Adding FreeBSD to YUMI Multiboot USB stick

[balanga]

I'm in the process of creating a maintenance USB stick which will contain various OSes and utilities. I would like to include FreeBSD as one of the utilities so that I can run it as a 'Live CD'.

Has anyone managed to do this successfully?

I have added FreeBSD-10.1-RELEASE-i386-bootonly.iso to Multiboot stick and FreeBSD does start booting but stops with a mountroot> prompt.

This particular image is attempting to mount root from:-

cd9660:/dev/iso9660/FREEBSD_INSTALL

which I guess is hardcoded in the image.

Is there a more suitable image I can try? Or how can I work out a suitable mountpoint?

I suppose I could try mounting the ISO under FreeBSD, changing some file (fstab?) and rebuilding the ISO - would that work?

 

[wblock@]

It's due to labels. See glabel(8). It's worth trying to use the memory stick image instead. Ordinary multiboot installers like that often don't understand the partitioning or labels used by FreeBSD.

 

[linux->bsd]

I tried YUMI a long time ago, but didn't like it. easy2boot is much easier to maintain and use, and can be created on either Windows or Linux. The initial setup is the biggest hurdle since the documentation is so ... voluminous, but once created, adding new images is a lot easier than with YUMI.

Here's a list of tested and compatible images.

And here's the guide I followed to get FreeBSD 10.3 working (both as a Live CD and installer).

Here's my list of Linux (and now BSD) utilities on easy2boot:

linux_pc ~ # ls -1 /media/thumbdrive/_ISO/LINUX/
archlinux-2014.12.01-dual.iso
debian-7.5.0-amd64-netinst.iso
debian-live-7.7.0-amd64-standard.iso
freebsd10_3
freebsd10_3.imgPTN
freebsd11_0
gparted-live-0.14.0-1.iso
linuxmint-17-kde-dvd-64bit.iso
Rescu_A_Tux.iso
systemrescuecd-x86-4.4.1.iso
systemrescuecd-x86-4.7.1.iso

 

[balanga]

Thanks for pointing out easy2boot.... It does seem quite complicated although I have managed to add a couple of utilities and Linux distros, but I can't get my head around adding a FreeBSD image.... I tried the guide you mentioned but have been unable to follow it successfully.

 

[linux->bsd]

Thanks for pointing out easy2boot.... It does seem quite complicated although I have managed to add a couple of utilities and Linux distros, but I can't get my head around adding a FreeBSD image.... I tried the guide you mentioned but have been unable to follow it successfully.

No problem. Which step are you stuck on in the guide? My first attempt at getting it right didn't work either. Or are you stuck in the seemingly-loop after adding the FreeBSD image and .PTN file? The guide isn't very clear on that last step.

In my example above, when I boot into easy2boot I'm greeted with the normal boot options, navigate through a couple of screens until I see the FreeBSD entry, then after clicking on that entry easy2boot rewrites its boot sector (or something like that) and switches to the screen displayed in the guide. That's when you have to select the FreeBSD entry again to finally boot into it.

Edit: here are the three images (out of order) that you should see. 1.png, then 3.png, then 2.png.

Edit2: this guide might be a bit more straight-forward.

 

[balanga]

I just can't figure out how to make the .PTN file...

 

[linux->bsd]

I just can't figure out how to make the .PTN file...

Start here.

Follow steps 1 - 3 under the 'Quick Start Instructions' heading.

Then go here.

Follow steps 1 - 5.

You should end up with something that looks like this on your thumb drive (their example):

FreeBSD_10_1.imgPTN
FreeBSD_10_1

You can see the files I added to my thumb drive in one of my earlier replies.

Creating the .PTN file is a total of four steps:

1. Install ImDisk from their MPI Tool Kit download.
2. Use their CreateDesktopShortcuts.cmd script to create the needed shortcuts on your desktop.
3. Create an empty folder on your desktop named FreeBSD_10_3.imgPTN (or whatever else you want to call it (but no periods allowed)).
4. Drag and drop that folder onto the desktop icon named MPI_FAT32

Be sure to use a memstick FreeBSD image.