What is "nanobsd" ?
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I want to give it a try, but whats the difference between it and the embedded version? From the description from the above link it sounds the same, but the size of the image is bigger 30 (embedded) vs 37 (nanobsd). Any thoughts from anyone?
I think the pfSense code is functionally identical, but apparently the nanobsd images use two slices, one to run off of and one for upgrading. If the upgrade takes, it uses the new slice, but if it fails, the old one is still there.
I need to pick up a spare CF and then I'll give them a spin. I could do it now, but with only one CF it's just kind of a pain to reflash too much, takes too long to get back up and running.
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Ill give it a try in the next 5 mins on an alix c2c and report back.
Slam
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FYI- You only need to download/dd the .img file, the .slice is for upgrades only.
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Opps, thanks, Ill download the non slice images.
Slam
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Ill give it a try in the next 5 mins on an alix c2c and report back.
Slam
Hoj, whare did you go?, you wrote 5min man, iv been waiting here since forever :)
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lol I was half way flashing the slice image when I read Jimps post, so I had to stop and download the correct image, the image is 1GB when unpacked and it took ages to burn, I think atleast 10~13 mins, I dont have no serial port on these alix so I cant connect and see whats happening but Ive had no luck getting an ip from either ports…I have an atheros mini pci card installed, Ill take that out and try again, maybe its prompting for configuration?
Slam
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Looks like I'll need a new CF before I try, mine is only 256MB :)
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Hmm. Decided to try the nano image on my Alix just to see what happens.
Yes, the image is larger. It's go get a refreshing beverage longer. Maybe get up and get some fresh air longer. Not surprising- the root fs is 950M, the custom 1 GB 1.2.2 I built takes about the same time to write to the card.
Once loaded, it seems to run pretty much the same as the standard image. I tried it on a 2d3 with an atheros card and it came up fine with vr0 as lan and vr1 as wan. -
ohh ok.. I have not had time to try this yet, but it has a bigger image by default then the regular embedded? sounds good since it seemed like they were running out of room, at least with the 2.0 version. I will give this a try tonight!
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ohh ok.. I have not had time to try this yet, but it has a bigger image by default then the regular embedded? sounds good since it seemed like they were running out of room, at least with the 2.0 version. I will give this a try tonight!
It may be that is the size for testing, not sure what the final target size will be. I'm also not sure if the usable space will really be 1/2 what you see in the image or what. Since it uses an active slice and an upgrade slice, the total space available may only be half the full image size.
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Not sure how exiciting this is to everyone, but got it up and running on a Soekris 5500 box. Haven't tested much other then looking at the serial console interface, but I will test it out tomorrow night.
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Definitely let us know if she upgrades successfully and any package installations. ;)
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got everything up and running and logged into the web interface. I had some unusual errors at one point when I restarted the box and it had some sort of error and rebooted itself again and worked fine after it did a file system check. Tried to do an auto upgrade, which did not work. Tried downloading the slice and doing a manual update, which did not work. And last but not least I SSH'd in and tried from the console and it failed saying "/var: write failed, filesystem is full" I checked my stats and it says 9% full. Is there another procedure for updating a NanoBSD?
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/var is still a memory disk, so this is the same problem that the embedded upgrades have had.
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A little update, the nanobsd images really haven't seen much testing and debugging by the devs until the last couple days, and even then things are focusing on 2.0 and then backporting fixes where possible.
I've got nano image running on my ALIX right now with a FreeBSD 7.2-based image of 2.0, and it's getting better all the time. There are still some kinks to work out though.
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What have they done so far that is different then the regular 2.0 build? might be worth giving it a try
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The main difference is how the filesystem works and is laid out on the CF and when it is running.
As with the old embedded builds, there is a separate partition for the config and such. There are now two slices (partitions, basically) for the main code, one to run off of, and one for upgrading.
For example, you start off running on slice #1. If you upgrade, it will download an upgrade image and then copy that to slice #2. If that worked and checked out ok, it will activate slice #2 and then reboot from there. It will run from slice #2 until the next upgrade, which will make it switch back to #1.
If for whatever reason an upgrade doesn't work, all you'd have to do is switch the slice back to the old image. On my ALIX, I get the F1/F2 prompt to boot from either slice, and I can just press the corresponding button to boot either image manually (The default is switched to the proper image as part of the upgrade process)
There may now also be some packages on embedded, but which ones and how that will work hasn't been decided upon yet.
As far as FreeBSD and pfSense are concerned, there isn't a much difference so far except for the code that handles nanobsd-specific things like upgrading.
As a consequence of all this cool new stuff the minimum CF size will be 1GB, but seeing as you can get 2GB cards for $10-15 this really shouldn't be all that bad.
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sounds great ;D
does this mean that we can expect a working online update for nanobsd via web interface in the near future?
unscrewing my alix box for updates sometimes really is a pita :Dregards,
foo
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sounds great ;D
does this mean that we can expect a working online update for nanobsd via web interface in the near future?
unscrewing my alix box for updates sometimes really is a pita :Dregards,
foo
I'm with you! I use a second CF card just in case I have to go back. I was thinking about using a Dremel and cutting a slot in the front of the case so I don't have to go through all that. But no matter what, it wouldn't look very good.
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sounds great ;D
does this mean that we can expect a working online update for nanobsd via web interface in the near future?
unscrewing my alix box for updates sometimes really is a pita :DYes, online updates should work just as they do with full versions, actually doing it this way it even more reliable than that method since even if an update trashes the upgrade partition, there is still a working system to run from.
It is a lot better, though I have cut a slot out of the front of my ALIX with a Dremel so I can remove the card whenever I want :)
