How to burn a FreeBSD ISO to a USB device?

threaderslash

threaderslash

Hi folks!

Installing an ISO using a USB external drive has several advantages: it is environmentally correct, it saves money, avoids material waste, etc. etc. etc. FreeBSD provides the memstick.img, supposedly for that purpose - which is great!

Here are a few things I looked around and have tried in order to get a FreeBSD ISO onto the USB device:

  1. Running on FreeBSD and KDE4 from a laptop

    Code: 
    # ./iso2flash.sh -t msdosfs FreeBSD-9.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img /dev/da0s1
./iso2flash.sh: -----------: not found
convert tree -t image 
makefs: Can't stat `-t': No such file or directory
bsdlabel: couldn't read 8192 bytes from msdosfs

    The iso2flash.sh is suggested here.
  2. Running on Mac Mini OSX Mountain Lion

    Code: 
    # dd if="FreeBSD"-9.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img of="/dev/disk1s1 bs="10240"
>

    It hangs and after hours no ISO is mounted onto the USB.

    The second approach is suggested here, and equally failed.

I plan to use the USB SIO to install FreeBSD on a partitioned Mac Mini that doesn't have a CD/DVD reader.

The fact is, neither approach worked, and I haven't found anywhere anything about someone getting a FreeBSD install from USB. So, I wonder what is missing or if there is somebody out there who have managed to make successful use of USB for a FreeBSD install.

I hope that this post might be worth and helpful for others too.

If any clue or hint could be posted, it would be extremely appreciated.
 
The memstick image is not an ISO, so using a utility meant to convert ISO images is a mistake. The quoting in the dd command example is very confused. There should be no quotes there at all.
 
The following is from a KB article on the Apple web site:
Code: 
Intel-based Macs support starting from an external USB storage device's volume that:

- Has been formatted with a GUID partition type
- Contains an installation of Mac OS X 10.4.5 or later, or Mac OS X 10.5 or later, which is 
  compatible with (or shipped with) the Mac that the USB device is connected to.

This suggests to me that attempting to start/boot an Intel-based Mac from USB that does not contain a version of Mac-OS X will FAIL.

Boot into your Mac and try setting the USB memstick as the startup disk. My guess is that System Preferences will not recognize the USB as a bootable device ... at least I could never get my iMac to recognize the FreeBSD boot image on any USB memstick I tried. Welcome to Apple's walled garden?

I have successfully installed FreeBSD-9.1-RELEASE from iso image on my iMac, so the wall has some holes in it.

The full knowledge base article can be found here.
 
Just to mention that installing an ISO from USB on Mac Mini worked nicely with Linux. But I tried every comment posted here. These are the suggestions output:

  1. Running on FreeBSD and KDE4 from a laptop:
    Code: 
    # ./iso2flash.sh -t msdosfs FreeBSD-9.1-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso /dev/da0s1
./iso2flash.sh: -----------: not found
convert tree -t image 
makefs: Can't stat `-t': No such file or directory
bsdlabel: couldn't read 8192 bytes from msdosfs
bsdlabel: bsdlabel: couldn't read 8192 bytes from msdosfscouldn't read 8192 bytes from msdosfs

    So, it failed even this time using the ISO file instead of the stick file.
  2. Running on Mac Mini OSX Mountain Lion:
    # dd if=FreeBSD"-9.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img of=/dev/disk1s1 bs=10240

    This time without quotation marks, it mounted the file onto the USB. Then, restarting the computer on the rEFIt boot menu it shows the daemon logo from the connected USB. Selecting it, when starting the message shows up:

    Code: 
    Boot error
So, any thoughts?
 
An example of installing to MacBook Air is introduced here by Daichi Goto, but in Japanese.

Seems to be able to boot from USB memstick.

Be careful about below, if you use some translation sites to read and follow it.
  • Screenshots of MacOS are Japanese edition, and baically targetted for Japanese users.
  • As you know, it's a risky operation.
  • As I mentioned above, it's an example of MacBook Air, not MacMini.
  • I don't have any Mac, so I have not confirmed by myself.
  • As the author mentiones, introduced procedure uses a functionality of recent firmware to boot from a MBR partition in GPT. (tricky!)
  • Seems to have some typo (GPT -> GTP). So reconfirm all inputs with your environment!
 
Hmm, I still don't get , why you are using a ISO Image instead of the memstick? What type of processor is the Mac Mini? G4 or Intel? I yesterday created a USB stick image on a Mac for my FreeBSD Server with # dd if=FreeBSD-9.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img of=/dev/disk1 bs=64k. When you press the return key nothing happens and you will need to be a bit patient as it takes a while to create the Image on the stick.
 
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