# Fixit-mode not on disc1!?



## k1piee (Dec 4, 2009)

Hi!

I wanted to try out the new FreeBSD-8.0 with ZFS only and found this guide: http://wiki.freebsd.org/RootOnZFS/GPTZFSBoot
But, when I boot up the disc1 and go into the Fixit menu, it tells me that I need to insert a livefs-cd. I do and follow the guide until the step: Install FreeBSD to zroot
where I'm gonna cd into /dist/8.0-*
Well.. it's not there and I can't mount disc1 again cause its says: Operation not permitted..

What am I suppose to do?
Am I doing something wrong here?

Thanks for the help!


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## graudeejs (Dec 4, 2009)

fixit is available on livefs-cd disk, dvd and probably on flash


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## k1piee (Dec 4, 2009)

But why does it tell me: "Please insert a FreeBSD live filesystem CD/DVD and press return" and when I press enter it says: "Unable to find a FreeBSD live filesystem. Do you want to try again?" when I'm using a FreeBSD-CD? Am I not doing it right?

I boot up with the CD, select language, Enter the "Fixit" menu and press CDROM/DVD?


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## k1piee (Dec 4, 2009)

And when I select Shell instead of CDROM/DVD i just get a empty shell where I can't do anything, not even ls.


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## graudeejs (Dec 4, 2009)

Sysinstall is same for all types of media....
Not all types of media are the same....


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## phoenix (Dec 4, 2009)

Disc1 is not a LiveFS.  They are two separate discs.  Hence, why, if you use Disc1, it asks you to insert a Fixit CD.

Disc1 includes the installer and a bunch of pre-compiled, binary packages.

LiveFS includes the installer, and a live Fixit environment.

Hence, it's better to use the LiveFS disc for all your installs, as you only need the one CD.  (After all, who actually installs packages from the CD?)


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## k1piee (Dec 4, 2009)

oh okey, thanks for clearing that out for me! 
But still one question thou, what am I suppose to do when the guide tells med to copy stuff from /dist/8.0-*?
Can I do it some other way?


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## graudeejs (Dec 4, 2009)

download & burn dvd


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## k1piee (Dec 4, 2009)

Will try that as soon as i've downloaded it!


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## k1piee (Dec 4, 2009)

So I just downloaded the DVD and it seems to work, it goes in to Fixit-mode correctly and there is a /dist/8.0-RELEASE directory 
Thanks for all the help, really appreciate it!

And I must say that I just Love this forum, you get help no matter what problem you have with FreeBSD and there is a lot of experienced people here!


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## Beastie (Dec 4, 2009)

phoenix said:
			
		

> LiveFS includes the installer, and a live Fixit environment.


But no documentation or source, so you still have to download +300MB.
Personally I find it easier to just have everything once and for all, especially for desktop machines without any connection to the Internet.
But of course, for a minimal setup, livefs will do.



			
				phoenix said:
			
		

> After all, who actually installs packages from the CD?


There are no software packages on disk1 anymore, anyway. Only documentation packages.


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## k1piee (Dec 4, 2009)

well.. when I finally was done with the ZFS filesystem hierarchy, which btw took forever, and was going to install freebsd to it I got a kernel panic...
something about kmem_map to small!?
Tried two times and I got the same kernel panic exactly at the same time... It kind of sucks, cause I was hoping on getting FreeBSD with ZFS up and running tonight


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## graudeejs (Dec 4, 2009)

How much ram do you have?
It is recommended to have at least 2GB ram.


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## k1piee (Dec 4, 2009)

I believe I have 2GB of ram.
Didn't really think that the requirements for freebsd was so high, or is it just 8.0 that recommends 2GB?


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## k1piee (Dec 4, 2009)

I just successfully installed it on a Virtual Machine on my stationary computer. I would get kernel panic when I gave it 2GB of ram but when I increased it to 2.5GB it worked just fine..

Isn't there anything I can do to make it work on my laptop with 2GB of ram?


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## fonz (Dec 4, 2009)

k1piee said:
			
		

> Isn't there anything I can do to make it work on my laptop with 2GB of ram?



What components/packages/ports are you installing?

I am posting this from a laptop running 7-STABLE with 1 GB of RAM. I do run heavy stuff like Open Office and Maple but I don't run KDE/Gnome/Compiz or any of that.

If 2 GB isn't enough I'd think it's either the VM's problem or you're running some real resource hoggers. FreeBSD itself should work just fine with much less than 2 GB.

Alphons


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## k1piee (Dec 4, 2009)

At first I tried with the laptop that has 2GB of ram and I got a kernel panic, then I decided to try on a VM and se if I would get the same error and I did, so I increased the ram of the VM to 2.5GB instead of 2GB and it worked just fine..

Im just installing a minimun install just like the guide I linked at the first post.

It's somewhere when I'm installing ports that I get kernel panic.
And I just tried to decrease the ram to 1GB after the install and it boots just fine..
I'm gonna experiment a little bit more.
Maybe skip installing ports during the install and see if that's the problem.


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## Beastie (Dec 4, 2009)

k1piee said:
			
		

> Maybe skip installing ports during the install and see if that's the problem.


Always try to do the most minimalist setup, then add and configure the rest afterwards.

It's ZFS that requires that much memory, not FreeBSD itself.

FreeBSD can work fine with less than 256MB (I've ran it with 128MB) if it's not for a server or running memory-hungry applications.
FreeBSD without X can probably work with 64MB.


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## Blueprint (Dec 5, 2009)

k1piee said:
			
		

> well.. when I finally was done with the ZFS filesystem hierarchy, which btw took forever,



You don't have to use such segmented filesystems as it is in the wiki. I personally think the author got a little carried away with that many filesystems. But i think he was trying to make a point about the flexibility when applying various options and compression on each. I toned it down a bit as I prefer not have my df output fill the entire screen with just base OS filesystems.


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## k1piee (Dec 5, 2009)

Blueprint said:
			
		

> You don't have to use such segmented filesystems as it is in the wiki. I personally think the author got a little carried away with that many filesystems. But i think he was trying to make a point about the flexibility when applying various options and compression on each. I toned it down a bit as I prefer not have my df output fill the entire screen with just base OS filesystems.



I didn't even think of that, I just followed the guide cause I haven't used ZFS before. Maybe I'll tune it the way I want later.
Anyway, I got it working on my laptop now! 
I skipped installing ports during the install and installed it afterwords instead and it all worked perfectly!

Thanks a lot for all the help!


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## graudeejs (Dec 5, 2009)

Hmm 7.0? or 7.1? or 7.2?.... it matters a lot...
When I first tried zfs on 7 (I think it as 7.1) I had many panics.... on disk io

My personal record was 15 min without panic....
then i tried current.....

you can search forum, for something like "zfs to be or not to be" if I recall correctly, about my problems when I started



```
232G   143G    88K  none
a/Root                396K   143G   396K  /root
a/ccache              884M   143G   884M  /var/db/ccache
a/dbports            6,59M   143G  6,59M  /var/db/ports
a/distfiles          1,97G   143G  1,97G  /usr/ports/distfiles
a/files               190G   143G   204K  /files
a/files/archive      3,80G   143G  3,80G  /files/archive
a/files/music         161G   143G   161G  /files/music
a/files/share         289M   143G   289M  /files/share
a/files/torrents     7,55G   143G  7,55G  /files/torrents
a/files/video        8,39G   143G  8,39G  /files/video
a/files/vm           8,39G   143G  8,39G  /files/vm
a/home               3,54G   143G   144K  /home
a/home/evitux         265M   143G   264M  /home/evitux
a/home/killasmurf86  3,28G   143G  1,38G  /home/killasmurf86
a/jails              16,4G   143G   164K  /jails
a/jails/my           1,64G   143G  1,64G  /jails/my
a/jails/new           248M   143G   247M  /jails/new
a/jails/ooo          14,3G  5,74G  14,5G  /jails/ooo
a/jails/test          178M   143G   420M  /jails/test
a/jails/torrents     85,2M   143G   331M  /jails/torrents
a/obj                1,28G   143G  1,28G  /usr/obj
a/ports              1,64G   143G  1,14G  /usr/ports
a/ports/packages      510M   143G   510M  /usr/ports/packages
a/portsnap            132M   143G   132M  /var/db/portsnap
a/root               2,12G   143G  2,12G  legacy
a/root.old           6,05G   143G  5,22G  legacy
a/src                 632M   143G   632M  /usr/src
a/tmp                7,38G   143G  7,38G  /tmp
```

here's my zfs setup


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## phoenix (Dec 7, 2009)

k1piee said:
			
		

> well.. when I finally was done with the ZFS filesystem hierarchy, which btw took forever, and was going to install freebsd to it I got a kernel panic...
> something about kmem_map to small!?
> Tried two times and I got the same kernel panic exactly at the same time... It kind of sucks, cause I was hoping on getting FreeBSD with ZFS up and running tonight



ZFS requires a lot of RAM.  You can run it on a system with as little as 512 MB of RAM, but it requires a lot of manual tuning to make it work.  On systems with at last 2 GB of RAM, it can usually auto-tune itself.

However, sometimes it needs help.

You'll need to boot to single-user mode, and edit /boot/loader.conf to add the following (for a 2 GB system):

```
vm.kmem_size_max=1G
vfs.zfs.arc_max=512M
```

That will set the kmem size to 1/2 of your RAM.  And set the ZFS cache to 1/2 of kmem.

You will need to play with those options a bit to find the "perfect" setup.  Depending on the workload, you may need to reduce the vfs.zfs.arc_max.


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