# FreeBSD live CD - a wonderful O.S.



## vince66 (Dec 31, 2017)

Dear guys,

First question: I'm trying the live CD on a mini PC (HP mini PC - model: 2133). It seems that the lines of the ttys console are more than those the physical screen can show. So when I type the commands, I don't see them and I need to press 4 times the enter key to scroll the lines and see tha commands i typed.

Please, a solution ?

Again: reading the FreeBSD manual, I've read that the live CD is a good choise to test the performance of the FreeBSD.
Personally, I've noticed that the kernel has a limited number of device drivers (keyboard and video in particular) that limit its use and don't give it the possibility to be immediately usefull in live mode on a vast range of architectures.

Because the live CD of the basic version could give big working results if its kernel supported a great number of device drivers, I pose the second question:

in which a way can I resolve this limit ?

Maybe I need to add every time the necessary device drivers and remake the kernel ? But this way is much expensive in time.

How can I do ? Tips are welcome.
Thanks in advance.

Best Regards.


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## scottro (Dec 31, 2017)

https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/63888/#post-370941 is a live version that can be installed to a USB.  It might be more useful, one hopes that it may even be a modern day replacement for Freesbie, which was great in its day.


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## ShelLuser (Dec 31, 2017)

vince66 said:


> First question: I'm trying the live CD on a mini PC (HP mini PC - model: 2133). It seems that the lines of the ttys console are more than those the physical screen can show. So when I type the commands, I don't see them and I need to press 4 times the enter key to scroll the lines and see tha commands i typed.
> 
> Please, a solution ?


An interesting question in my opinion, because when checking the handbook I have to agree that this information seems a bit lost in there. Now, the information is available but I can definitely understand how you'd miss this if you're still relatively new to FreeBSD. Something for my 2018 todo list (I'm still trying to get my fingers behind the documentation layout, which isn't always smoothly because most often I'd rather actually write than studying).

Alas...

The so called virtual consoles in FreeBSD are made available through the console drivers. This used to be syscons(4) (or sc) in older versions but has been replaced with vt(4) in current versions. And there lies your solution: by default vt switches to (I quote): "_640x480x16 VGA mode_", unless you set hw.vga.textmode to 1.

How to do that? Well, normally using /boot/loader.conf but that's obviously out of the question while using a rescue CD 

SO: boot into the boot menu (the 'beastie' menu?) and hit escape. You should now get an OK prompt.

Enter this: `set hw.vga.textmode="1"`.

Verify using: `show hw.vga.textmode`.

After you did this either use the `menu` command to get back to the menu (easier if you want to start in single user mode for example) or just issue the `boot` command. Optionally `boot -s` for single user mode.

That should solve this issue.



vince66 said:


> in which a way can I resolve this limit ?


How exactly do you feel yourself being limited? I mean, you are right that the amount of available device drivers is limited (some need to be explicitly compiled in for example), but is there anything in specific you're looking for?

The best way to overcome this that I can think off is to build your own boot CD. I know it is doable (see some of the build targets in /usr/src/Makefile) but having never experimented with this myself I can't comment on the best way to do it.


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## vince66 (Jan 1, 2018)

Hello ShelLuser, thanks very much for your solution. It works perfectly.
Please, let me pose another question about one other issue at boot.
Typing the Escape key I get the OK prompt, but some special fonts (like the " or =) are not on the correct keys, because, at this step the keyboard layout is the default one (the english keyboard).

Please, can you tell me if is there a way to fix the keyboard type at the OK boot prompt ?
Generally I need to wait the boot finish and use the kbdmap to set the italian keyboard.

I hope you can assit me in this "in the middle" problem.

Thanks in advance for your time.

Best Regards.


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## vince66 (Jan 1, 2018)

Again: for "limited" I exactly mean that the amount of available device drivers is limited (as you confirm).
My needs is to have a FreeBSD version able to boot on a large number of  architectures, without suffers, for example, the limitation of the console drive, that you solved for me in this thread.

I'm relatively new of FreeBSD. I used in the past years the BSD 4.3 and i have the knowdledge of some important concepts. I've discussed them with some of the users of this forum that helped me confirming my ideas and assisting me in the "How to do".

So, as I thought, the possibility to have a FreeBSD version that boots on a large number of architectures is to make the kernel by myself, adding specific drivers ... probably is this the best way to overcome this issue.

However I'll take in account the /usr/src/Makefile folder to see if it can help me in this work.

Thanks in advance for your time.

Regards.


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## ShelLuser (Jan 1, 2018)

vince66 said:


> Typing the Escape key I get the OK prompt, but some special fonts (like the " or =) are not on the correct keys, because, at this step the keyboard layout is the default one (the english keyboard).
> 
> Please, can you tell me if is there a way to fix the keyboard type at the OK boot prompt ?


To my knowledge there is none, other than memorizing the location of these keys (= sits left of the backspace and the " sits left of the enter key but requires shift). An English querty keyboard layout should help I guess...  Try this link.



vince66 said:


> Again: for "limited" I exactly mean that the amount of available device drivers is limited (as you confirm).
> My needs is to have a FreeBSD version able to boot on a large number of  architectures, without suffers, for example, the limitation of the console drive, that you solved for me in this thread.


And with architectures you refer to ARM, i386, AMD64 and so on I assume.

In theory this should be doable to set up, but it won't be easy I think and I also doubt that anything like this already exists. After all, they provide different images for different architectures for a reason.

Still, it sounds intriguing enough


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## vince66 (Jan 1, 2018)

thanks very much !!


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