Problems installing 9.0 but the live USB image works fine...

C

cyjad

Ok, let me first admit that I am a total noob at this. I've spent the last couple of weeks exploring FreeBSD 9, FreeNAS 7 and 8, Ubuntu with ZFS all in an effort to determine what would be the best ZFS based file server OS to use.

As a noob, I am confused why I can easily create a live USB (4GB) of FreeBSD 9 using the memstick img and get it up and running without any problems on a Dell Latitude E6400, but I cannot get an install of FreeBSD 9 on a 4GB USB using the live USB stick to boot properly at all. How is it a live USB image can boot properly but not a install from it?

I get some type of Fatal 6 error.

I've searched far a wide on this forum, the FreeBSD Handbook, through other hits on Google and still am not any farther into figuring out the issue.

I really think that the implementation of ZFS on FreeBSD 9 is the best one that I've seen so far, but if I can't get it installed, what's the point. Just a little venting.

Any help/hint would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
 
The problem is probably caused by device names moving around. The first USB stick would be da0, the second da1, etc. However, if you boot with the first USB stick removed the second will change it's device name to da0.

A good way to solve this is to use labels instead of device names.

FreeBSD Labeled Filesystems
 
Thanks for the encouragement. I'm doing my best. I still have not been able to resolve the booting issue with FreeBSD 9. I've switched to looking at PC-BSD 9.0. Its install process seems to be more refined for a noob like me.

However, an installation from a DVD to a USB drive has been literally running for 11 hours and counting on a Dell Latitude E6400 (Core 2 Duo), with a minimal set of options selected(lxde, ports collection, samba, and nvidia drivers). I sure hope it will boot on the USB drive after the installation is completed.

Does anyone know if that install time is within the normal range to install this? I know that this is not the PC-BSD forum. Just wondering if anyone knew if this install time was even in the "normal" ballpark for a minimal FreeBSD based OS on a Core 2 Duo machine. I have no frame of reference to judge.

Thanks.
 
Now I understand more clearly what you are trying to do.

First, to clarify what SirDice was saying (since you are new to this): What it seems was happening when you were trying with FreeBSD is that you were installing from USB da0 to USB da1 (kinda like installing from C: to D: in windows terms). Then, when you removed the first USB da0, then the second USB da1 became da0. So, it was kinda like you had a boot disk C: that was trying to boot from D: (in windows terms). This is a loose analogy, but I hope it will help you understand what was going wrong. That would probably have worked better if you had tried to install from a CD or DVD to USB.

Second, I can tell you that 11 hours is too long for a PC-BSD install. Unfortunately, if you want more help with PC-BSD, then you'll have to take it to their forums, it's a separate project, and you won't find help for that here. I can tell you in general terms that if the install is actually working but taking > 11 hours, then for sure trying to actually run PC-BSD from that connection will be so slow as to be unusable.

In addition, I would suggest that if you are new to FreeBSD, then instead of trying alternate (to external USB) installs, you should try installing to an actual normal hard drive first. Got an old machine? Or, a great alternative is to do some installs on virtual machines, using software such as VirtualBox.
 
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