# [Solved] How to burn FreeBSD ISO files to usb drives?



## First_Law_of_Unix (Aug 20, 2022)

Sadly Balena Etcher not available for FreeBSD making it super easy to burn iso images to USB drives all automatically with few clicks of buttons.

However I couldn’t find any information on how to burn FreeBSD iso to a usb external drive from a FreeBSD host.

I have tried DD command and iso doesn’t boot.

Are there any GUI iso burners for USB drives that works for FreeBSD?

I have installed unetbootin and it does not show any connected USB drives.

Using FreeBSD 13.1 OS and would like to burn a FreeBSD 13.1 iso to a usb external SSD drive.

I would rather use ISO files than img files since iso files have more packages than img files.

Thanks


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## Alexander88207 (Aug 20, 2022)

Hello,

it should work with dd, its described in the handbook and it works for me since i use FreeBSD and know about it even with iso files.









						Chapter 2. Installing FreeBSD
					

Guide about how to install FreeBSD, the minimum hardware requirements and supported architectures, how to create the installation media, etc




					docs.freebsd.org


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## zirias@ (Aug 20, 2022)

Alexander88207 yes, this is for actual "harddisk" images. The OP wants to use an ISO image on an external harddisk. This won't work without additional trickery, as the booting mechanism for optical media differs a lot.

I wonder about the usecase though. "More packages"?


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## Alexander88207 (Aug 20, 2022)

zirias@ said:


> I wonder about the usecase though. "More packages"?



I guess that he means the packages that are available offline to install from the dvd image for example.


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## Profighost (Aug 20, 2022)

Alexander88207 said:


> it should work with dd


yes, if it's a HDD or an USB-Stick.
Since First_Law_of_Unix only said


First_Law_of_Unix said:


> usb external drive


not specifying it exactly, he also could mean a SSD.

dd should not be first choice on SSDs.
It works though,
BUT
It lasts
and your losing too much life-time.

Since one cannot just overwrite a SSD (because of internal storage management),
the drive needs to b_e completely_ erased first.
Even if this also could be done with dd it's not recommended to do so
because you're wasting (many) unneccessary writing cycles.

Better use camcontrol()
"restoring it to factory default write performance" (incomparbly faster [few seconds] than using dd [several hours])
(ensure to set security settings first)


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## CuatroTorres (Aug 20, 2022)

Did you download the correct image for the chosen medium? Does dd have enough space on the usb stick?
Plug in the usb and run dmesg to identify the drive. Then:



> # dd if=FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img of=/dev/da0 bs=1m conv=sync











						FreeBSD 13.1 Release Information
					

FreeBSD is an operating system used to power modern servers, desktops, and embedded platforms.




					www.freebsd.org
				






First_Law_of_Unix said:


> I would rather use ISO files than img files since iso files have more packages than img files.



FreeBSD images are not hybrids.









						Is it possible to convert a bootable .iso to a bootable SSD?
					

Greetings, all.  I'm looking to convert a bootable install CD/DVD into a bootable flash/SSD image. My thoughts are; that it's faster, and more "environmentally friendly" to experiment/develop from an SSD, than turning CD/DVD media into "coasters". That said; I'm looking to create an install...




					forums.freebsd.org


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## Profighost (Aug 20, 2022)

First_Law_of_Unix said:


> it does not show any connected USB drives.


By default USB drives are not accessable for users.
You need to set the rights first to make USB drives read/writeable.
->








						FreeBSD Handbook
					

A constantly evolving, comprehensive resource for FreeBSD users




					docs.freebsd.org


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## First_Law_of_Unix (Aug 20, 2022)

Thanks. I got it working using "dd" with FreeBSD ISO Image.

Also "dd" for some reason does not show the details of what it's doing, simply just blinks a cursor and I was confused if terminal just crashed or what not. I found out that it's actually writing data to the USB.


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## First_Law_of_Unix (Aug 20, 2022)

zirias@ said:


> Alexander88207 yes, this is for actual "harddisk" images. The OP wants to use an ISO image on an external harddisk. This won't work without additional trickery, as the booting mechanism for optical media differs a lot.
> 
> I wonder about the usecase though. "More packages"?



FreeBSD ISO images are much more used with DVDs and have larger file sizes than IMG images. So I assume that ISO have more additional useful packages than IMG images. Not sure if this is correct. 

Maybe IMG images are highly compressed and have same amount of additionally packages as to ISO images? 

I know that "Balena Etcher" App makes perfect bootable USB drives from FreeBSD ISO images.


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## Profighost (Aug 20, 2022)

First_Law_of_Unix said:


> "dd" for some reason does not show the details of what it's doing,


According to its manpage dd()
you can use the option `status=progress`
Then you get info, that dd is doing something.
But of course because of dd is acting very "low level" is has no such features like "high level" file copying tools.


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## zirias@ (Aug 20, 2022)

First_Law_of_Unix I don't know what extra stuff they contain, never looked at it.

IMHO, the more important question would be: what is it good for? Might be convenience on first install. But after that, ports/packages are continuously updated (or, at least 4 times a year if you follow 'quarterly' instead), therefore whatever you installed from such an installation medium will be outdated quite soon anyways.

As soon as some image contains the full set of "base" tarballs, that's everything you will really need to do some "offline" installation of FreeBSD. Additional packages will only be good for a maximum of 3 months anyways.


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## First_Law_of_Unix (Aug 20, 2022)

Profighost said:


> Better use camcontrol()
> "restoring it to factory default write performance" (incomparbly faster [few seconds] than using dd [several hours])
> (ensure to set security settings first)



Thanks, I always use 256GB SSD drives to make bootable installers.

Many might say it's over kill, but it has fast Read and Write speeds and they are super low cost can buy them for $20:
amazon.com

Can buy also buy the SSD USB 3.0 housing for $12:
amazon.com

So with a total of around $32, I have the best USB bootable installer drive but kinda bulky, but super fast and low cost. Balena Etcher writes the ISO/IMG image files with ridiculous insane write speeds, for a 4GB ISO file, it will write it to the SSD drive like less than 20 seconds at 250 MB/s+ write speeds. I wonder if "dd" can do this. 

Anyhow "dd" was able to make it bootable, I didn't even erase the disk:

sudo dd if=freebsd.iso of=/dev/da0 bs=4M status=progress


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## zirias@ (Aug 20, 2022)

Just to make clear what I mean above:

FreeBSD ports/packages are a software distribution. This distribution doesn't have any "versions", it's a classic Rolling release scheme, with quarterly snapshots. In contrast to your typical GNU/Linux distribution, it "only" contains 3rd party software that _isn't_ an integral part of the OS. The FreeBSD OS itself _does_ have versions and follows a classic release engineering scheme.

I personally think this is a fundamental advantage of a BSD style system: Combine a rock-solid, release-engineered base system with the latest application software running on it.

But a consequence of that is: Some installation medium containing the whole base system is "good" for the whole support cycle of the respective version, all you need is download and install the latest patches. Any packages from ports included will be outdated very soon, so it's of questionable value to archive them (like with any Rolling release distribution).


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## Profighost (Aug 20, 2022)

zirias@ said:


> I personally think this is a fundamental advantage of a BSD style system


It is.

When I remember this upgrade terror one has on Windows or Linux:
"A new version (0.1.0.0.0.0.1 -> 0.1.0.0.0.0.1.0.1a) is available. Update and restart you computer NOW, or it will die a horrible security death immediatly"
... and afterwards your settings are blown, look and feel changed, something essential changed, something else not working anymore...
I was so f****** da##**** pi##ed!!1!eleven!

FreeBSD:
Solid.
Stable.
Control.
Quiescence.
Silence.
Tranquility.
Relaxation.
Leisure.
Peace.
Freedom.

*Thanks!*


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## dave01 (Aug 20, 2022)

First_Law_of_Unix said:


> Thanks, I always use 256GB SSD drives to make bootable installers.


You could also take a look at Ventoy rather than "waste" all that space on a 256GB SSD. There doesn't seem to be a FreeBSD installer for it, but there are Linux, Windows and Mac ones. Once your SSD or Pendrive is configured, you can just copy ISOs to it from any OS to add them to the boot menu. The FreeBSD boot ISO is listed as tested along with 100's of other images. It's not just for booting Linux images, things like GParted, Parted Magic, CloneZilla, EmergencyBootKit, Rescuezilla etc etc etc all work too.  In most cases, all you need to do is copy the relevant bootable ISO file to your Ventoy device.
I've used a different but similar system in the past, but they are yet to support UEFI boot.  Ventoy does that now.


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## wb7odyfred (Aug 22, 2022)

> However I couldn’t find any information on how to burn FreeBSD iso to a usb external drive from a FreeBSD ios


I suggest bootin a FreeBSD snapshot image from a 16GB USB Flash disk drive and using "bsdinstall" to partition and install via internet to an external USB SSD drive. (256GB or 500GB).  Ventoy.net should be able to boot a FreeBSD.ISO file image.  You can update the USB external SSD drive FreeBSD installation after booting the USB external SSD drive.
pkg update
pkg upgrade



This was tested  for a Raspberry Pi 4B aarch64 with 8 GB, yet should work with any x86_64 FreeBSD version.  I booted from a 16GB USB Flash drive made with FreeBSD 14.0 Current snapshot August 5, 2022 version.   Freebsd.org/where
dd if=FreeBSD14.iso of=/dev/da1  bs=1M conv=sync status=progress

once booted from USB flash drive, Then I manually created the partition on a external USB 3.0 500GB SSD.  Although bsdinstall can perform the partitioning for you. Yes you can use CLI bsdinstall  from a terminal window to download, configure, and install to this external 500GB SSD disk.

partition 9 was the FreeBSD swap partition of 8 gigabytes (8192 megabytes)
partition 10 was the 94GB partition for FreeBSD root

 cat /etc/fstab
# Fred  File  /tmp/bsdinstall_etc/fstab
/dev/da0p9    none     swap     sw    0     0
/dev/da0p10     /      ufs    rw     1     1

fred@Fred_RasPi4B:/ $ df -h
Filesystem     Size    Used   Avail Capacity  Mounted on
/dev/da0p10     94G     12G     75G    14%    /
devfs          1.0K    1.0K      0B   100%    /dev

fred@Fred_RasPi4B:/ $ mount
/dev/da0p10 on / (ufs, local, soft-updates)
devfs on /dev (devfs

I have used Ventoy.net to boot Linux .iSO files.  I will try booting GhostBSD.org/download or FreeBSD.org/where snapshot .iso or .img files.


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