Table of Contents
NanoBSD
Unofficial NanoBSD technical resources
Externals links about NanoBSD
Here are a list of docs and tutorials about NanoBSD:
- Introduction to NanoBSD : Official presentation page on FreeBSD website
- Building a FreeBSD Appliance With NanoBSD (pdf) : Presentation during the BSD Can 2006
- NanoBSD man page : The man page
- Gitoyen NanoBSD quagga router (french only) : One of the most close project to this, with a very smart idea of manage configuration by an external svn server and most interressing: A patch for adding ports compilation support
Understanding NanoBSD
What is NanoBSD ?
It's a shell script (/usr/src/tools/tools/nanobsd/) that generate embedded FreeBSD image disk.
Images generated by NanoBSD
After using NanoBSD, you will found a full disk image (_.disk.full) that contains 2 partitions (p1 and p2) (both copy of _.disk.image file). The file _.disk.image is the light FreeBSD filesystem (in diskless mode). Using 2 partitions permit to use a simple and safe upgrading process: The new _.disk.image file is copied over the non-active partition, and the bootloader is modified for boot on the non-active partition at the next boot. There are the scripts updatep1 and updatep2 for this task.
Using NanoBSD
NanoBSD manage flash device and prevent fsck by mounting the filesystem read-only. For saving configuration file, you need to copy /etc into /conf: There is the script save_cfg for this task.
Studying NanoBSD
Command options
Here are the command line options of NanoBSD:
Usage: $0 [-bikqvw] [-c config_file] -b suppress builds (both kernel and world) -i suppress disk image build -k suppress buildkernel -n add -DNO_CLEAN to buildworld, buildkernel, etc -q make output more quite -v make output more verbose -w suppress buildworld -c specify config file -h Display usage information.
Steps
Here are the functions steps:
- clean_build
- make_conf_build
- build_world
- build_kernel
- clean_world
- make_conf_install
- install_world
- install_etc
- setup_nanobsd_etc
- install_kernel
- run_customize
- setup_nanobsd
- prune_usr
- run_late_customize
- create_${NANO_ARCH}_diskimage
- last_orders
Variables Table
| Name | Value (in BSDRP) | Description |
|---|---|---|
| CONF_BUILD | Options to put in make.conf during buildworld only | |
| CONF_WORLD | A big list of WITHOUT_ | Options to put in make.conf during both build- & installworld |
| CONF_INSTALL | A big list of WITHOUT_ too | Options to put in make.conf during installworld only |
| MAKEOBJDIRPREFIX | /usr/obj/nanobsd.BSDRP.{ARCH} | object directory |
| NANO_ARCH | i386/amd | Target architecture |
| NANO_BOOT0CFG | -o packet -s 1 -m 3 | Boot0cfg configuration mode |
| NANO_CONFSIZE | 2048 | Size of configuration file system in 512 bytes sectors |
| NANO_CUSTOMIZE | Customize commands | |
| NANO_DATASIZE | 2048 | Size of data file system in 512 bytes sectors |
| NANO_DISKIMGDIR | /usr/obj/nanobsd.BSDRP.{ARCH} | The directory to put the final images |
| NANO_DRIVE | ad0 (TO ADD in BSDRP make!) | The drive name of the media at runtime |
| NANO_GLABEL_SYS | BSDRP | glabel name for system partition |
| NANO_GLABEL_CFG | cfg | glabel name for configuration partition |
| NANO_GLABEL_DATA | data | glabel name for data partition |
| NANO_IMAGES | 2 | Number of code images on media (1 or 2) |
| NANO_IMGNAME | BSDRP.img | The default name for any image we create |
| NANO_INIT_IMG2 | 0 | What to do with the second image partition: 0 (empty), 1 (copy twice the image) |
| NANO_KERNEL | BSDRP-I386 / BSDRP-AMD64 | Name of the kernel config file |
| NANO_LATE_CUSTOMIZE | Late customize commands | |
| NANO_MAKE_CONF_INSTALL | /usr/obj/nanobsd.BSDRP.{ARCH}/make.conf.install | |
| NANO_MAKE_CONF_BUILD | /usr/obj/nanobsd.BSDRP.{ARCH}/make.conf.build | |
| NANO_MD_BACKING | file | Backing type of md(4) device (file or swap) |
| NANO_MEDIASIZE | 1200000 | Target media size in 512 bytes sectors |
| NANO_NAME | BSDRP | Name of the obj dir |
| NANO_NEWFS | -b 4096 -f 512 -i 8192 -O1 -m 2 -U | Newfs paramters to use |
| NANO_OBJ | /usr/obj/nanobsd.BSDRP.{ARCH} | Object tree directory |
| NANO_PACKAGE_DIR | /usr/src/tools/tools/nanobsd/BSDRP/Pkg | Where cust_pkg() finds packages to install |
| NANO_PMAKE | make -j 3 | Parallel Make |
| NANO_RAM_ETCSIZE | 10204 | Size of the /etc ramdisk in 512 bytes sectors |
| NANO_RAM_TMPVARSIZE | 20480 | Size of the /tmp+/var ramdisk in 512 bytes sectors |
| NANO_SRC | /usr/src | Source tree directory |
| NANO_TOOLS | tools/tools/nanobsd/BSDRP | Where nanobsd additional files live under the source tree |
| NANO_WORLDDIR | /usr/obj/nanobsd.BSDRP.{ARCH}/_.w | Target World directory |
Functions Table
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| build_kernel | Copy kernel config file and Build Kernel |
| build_world | Run Build World |
| clean_build | Delete and create object directory |
| clean_world | Clean and create object directory |
| cust_install_files | Copy all files under Files to nanobsd target |
| FlashDevice | Load FlashDevice.sub |
| install_world | Install all binary (make installworld) |
| install_etc | Install /etc (make distribution |
| install_kernel | Install kernel (make installkernel) |
| make_conf_build | Construct build make.conf using $CONF_WORLD and $CONF_BUILD |
| make_conf_install | Construct install make.conf using $CONF_WORLD and $CONF_BUILD |
| prune_usr | Remove all empty directories in target /usr |
| run_customize | run customize scripts (commands in $NANO_CUSTOMIZE) |
| run_late_customize | run late customize scripts (commands in $NANO_LATE_CUSTOMIZE and cust_ functions) |
| setup_nanobsd | configure nanobsd setup: Move /usr/local/etc to /etc/local |
| setup_nanobsd_etc | configure target nanobsd /etc: enable diskless, enable r/o of /, create fstab |
| UsbDevice | USB device geometries |
| create_${NANO_ARCH}_diskimage | Build disk image (partition, format, bootloader, etc.) |
| last_orders | Empty function to be customized by user (ex: copy diskimage to other place) |
NanoBSD logs files
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| _.bk | Build Kernel log |
| _.bw | Build World log |
| _.di | Disk image creation log |
| _.dl | nanobsd setup creation log (/etc, /conf, etc..) |
| _.du | nanobsd disk usage (du) output |
| _.env | All environnement used during nanobsd runs |
| _.etc | Install etc log |
| _.fdisk | File used for fdisk the nanoBSD image |
| _.ik | Install kernel log files |
| _.iw | Install world log files |
| _.mtree | Light mtree file of the nanoBSD image |
BSDRP patches for NanoBSD
Port compiling patches
This patches is an improvement of the method used by Gitoyen NanoBSD router.
It replaces the installation of package by compiling ports during NanoBSD image build: This permit to add ports during build process of NanoBSD images.
This patch support cross-compilation i386 ports from an amd64 release.
You can found this patches as the function add_port () in the BSDRP nano configuration file.
But the best solution should to use poudriere to generate packages.