# Disk writing utilities for FreeBSD.



## TAL15 (Jul 25, 2017)

let me clarify immediately that I AM RUNNING FREEBSD.
DD is not working on my computer, I intend to write images to SD cards for raspberry Pi. Anyone know any good packages for Disk-writing.


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## ShelLuser (Jul 25, 2017)

If you're running FreeBSD you also have access to /bin/dd. If that doesn't work then I'd fix those problems first. However... there's always /rescue/dd, that's bound to work.

The main difference between the two is that the latter is statically linked. So even if you're missing libraries and what else that command should always work.


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## leebrown66 (Jul 25, 2017)

You can also use cat if you're just copying a binary image to the start of the device.


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## scrappywan (Jul 25, 2017)

Well that is bizarre. I have never experienced any problems using dd on FreeBSD. Can you give us an example command of how you're using dd?


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## SirDice (Jul 26, 2017)

TAL15 said:


> DD is not working on my computer,


Define "not working". What exactly isn't working? It's one of the most low-level commands available and I have never seen it fail without reason.


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## getopt (Jul 26, 2017)

TAL15 said:


> let me clarify immediately that I AM RUNNING FREEBSD.


This unequaled intro is remarkable. But what does it tell us? 



TAL15 said:


> DD is not working on my computer


Yeah! That did not work here either:


```
> DD
DD: Command not found.
```

Having digested this thread I fixed `DD` with `alias DD 'echo "disk destroyed!"'`. 
Be advised that this workaround does not survive a reboot.


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## Deleted member 9563 (Jul 26, 2017)

TAL15 said:


> DD is not working on my computer


Check to see where the card appears. Type `dmesg` to find out. DD is a fundamental command on most operating systems and is very unlikely to not work unless you got the command wrong - probably by not having the output destination correct. With a little information from you, we could tell you the command that *WILL* work.

PS, I have written many RPi SD images on my FreeBSD system.

Edit to add: here is an example command. You have to have the /da0  part correct. Particularly notice that it is the _whole_ disk and does not include a slice, ie. not /da0s1. Just go to the directory where you have the image file and use the one you want instead of my example. Also, could be /da1 but dmesg will tell you. And don't forget that it must be *unmounted* for this to work.

`dd bs=4M if=2015-05-05-raspbian-wheezy.img of=/dev/da0`


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## Deleted member 9563 (Jul 27, 2017)

getopt said:


> Hey, is this dd light?


Oops. Pastefail. As you see, I'm not so good with a mouse.


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