FreeBSD on Eee

I've managed to install FreeBSD 8.0 on my Eee. I was planning to install NetBSD 5.0, but I found out that I had to convert the ISO to a memory stick image before I can dd it. For some reasons, unetbootin doesn't work with NetBSD's ISOs. There's a script that converts NetBSD ISOs to memstick images, but it seems that it only works on an existing *BSD system. I could have just SSH'd into a remote NetBSD system so that I can run the script there, but I realized that the output would be too big. SSH access is a privilege and not a right; abusing it with large file transfers is a big no-no.

I tried to manually create an image using Mac OS X, but I couldn't initialize my USB stick's MBR (i.e., I couldn't boot from the USB). It says that it couldn't find "/usr/standalone/i386/boot0". I searched for it at the Mac OS X' original install discs, but I couldn't find it there either.

It is possible to install NetBSD using Mac OS X, but I was like, FreeBSD is already available as a memstick image from its FTP site. Why not use it? Thus, I downloaded it, dd'd it to my USB stick, and installed it on my Eee. Everything was straightforward.

Straightforward is boring. I'll try to recompile the kernel to see if I can further reduce its boot time (it boots less than 20sec from GRUB to login). I strongly suspect that I'll just reduce its space but not its boot time, but I'll never know until I try. I'll also try to install NetBSD via PXE, once I'm done playing with FreeBSD. I haven't tried doing it yet.

dnsmasq: unknown interface xennet0

As of version 2.41, dnsmasq doesn't support Xen virtual network interfaces in NetBSD. This means that running dnsmasq inside a Xen domU results in the following error:

dnsmasq: unknown interface xennet0

Uberlord made a patch just a few moments ago:
- http://roy.marples.name/~roy/dnsmasq-netbsd.patch
- http://roy.marples.name/~roy/dnsmasq-bridge.patch

The beauty of Open Source... =)

xen Error: Device 2050 (vbd) could not be connected. Backend device not found.

Problem
NetBSD dom0 is unable to launch more domUs. Attempting to launch more domUs results in the following error:

xen Error: Device 2050 (vbd) could not be connected. Backend device not found.

Solution
The system ran out of loop devices. Create more vnode disks using the following command:

/dev/MAKEDEV vnd1
/dev/MAKEDEV vnd2
...and so on

Xen on NetBSD amd64

I'm trying to install Xen hypervisor on our amd64 box with NetBSD-4.0. I'm getting a couple of errors on getting it to run. The friendly folks at #netbsd told me that I either need to use i386 kernel or use the bleeding edge NetBSD-CURRENT. They suggested that I setup a wiki page to document my progress. I've created an account at http://wiki.netbsd.se/ and I'll see how it goes. I hope this small contribution would benefit others who need to use Xen/NetBSD on x86_64 hardware.

UPDATE: Here's the wiki page-- http://wiki.netbsd.se/Xen_3.1_on_x86_64

NetBSD 4.0

Okidoki, I finally had time to install NetBSD 4.0. As expected, NetBSD was able to support a box with ICH9 chipset. Impressive. I was about to assign almost 250GB to my / partition (I hate having to assign fixed space among multiple partitions, and I don't find dangerously-dedicated partitions particularly dangerous anyway), but I've stumbled upon an online discussion stating that Xen has some issues with a large root partition (yeah, yeah... I often find myself stumbling upon something that I wasn't looking for pretty lately. I seem to have this thing with serendipity). It also has a few issues on non FFSv1-formatted partitions as well. Oh well, I guess I just have to take their word for it. The box is humming steadily as it downloads the necessary packages.

BSD on a box with ICH9 chipset

I've been trying to install FreeBSD on a box with an ICH9 chipset to no avail. FreeBSD-CURRENT (the soon to be 8.0) doesn't seem to work either. There has been discussions in the mailing list that it works with FreeBSD-CURRENT, but it really doesn't work on my box.

NetBSD seems to support ICH9 on 4.0, but I prefer FreeBSD over NetBSD. Oh well, I'll just download the ISO and see how it goes. If it works, then I'll try to replace the kernel with a Xen hypervisor. Our box has a whooping 250GB of hard disk space, and it's more than enough to run a few domU Linux systems. Hmmm... It'll also be an opportunity to run Plan 9 domU as well. I haven't tried that yet. I'm wetting my pants with nerdish delight now.