FreeBSD equivalent of Rufus

loveydovey said:
It's easy to download and compile this: https://github.com/pbatard/ms-sys
I compiled it, it's supposed to work. I tried it but didn't have time to figure it out. I wonder if anyone had luck using that.
Click to expand...
I tried to get this to work but couldn't produce a bootable device. Maybe I didn't stumble on the correct options.

It compiles OK. I only need to install standard FreeBSD pkgs gmake and gettext-tools and run gmake.

Problem is I get so many options and don't know what to choose or what to expect.

I only want to create a bootable USB stick initially, I'm not bothered what boots up. Once I have it working I can experiment.

I tried ms-sys -7 /dev/da0

and got a response that a Windows 7 master boot record had been successfully written to /dev/da0 but it was not recognised as a bootable device when I tried to boot from it.
 
Does not seems like many, just take the good ones,
Code: 
Usage:
    ms-sys [options] [device]
Options:
    -1, --fat12     Write a FAT12 floppy boot record to device
    -2, --fat32nt5  Write a FAT32 partition NT5.0 boot record to device
    -8, --fat32nt6  Write a FAT32 partition NT6.0 boot record to device
    -x, --exfatnt6  Write a EXFAT partition NT6.0 boot record to device
    -e, --fat32pe   Write a FAT32 partition PE boot record to device
    -3, --fat32     Write a FAT32 partition DOS boot record to device
    -4, --fat32free Write a FAT32 partition FreeDOS boot record to device
    -5, --fat16free Write a FAT16 partition FreeDOS boot record to device
    -6, --fat16     Write a FAT16 partition DOS boot record to device
    -n, --ntfs      Write a NTFS partition Windows 7 boot record to device
    -o, --fat16ros  Write a FAT16 partition ReactOS boot record to device
    -c, --fat32ros  Write a FAT32 partition ReactOS boot record to device
    -q, --fat32kos  Write a FAT32 partition KolibriOS boot record to device
    -l, --wipelabel Reset partition disk label in boot record
    -p, --partition Write partition info (hidden sectors, heads and drive id)
                    to boot record
    -H, --heads <n> Manually set number of heads if partition info is written
    -B, --bps <n>   Manually set number of bytes per sector (default 512)
    -O, --writeoem <s>   Write OEM ID string <s> to file system
    -S, --writewds <x>   Write Windows Disk Signature hexadecimal <x> to MBR
    -7, --mbr7      Write a Windows 7 MBR to device
    -i, --mbrvista  Write a Windows Vista MBR to device
    -m, --mbr       Write a Windows 2000/XP/2003 MBR to device
    -9, --mbr95b    Write a Windows 95B/98/98SE/ME MBR to device
    -d, --mbrdos    Write a DOS/Windows NT MBR to device
    -s, --mbrsyslinux    Write a Syslinux MBR to device
    -t, --mbrgptsyslinux Write a Syslinux GPT MBR to device
    -a, --mbrreactos     Write a ReactOS MBR to device
    -k, --mbrkolibrios   Write a KolibriOS MBR to device
    -r, --mbrrufus  Write a Rufus MBR to device
    -g, --mbrgrub4dos    Write a Grub4Dos MBR to device
    -b, --mbrgrub2  Write a Grub 2 MBR to device
    -z, --mbrzero   Write an empty (zeroed) MBR to device
    -f, --force     Force writing of boot record
    -h, --help      Display this help and exit
    -v, --version   Show program version
    -w, --write     Write automatically selected boot record to device

    Default         Inspect current boot record

Warning: Writing the wrong kind of boot record to a device might
destroy partition information or file system!
 
AI warning,
Important Considerations

  • Dangerous Tool: Use it with extreme caution. Running the wrong command can "obliterate" your entire MBR and partition table.
  • Modern Compatibility: While it supports newer versions like Windows 7, it is mostly effective for BIOS/MBR systems. Its usefulness for modern UEFI/GPT systems is limited.
  • No File Copying: Unlike the DOS sys command, ms-sys does not copy system files (like io.sys or msdos.sys); you must manually copy those if you are building a bootable disk from scratch
 
Alain De Vos said:
Does not seems like many, just take the good ones,
Code: 
Usage:
    ms-sys [options] [device]
Options:
    -1, --fat12     Write a FAT12 floppy boot record to device
    -2, --fat32nt5  Write a FAT32 partition NT5.0 boot record to device
    -8, --fat32nt6  Write a FAT32 partition NT6.0 boot record to device
    -x, --exfatnt6  Write a EXFAT partition NT6.0 boot record to device
    -e, --fat32pe   Write a FAT32 partition PE boot record to device
    -3, --fat32     Write a FAT32 partition DOS boot record to device
    -4, --fat32free Write a FAT32 partition FreeDOS boot record to device
    -5, --fat16free Write a FAT16 partition FreeDOS boot record to device
    -6, --fat16     Write a FAT16 partition DOS boot record to device
    -n, --ntfs      Write a NTFS partition Windows 7 boot record to device
    -o, --fat16ros  Write a FAT16 partition ReactOS boot record to device
    -c, --fat32ros  Write a FAT32 partition ReactOS boot record to device
    -q, --fat32kos  Write a FAT32 partition KolibriOS boot record to device
    -l, --wipelabel Reset partition disk label in boot record
    -p, --partition Write partition info (hidden sectors, heads and drive id)
                    to boot record
    -H, --heads <n> Manually set number of heads if partition info is written
    -B, --bps <n>   Manually set number of bytes per sector (default 512)
    -O, --writeoem <s>   Write OEM ID string <s> to file system
    -S, --writewds <x>   Write Windows Disk Signature hexadecimal <x> to MBR
    -7, --mbr7      Write a Windows 7 MBR to device
    -i, --mbrvista  Write a Windows Vista MBR to device
    -m, --mbr       Write a Windows 2000/XP/2003 MBR to device
    -9, --mbr95b    Write a Windows 95B/98/98SE/ME MBR to device
    -d, --mbrdos    Write a DOS/Windows NT MBR to device
    -s, --mbrsyslinux    Write a Syslinux MBR to device
    -t, --mbrgptsyslinux Write a Syslinux GPT MBR to device
    -a, --mbrreactos     Write a ReactOS MBR to device
    -k, --mbrkolibrios   Write a KolibriOS MBR to device
    -r, --mbrrufus  Write a Rufus MBR to device
    -g, --mbrgrub4dos    Write a Grub4Dos MBR to device
    -b, --mbrgrub2  Write a Grub 2 MBR to device
    -z, --mbrzero   Write an empty (zeroed) MBR to device
    -f, --force     Force writing of boot record
    -h, --help      Display this help and exit
    -v, --version   Show program version
    -w, --write     Write automatically selected boot record to device

    Default         Inspect current boot record

Warning: Writing the wrong kind of boot record to a device might
destroy partition information or file system!
Click to expand...
I'm basically trying find one option which does something discernable. I haven't found anything so far and would like to know that someone has got this working. Maybe is doesn't actually do anything on FreeBSD.
 
I did bootable USB flash from Windows ISO couple times with ntfs-3g, ms-sys and 7z. Its rather easy. Just keep few things in mind:

1. NTFS partition should be created with some offset from start of disk.
2. 2 bootblocks should be installed with ms-sys. One for disk and one for partition.
3. Partition geometry should be provided to mkntfs to write proper boot records.

Good luck
 
Vladimir Kondratyev said:
I did bootable USB flash from Windows ISO couple times with ntfs-3g, ms-sys and 7z. Its rather easy. Just keep few things in mind:

1. NTFS partition should be created with some offset from start of disk.
2. 2 bootblocks should be installed with ms-sys. One for disk and one for partition.
3. Partition geometry should be provided to mkntfs to write proper boot records.

Good luck
Click to expand...
Just to confirm, you have created a USB stick which boots Windows and you did this using ms-sys?

I have been unable to get it to work.

Can you tell me what you did and what options you used with ms-sys as everything I've tried so far produced nothing.
 
> Just to confirm, you have created a USB stick which boots Windows and you did this using ms-sys?

Yes.

> Can you tell me what you did and what options you used with ms-sys as everything I've tried so far produced nothing.

about ms-sys. Apply
-7 for boot device
-n for boot partition

There are more prerequisities to boot successfully. See my previous post.
Give me a couple of days to submit ms-sys port and ntfs-3g patches to make things easier. I will post command sequence after that.
 
Just wait quitly until patches arrive. [& Any partition can be created with gpart, gpart knows "type" but not "format" ]
[ On linux they are shown as fat32 ; Microsoft reserved partition ; Basic data partition ; note i'm not a specialist]
 
Assume that da0 is clean USB stick and Windows10.iso is ISO image. Proper command sequence for patched ntfs-3g is:

sudo gpart create -s MBR da0
sudo gpart add -t ntfs -a 8064 da0
sudo gpart set -a active -i 1 da0
sudo mkntfs -v -f /dev/da0s1
sudo ms-sys -7 /dev/da0
sudo ms-sys -n /dev/da0s1
sudo ntfs-3g /dev/da0s1 /mnt
7z x -o/mnt Windows10.iso

For unpatched ntfs-3g you must supply NTFS partition geometry via command-line parameters. See man mkntfs.
 
Following your examples I created a USB stick but can't boot from it.

Does it require UEFI to boot because I'm trying it on a very old machine. There is no error msg when I'm trying to boot although nothing at all appears on screen.

If I try to mount the USB stick I get this message:-
Code: 
Incomplete multi-sector transfer: magic: 0x454c4946  size: 1024  usa_ofs: 48  usa_count: 2  data: 0  usn: 1: Input/output error
Record 0 has no FILE magic (0x44414142)
Failed to load $MFT: Input/output error
Failed to mount '/dev/da0s1': Input/output error
NTFS is either inconsistent, or there is a hardware fault, or it's a
SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windows
then reboot into Windows twice. The usage of the /f parameter is very
important! If the device is a SoftRAID/FakeRAID then first activate
it and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/ directory, (e.g.
/dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1). Please see the 'dmraid' documentation
for more details.
 
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