eMMC storage

Well with an x86 board you could just boot up off a FreeBSD memstick and install it from there.
If it were me, I would go into LiveCD mode, use ls /dev to get an idea of what the mmc node is called.
 
Unfortunately it stops in the process of booting - last msg being:-
Code: 
atkbd0: [GIANT-LOCKED]
ppc0: cannot reserve I/O range
 
FreeBSD 12.0-CURRENT gives me this:-

Code: 
atkbd0: [GIANT-LOCKED]
atkbdc0: non-PNP ISA device will be removed from GENERIC in FreeBSD 12.
 
Phishfry said:
Well with an x86 board you could just boot up off a FreeBSD memstick and install it from there.
If it were me, I would go into LiveCD mode, use ls /dev to get an idea of what the mmc node is called.
Click to expand...

Code: 
crw-r-----   1 root  operator  0x38 Jan  3 15:32 mmcsd0
crw-r-----   1 root  operator  0x4b Jan  3 15:32 mmcsd0boot0
crw-r-----   1 root  operator  0x4c Jan  3 15:32 mmcsd0boot1
crw-r-----   1 root  operator  0x39 Jan  3 15:32 mmcsd0p1
crw-r-----   1 root  operator  0x3a Jan  3 15:32 mmcsd0p2
crw-r-----   1 root  operator  0x3b Jan  3 15:32 mmcsd0p3
crw-r-----   1 root  operator  0x3c Jan  3 15:32 mmcsd0p4
crw-r-----   1 root  operator  0x4d Jan  3 15:32 mmcsd0rpmb

gpart show
Code: 
=>      34  60620733  mmcsd0  GPT  (29G)
        34      2014          - free -  (1.0M)
      2048    204800       1  efi  (100M)
    206848    262144       2  ms-reserved  (128M)
    468992  58542080       3  ms-basic-data  (28G)
  59011072   1607680       4  ms-recovery  (785M)
  60618752      2015          - free -  (1.0M)
 
Well from here you have to decide if you want to wipe the whole eMMC. If so just dd zero it.
dd if=/dev/zero of=/mmcsd0 bs=1M

You probably could just gpart destroy the GPT if you want to save some time.

Perhaps you could backup the eMMC before destroying contents in case you ever want to revert back.
 
If using FreeBSD on the eMMC you need to consider the use of trim and also you might want to reduce the level of logging to avoid costly disk writes.
If you notice on Arm they offload 3 directories to memory disks via fstab. That is an approach worth considering.
The idea being that the eMMC is a fixed drive. Once you burn it up there is no replacing it.
It does make for a nice OS drive for things like tvheadend or even zoneminder.
I put the OS plus apps on eMMC and use SATA for storage which has a high turnover rate.

edit#looking at yours there is no eSATA jack, but I do see USB3 and SD Card slot.
These would also be good for external storage. You really want to go easy on the eMMC.

Seeing how you need to run -CURRENT then you really need to recompile after install to build/ installkernel KERNCONF=GENERIC-NODEBUG .
All those debugging features on -CURRENT write to the disk and slow down things.
Plus lots of console chatter that is meaningless.

Are you using this for a media center or desktop?
Not sure if Xorg Intel drivers work with this. I think on -CURRENT there is a newer Intel drm driver.
 
Thanks for the suggestions...

After some experimenting, I've found that I can run 11.1-RELEASE if /boot/loader.conf contains:-
Code: 
hint.uart.0.disabled="1"
hint.uart.1.disabled="1"

For the time being, I'll leave Windows installed and run FreeBSD from a USB hard disk to see how well it works and maybe eventually copy it to eMMC.
eMMC is new to me and the idea of wearing it out is something I hadn't considered. Are there any indicators of how much life is left?

As for backing up what is installed, can I do that using dd or maybe I should use the internal Windows 10 backup option, but then I would need to have Windows installed to be able to restore - seems like a Catch 22 situation...

Also wondered if using the UEFI shell provided a means of copying files from one device to another.
 
balanga said:
Are there any indicators of how much life is left?
Click to expand...
There does not seem to be a good indicator of wear.
Some SSD manufacturers have their own tools but no there is no SMART on my eMMC's.
sysutils/smartmontools has the smartctl tool for devices with SMART enabled in the BIOS.
That tool has mad specs down to number of power-ups and total hours ran and temperatures

balanga said:
As for backing up what is installed, can I do that using dd
Click to expand...
Yes indeed. there are also graphical tools like Clonezilla Live Memstick.
I have also used bootleg WinPE8SE on memstick which has some image tools.

balanga said:
Also wondered if using the UEFI shell provided a means of copying files from one device to another.
Click to expand...
I certain hope not. Whoever decided to put a filesystem in the BIOS should have a pack of wild cats lick him to death..
 
Five years later :)... I'm on at the point of backing up the partitions on the Z83, and trying to figure out what they all are..

gpart show
Code: 
=>      34  60620733  mmcsd0  GPT  (29G)
34      2014          - free -  (1.0M)
2048    204800       1  efi  (100M)
206848    262144       2  ms-reserved  (128M)
468992  58542080       3  ms-basic-data  (28G)
59011072   1607680       4  ms-recovery  (785M)
60618752      2015          - free -  (1.0M)

How should I back this up before blasting it, in case I brick the system if FreeBSD won't boot on it?
 
Nuke it. Don't waste your time. Z83-F works.

Just remember mmcsd0p1 will be efi ; mmcsd0p2 will be root.
I usually delete swap (which installer creates) on flash drives. Then delete root and reinstall / for full size.
If you worried 'it wont work' then boot up installer and test it first.
You might have to interrupt the loader to add your hint. Then boot up normal.

Also when you are done with the installation goto to post install shell and add your hint to /boot/device.hints.
*Note* if you miss this last step you will brick your installation.
Easily fixed by re-booting the installer and use LiveCD mode and edit devices.hints to add your hint..
Also you could add hint manually to loader of installation and boot to fixup.
 
Phishfry said:
I use 500GB USB stick(m.2 inside) primarily. It has FreeBSD installed for maximum usefulness.
Click to expand...
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