Using Qemu for creating bootable USB when wireless is needed.

[sossego]

If your machine has a wireless driver that has to be built, you can attach a usb key to your machine and make it into a functioning system.
# chmod 777 /dev/daX Because you are installing a new system, you want the normal user to have complete rights to the usb device.
$ qemu-system-i386 -cdrom /path/to/iso/or/device -hda /dev/dX -boot d

It can be time consuming but it works. I created a Debian key; and, of course, one should know that FreeBSD will also work.

What is it good for and what equipment can be used? A spare portable drive and older computers. I have not had much progress trying powerpc builds on i386.

 

[sossego]

Be sure to do the following before running Qemu.
# chmod 777 /path/to/usb
For some reason, this seems to be necessary for each boot.
If you have an older system such as I do and are using kqemu:
# kldload aio && kldload kqemu

It also helps if the kernel you are using has the hertz set at a higher frequency. Set this at 2000 or 2500 on the guest. If the guest is a Linux system, be sure that a kernel with the 1000Hz option is being used.