AMD64 embedded snapshot

RpR · Jan 26, 2011, 1:37 PM

Hi,

the amd64 embedded snapshot is empty is this normal? Anyone has a working link?
Or should I use something else to install pfsense on a 2Gb usb stick.
It is a board with an intel atom 1,6Ghz processor.

jimp · Jan 26, 2011, 4:36 PM

There are no amd64 NanoBSD images. You can use the USB memstick image but it's meant to be used as an installer, not to run long term.

You could just use the i386 nanobsd image on there as well. That would work.

Unless you have >4gb of RAM you probably don't need the amd64 version on an Atom anyhow.

If you have a multi-core Atom (330, D510, etc), you probably want to use a full install with the SMP kernel anyhow, not the embedded version.

RpR · Jan 26, 2011, 5:38 PM

@jimp:

There are no amd64 NanoBSD images. You can use the USB memstick image but it's meant to be used as an installer, not to run long term.

You could just use the i386 nanobsd image on there as well. That would work.

Unless you have >4gb of RAM you probably don't need the amd64 version on an Atom anyhow.

If you have a multi-core Atom (330, D510, etc), you probably want to use a full install with the SMP kernel anyhow, not the embedded version.

But I want to install it on usb. Should I use nano bsd or the full to have a full dual core atom?

jimp · Jan 26, 2011, 5:55 PM

Then you will need to use the NanoBSD i386 version. Anything else will likely trash a flash filesystem over time. Exactly how much time depends on the quality of the flash device being used.

If you want to run a full install to take better advantage of that hardware, you could use a hard drive or SSD.

ptt · Jan 26, 2011, 6:00 PM

RpR

im using the 2.0-BETA5 (i386) on a intel D410PT ( atom d410 single core with hyperthreading enabled ) and the the SMP kernel installed on a SATA HDD and works fine. You can find an low capacity HDD for a few $…

clarknova · Feb 1, 2011, 11:07 PM

Is there any plan to include 64-bit nanobsd builds in the future? I'm just putting together an i3 build with 4GB of RAM in a mini-box m350 case. With the i3 installed there is no fitting a 2.5" drive in the case, so my choices are USB or SATA-SSD stick. The latter option is quite a bit more expensive, and hard to justify when I have no other reason to go with a full install.

It was my choice to go with this small case, and I'll live with it. I just think there's a place for 64-bit embedded, and I want to cast a vote in favour of it.

jimp · Feb 1, 2011, 11:18 PM

It's certainly possible, the builders are capable of it.

You're also losing access to one or more cores (embedded builds have no SMP support) and the VGA console, too…

The kernel configs could be adjusted to add those in, I suppose it's safe to assume that amd64 based systems would have those at this stage.

clarknova · Feb 1, 2011, 11:52 PM

Yeah, I think VGA and especially SMP support would be big pluses. Some of my builds are embedded only because of my choice of storage medium/boot drive, but otherwise would benefit from all the other facilities of a pfsense build.

clarknova · Feb 2, 2011, 5:06 AM

More I think about it the more I would like to have a 64-bit embedded build with SMP and VGA. Could it be done for 1.2.3 in a week? Would a bounty help?

jimp · Feb 2, 2011, 5:09 AM

The state of the builder code for 1.2.3 isn't exactly solid right now… We've only been ensuring that 2.0 on FreeBSD 8.1 builds.

Various failures in ports for 1.2.3 on FreeBSD 7.2 won't let a newly made builder work as things are right now. The PHP4 ports (and some others) need some TLC to maintain working on 7.2.

clarknova · Feb 2, 2011, 5:13 AM

What about doing this for 2.0 then? Could it be integrated into the automatic snapshot builds?

jimp · Feb 2, 2011, 5:15 AM

For 2.0, yeah.

Actually we don't have any support for doing amd64 builds of 1.2.3 either - lots of things in PHP needed fixed for that, so 2.0 would be the only way to go.

Since we don't have any amd64 embedded snapshots now it should be possible to set them up however is needed. It can be looked into. It may not be that hard to do.

clarknova · Feb 2, 2011, 5:19 AM

Please look into it when you have a moment. I have a build on the bench that could use it. I'm due to donate to the project anyway.

jimp · Feb 2, 2011, 7:44 PM

Actually I was incorrect about SMP, the embedded kernels in 2.0 actually do have SMP in them already. The option isn't in the config file, but the builder code adds it along the way.

So it's mainly just the VGA bits.

clarknova · Feb 2, 2011, 8:10 PM

So building amd64 embedded snaps with SMP but no VGA could be fairly trivial at this point? Flip the switch!