >> > > Thank you, Stuart. I had mistakenly changed the console line, rather > > than tty00. I'm coming back to flashboot/OpenBSD after a 4+ year > > hiatus, and it seems that some cobwebs have accumulated, upstairs. > > Onward... > > Was the flashboot default /etc/ttys correct? If not, please submit a change request. It's wrong, I've just fixed it.