Welcome to 'building the WirelessLeiden NanoBSD image'

​FreeBSD default method for installing ​FreeBSD on embedded devices, like ​Soekris, ​Alix and others. The manual described below is (loosely) based on the Concept plan of Tim Baas, but also consists of many hints by ​official 'Introduction to NanoBSD' manual and other stuff found on the net ;-)

Have to remember links

• ​http://people.freebsd.org/~phk/nanobsd/soekris_4x26/make.soekris_4x26.conf
• Active work in progress node images at ​http://webfolder.wirelessleiden.nl/rick/nodefactory/

Procedure

Please note that you can find the supporting files in the subdirectory nanobsd. Also keep a close look at the INFO WARN ERR directives as guide you trough the common pitfalls of the guide.

A. Setup a FreeBSD host

---

WARN: Make sure /usr is at least 5GB in size building as building images require quite some space
WARN: Make sure you install the i386 release of FreeBSD also when your system does support amd64, as cross compiling can give some nasty surprises

---

Get yourself a fresh i386 freebsd host with ports and subversion installed as follows:

A.1. Run the basic CD installer of 7.2.

The procedure below has been tested with 7.2-RELEASE (standard developer install - no ports - will fit our needs). Installing FreeBSD is outside the scope of this document, take a look into ​the FreeBSD handbook Chapter 2 Installing FreeBSD if you do not know the details.

Please do mind that all commands below need to be executed as root, due to the many mounts and unmounts done in various phases.

Internet connection is required.

A.2. get latest sources

$ csup  -h cvsup.nl.freebsd.org /usr/share/examples/cvsup/standard-supfile

A.3 fetch ports

$ portsnap fetch extract

A.4. install subversion (set ftp to passive mode to ensure the firewall is not causing issues if one exists. NOTE: Install all packages via ports to prevent issues later on!

$ setenv FTP_PASSIVE_MODE YES
$ cd /usr/ports/devel/subversion; make install clean BATCH=yes

A.5. OPTIONAL, every developer has his own preferences, these are mine ;-)

$ (cd /usr/ports/editors/vim-lite; make install clean BATCH=yes)
$ (cd /usr/ports/security/sudo; make install clean BATCH=yes)
$ (cd /usr/ports/sysutils/screen; make install clean BATCH=yes)

B. Build environment

B.1 Download the environment from the Wireless Leiden svn repository

$ setenv R /root/nanobsd
$ svn checkout http://svn.wirelessleiden.nl/svn/projects/iris/nanobsd $R
$ cd $R

Note: if svn is not found: svn is in /usr/local/bin, alternatively log out and in, or use rehash in a csh shell to make it available.

B.2. Compile all required packages using

$ /root/nanobsd/tools/package-build.sh

B.3. Set your favorite root password to be used in the image

$ setenv CFG_ROOT_PASSWORD `dd if=/dev/random bs=10k count=10 | & tr -cd '[a-zA-Z0-9]' | cut -c -15`; echo $CFG_ROOT_PASSWORD

If you like a simple password, substitute the `dd if=/dev/random bs=10k count=10 | & tr -cd '[a-zA-Z0-9]' | cut -c -15` with your password.

B.4. Build nanobsd (make sure to prepare some coffee;-) )

$ sh /usr/src/tools/tools/nanobsd/nanobsd.sh -c /root/nanobsd/cfg/nanobsd.wleiden 

Note 1: Take a coffee of go for a hike, this normally takes 2 - 8 hours depending on the machine configuration

Note 2: even this little script got flags, check the output of sh /usr/src/tools/tools/nanobsd/nanobsd.sh -h

-b suppress builds (both kernel and world)
-k suppress buildkernel
-w suppress buildworld
-c specify config file
...

C. Fetch node configuration onto image, write to CF disk or remotely update

C,1 Fetch configuration

$ /root/nanobsd/tools/config-image.sh 

The script is connecting to the ​Wireless Leiden 'genesis' database. Pick your situation!

C.2 Write the correct image to CF

---

NOTE: _.disk.full is required for new CF cards as it contains two base systems and one configuration.

_.disk.image on the other hand can be used to update an existing CF card

---

1. New image: Put full image on compact flash disk (attach a card reader/writer with a CF disk of minimum 1 GB)

   $ dd bs=64k if=/usr/obj/nanobsd.wleiden/_.disk.full of=/dev/da0
   

   (assuming /dev/da0 is your compact flash entry; this takes about 15 minutes; you may wish to check afterwards with fdisk whether there are three partitions on the disk, you can also mount /dev/da0s1a and /dev/da0s3 and check the configuration)

1. Existing image: Put partial image on slice (slice 2) (attach a card reader/writer with the CF disk containing the existing image)

   $ dd bs=64k if=/usr/obj/nanobsd.wleiden/_.disk.image of=/dev/da0s2
   

1. Existing image remote update (slice 2) (network connection to machine 172.x.y.z required)

For remotely updating an existing configuration use:

dd if=/usr/obj/nanobsd.wleiden/_.disk.image bs=10k | ssh root@172.x.y.z /tools/updatep2

You may adjust the block size to make the transfer more efficient (additionally ssh -C is possible) and you can use Ctrl-T to check progress.

C.3 Check the cf card While the cf card is still in your flash card reader you can check whether the image has been written correctly. Check whether you can mount the partitions, e.g. mount /dev/da0s1a /mnt ls /mnt umount /mnt

and the configuration partition: mount /dev/da0s3 /mnt ls /mnt

If you cannot mount the partitions, take a fresh cf card and start again with writing the image.

If you are using wi-drivers in master mode (hostap) you may have to adjust the rc.node.local file on /dev/da0s3. There is a bug in the wi-driver: the channel is always set to 1. You can set the correct channel by adding a line to rc.node.local like: ifconfig_wi0_alias0="channel {channel number}"

D. All done! Load the machine

Place the new CF disk in the machine and boot it up (existing nodes: just reboot), you should be good to go!

Note. For next nodes you can skip the build and go directly for step C, or take a look at development if you have to rebuild the image (after small changes).

E. Applying Updates

For small changes there is a shortcut in the build (to save you some coffee ;-)). Pick the situation applicable

1. First lets pump it's source to the latest version

   $ svn up /root/nanobsd
   

2. Set your favorite root password to be used in the image

   $ setenv CFG_ROOT_PASSWORD `dd if=/dev/random bs=10k count=10 | & tr -cd '[a-zA-Z0-9]' | cut -c -15`; echo $CFG_ROOT_PASSWORD
   

   If you like a simple password, substitute the `dd if=/dev/random bs=10k count=10 | & tr -cd '[a-zA-Z0-9]' | cut -c -15` with your password.
3. Next step depends on the kind of changes:
   1. Only changes in kernel options - kernel.wleiden altered - ETA 0:45

      $ sh /usr/src/tools/tools/nanobsd/nanobsd.sh -w -c /root/nanobsd/cfg/nanobsd.wleiden
      

   2. Only changes in world options - CONF_{BUILD,COMMON,INSTALL} in nanobsd.wleiden altered - ETA 2:00 - 6:00

      $ sh /usr/src/tools/tools/nanobsd/nanobsd.sh -k -c /root/nanobsd/cfg/nanobsd.wleiden
      

   3. _NO_ changes in build options - any other file altered - ETA 0:10

      $ sh /usr/src/tools/tools/nanobsd/nanobsd.sh -b -c /root/nanobsd/cfg/nanobsd.wleiden
      

Development

Handy tools

Some handy tools are available in the /tools directory, such as

• /tools/wl-version : to get information on the configuration that is running
• /tools/image-build.sh for building images (replaces long command lines and prevents unintentional, time-consuming rebuilds; do not forget to setenv the root password!)

Light based packages suggestions

• dnsmasq instead of isc-dhcp30-server and bind
• thttpd instead of apache

Further research

• stumber /usr/src/tools/tools/net80211/stumber

Background

• Packages needed are to be found in source:/nanobsd/tools/package-build.sh

Testing Images

• KnownErrorMessages
• TestingViaNFS
• TestMatrix

Hardware

• Soekris 4521, bios version 1.31b, 1.32, 1.33
• Alix 2D3, only use latest bios: 0.99h

Hints

• You could always decide to install your FreeBSD base instance into a ​virtual environment
• cvsup.nl.freebsd.org is the local dutch cvsup mirror, replace nl with your proper country code
• It seems tempting to follow /usr/share/examples/cvsup/stable-supfile instead of /usr/share/examples/cvsup/standard-supfile please DO NOT unless your like big trouble as stable-supfile is the stable DEVELOPMENT branch e.g. upcoming stable.
• Default username/password = root/<blank>, so please do mind, _when no password is set ssh login is disabled_.
• Always use cu or putty for serial communication minicom, screen, putty all issues of some kind.

Comments, questions or remarks?

Feel free to edit this page or send an email to our ​techniek mailinglist

• Handy .cshrc hints

  alias quicknano sh /usr/src/tools/tools/nanobsd/nanobsd.sh -b -c /root/nanobsd/cfg/nanobsd.wleiden
  alias slownano  sh /usr/src/tools/tools/nanobsd/nanobsd.sh -c /root/nanobsd/cfg/nanobsd.wleiden
  alias slownewkernelnano sh /usr/src/tools/tools/nanobsd/nanobsd.sh -w -c /root/nanobsd/cfg/nanobsd.wleiden
  alias slownewworldnano sh /usr/src/tools/tools/nanobsd/nanobsd.sh -k -c /root/nanobsd/cfg/nanobsd.wleiden
  alias prepare-nfs  /root/nanobsd/tools/prepare-nfs.sh -f -n