# BOOTING FreeBSD without CD



## ligregni (Apr 12, 2009)

Hi there!

This is my issue.

I am an non-amateur BSD user, but I am getting crazy with this.

I have an Acer notebook, without CD-ROM drive, without floppy (obviously), so, the only thing I have to boot are my USBs ports and the network adapter.

I have an USB-HD where I have previously installed FreeBSD 7.1 (this post is about 7.1) using a desktop PC, but I want to install on my notebook.

I had PC-BSD in my notebook, performing a network install and booting from a USB Pen drive (this is because PC-BSD project has this downloag option, an .img file), but FreeBSD doesn't have that option.

I tried to boot in my notebook from my USB-HD, I get the OS working and all it's ok, I ran sysinstall, I can set the slice table to my "internal" HD (ad0), even slice it and write a MBR, then I choose Install from FTP, all ok... but!!!, the install is on my "external" USB-HD!!!, so, I reinstalled the OS in the same HD, not "newinstalled" the OS in my internal HD.

I know there will be a way to perform FreeBSD booting, It's all I want to do, boot from anything and then I will perform a Network Install, these are the constraints:

- I will not turn back to PC-BSD (a great OS, but KDE made me lose a lot of time)
- I will not "forgive" KDE
- I will not buy any external CD drive or floppy
- I will not take my "internal" HD off the notebook to install it in other computer

Come on!!!, there should be an answer (burning the bootonly.iso on the USB, or maybe the "floppy images" in the USB, or booting from network, etc.)

Thanks for your attention

Greetings from Mexico

Sergio Ligregni.


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## varda (Apr 12, 2009)

Hello,

if your notebook have option to boot from USB device try to search this forum or Google for Dario Freni script to convert FreeBSD install ISO image to USB bootable image

http://www.google.com/search?q=Dario+Freni+Installation+from+USB+pen

http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=468&highlight=Dario+Freni

Explore it creatively and apply accordingly to your needs. May be it will give you idea...


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## znaya (Apr 12, 2009)

Does this help?


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## ligregni (Apr 13, 2009)

S o l v e d!!!


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## graudeejs (Apr 13, 2009)

also this one
http://daemonforums.org/showthread.php?t=1538
I use it every time i reinstall FreeBSD, because i use GPT partitions


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