# Unetbootin and the usb pen image



## Akel (Dec 18, 2015)

I decided to give FreeBSD a chance, and have two questions.
*The first* is about the usb pen image: is it damaged or that's just me? Because I downloaded it, recorded it to my pendrive with my linux laptop, and when i connected it to the computer I wanted to install it restarted itself immediately after the beep of a recognized usb device. I through that it used a partition system that had ran my humble windows Xp into a wall, but it would freeze the computer during boot. Not at a random moment or anything like that, as soon as the computer tried recognizing the connected devices, which is waaay before the OS itself starts-- the first step.
I fixed the partition, which aparently was damaged according to gparted, and it wouldn't freeze the computer boot but no OS could start from there (I selected the usb pen and it kind of did nothing) and it still made my computer restart for some reason.
So yeah, that's my experience with that one. Couldn't make it run. Then I was writing this and realized it's a "Memstick" version, I had kind of glanced over that part. So I through it'd be nice to leave a warning for any future fools.
*Second *is Unetbootin. I downloaded the compressed iso and right now unetbootin it's recording to my usb pen at a turtle's pace. Is there any particular danger in doing this? my cd tray still works but isn't that thrustworthy, so I'll avoid using it for something that could ruin my data partition.
At a point it asked me if I wanted to replace the file /bin/cc and gave it a yes to all, but I feel kind of squirmy about that one. Is there any other file that both unetbootin and FreeBSD use?


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## wblock@ (Dec 18, 2015)

Writing the memstick image with any other method than those documented in the Handbook is, at best, untested.

How did you write the first image?  What brand and model of computer is it?  (Lenovo is known to have BIOS bugs that fail with GPT drives.)  gparted is a Linux program, and as such, does not understand raw BSDlabel partitions like the memstick uses.  "Repairing" those is going to corrupt them.

Why are you now trying to use Unetbootin?


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## Akel (Dec 18, 2015)

wblock@ said:


> Writing the memstick image with any other method than those documented in the Handbook is, at best, untested.
> How did you write the first image?


I followed the guide, both in windows and linux. I even used dd from cygwin, but it still did the same. I am guessing than the memstick is designed to be run from a ramdisk, but I could be wrong in this.



> What brand and model of computer is it?  (Lenovo is known to have BIOS bugs that fail with GPT drives.)


I knew I was forgetting someting, http://pastebin.com/raw/J3QnebTa .
It may not be the last of the last, but I've never liked updating unnecesarily.



> gparted is a Linux program, and as such, does not understand raw BSDlabel partitions like the memstick uses.  "Repairing" those is going to corrupt them.


It already had problems before gparted fixed them, and the fixing was (As far as I understand it) moving a partition to the start of the memory rather than the end.



> Why are you now trying to use Unetbootin?


Because I couldn't make the memstick version work, and I've never had any particular problem with cd versions when it comes to OS instalation.


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## wblock@ (Dec 18, 2015)

Akel said:


> I followed the guide, both in windows and linux.


Were the booting problems the same with both methods?  Did you verify that the image was not corrupted?



> I even used dd from cygwin, but it still did the same.


Cygwin is amazing, but I do not trust how devices are handled in Windows.  Win32DiskImager was the only thing I found when researching that section that was really usable.



> I am guessing than the memstick is designed to be run from a ramdisk, but I could be wrong in this.


Sorry, not sure what you mean by that.  Writing the memstick either in Windows or with FreeBSD or Linux dd(1) is the process shown.  Nothing else is involved.



> I knew I was forgetting someting, http://pastebin.com/raw/J3QnebTa .
> It may not be the last of the last, but I've never liked updating unnecesarily.


So it's a Biostar motherboard.  Does it have the latest BIOS?


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## Akel (Dec 18, 2015)

wblock@ said:


> Were the booting problems the same with both methods?  Did you verify that the image was not corrupted?


I just did, my computer gets the same SHA256 as the one listed in https://www.freebsd.org/releases/10.2R/CHECKSUM.SHA256-FreeBSD-10.2-RELEASE-i386.asc



> Cygwin is amazing, but I do not trust how devices are handled in Windows.  Win32DiskImager was the only thing I found when researching that section that was really usable.


I used both DiskImager and dd in windows.



> Sorry, not sure what you mean by that.  Writing the memstick either in Windows or with FreeBSD or Linux dd(1) is the process shown.  Nothing else is involved.


I had interpreted than the memdisk version was one made to be ran from a ram disk ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAM_drive ), in which I now see I was wrong.



> So it's a Biostar motherboard.  Does it have the latest BIOS?


You mean the bios' firmware?

```
> wmic bios get smbiosbiosversion
SMBIOSBIOSVersion 
6.00 PG
```


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## tobik@ (Dec 18, 2015)

I have a PC with that BIOS version (not the same mainboard mind you, so this might be a moot point). It's extremely picky about which USB sticks it boots from. For your sanity give up now and boot from CD.


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## Akel (Dec 19, 2015)

tobik said:


> I have a PC with that BIOS version (not the same mainboard mind you, so this might be a moot point). It's extremely picky about which USB sticks it boots from. For your sanity give up now and boot from CD.


You know, this if the first time I've had problems with this usb pen. So I went, bought a blank cd, and the cd tray trashed it like it's done to the last six or seven cds I tried.
What's the diference between the disk image and boot only version? the boot only downloads things from internet or something?


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## wblock@ (Dec 19, 2015)

Go to the vendor's web page and check that the latest BIOS version is the one installed on that system.

The bootonly disk does not have the packages (no loss) or the source.  If those things need to be installed, they are downloaded.  But if your system can't boot the normal version, the bootonly one is not likely to boot either.


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## Akel (Dec 19, 2015)

For of all, I'll say that going _sudo su _wrecks my nerves. I hate being in an environment where a typo can fuck up everything.
Second, and for the post itself:
I asked a friend that has a... fascination for FreeBSD (He's the one who has been insisting on and off about it for four years now) and asked him about the problem, and he said that the same happened to him.
This, and I managed to force the computer to boot into UNetbootin from the grub, where the bootloader failed to load. This pretty much confirmed my fears, that FreeBSD overwrites at least one binary (/bin/cc) that UNetbootin uses, possible quite a few more. I don't know why is that a boot wrapper needs a c++ compiler, but that's another matter altogether.
Right now I followed the instructions present in http://www.pendrivelinux.com/boot-multiple-iso-from-usb-via-grub2-using-linux/ , since it'd be pretty useful in general (This pendrive has seen, from the top of my head, a gparted livecd ubuntu, xubuntu, Damn Small Linux, an antivirus livecd whose name escapes me, slitaz, arch linux, Damn Small Linux, and I think that a disk defragmenter) to not have to keep formatting the thing, with their limited R/W cycles, and wanted to know: What is that I should add to grub.cfg to boot the FreeBSD iso? The one it uses is http://pendrivelinux.com/downloads/multibootlinux/grub.cfg , but all the example distros are linux-based, and the esotheric realms of the grub escape me.
Up to this point I haven't had any particular point setting up the pendrive, so I guess it's fine for now.

*EDIT:* I found https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/...bout-installing-freebsd-on-a-usb-stick.11715/ . The worse that can happen is the thing not working, so i am gona try.
Please gods have mercy.
EDIT: Well that didn't work. My computer recognized the usb pen (And this time it actualy listed it in the USB REMOVABLE DEVICES section, normaly it's in the hard drives one) but acording to it it isn't a bootable device.


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## wblock@ (Dec 19, 2015)

Akel said:


> going _sudo su _wrecks my nerves


Well, good news then, because `sudo` is not part of FreeBSD.  So you can just not install it.  What are you using it for, anyway?



Akel said:


> This pretty much confirmed my fears, that FreeBSD overwrites at least one binary (/bin/cc) that UNetbootin uses


There seems to be some very basic confusion here.  First, FreeBSD is not Linux.  At all.  Sorry if that is obvious, but while FreeBSD can run some Linux binaries, they are not native.  Linux does not run FreeBSD binaries.  FreeBSD does not normally use Grub for booting, either.

When running Unetbootin, it's the one doing the writing.  So blame it, not FreeBSD.

You know, before continuing to fight with this...  Install VirtualBox, create a VM, and let it have the ISO image to boot.  If that fails, we are dealing with deeper problems.


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## kpa (Dec 19, 2015)

FreeBSD does not overwrite anything anywhere, stop jumping to conclusions that make no sense.


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## Akel (Dec 19, 2015)

wblock@ said:


> Well, good news then, because `sudo` is not part of FreeBSD.  So you can just not install it.  What are you using it for, anyway?


No, I failed to express myself. The guide I linked after that explicitly required steps done in linux and from the su account.



> There seems to be some very basic confusion here.  First, FreeBSD is not Linux.  At all.  Sorry if that is obvious, but while FreeBSD can run some Linux binaries, they are not native.  Linux does not run FreeBSD binaries.  FreeBSD does not normally use Grub for booting, either.


I don't mean to sound agresive on this, but when I used unetbootin it asked me if I wanted to overwrite /bin/cc almost immediately, so I assumed unetbootin didn't create binaries out of thin air. And my confussion in this is mainly about unetbootin needing a C compiler in the first place. Or extracting the same file two times, which sounds more probably now that I checked and found out that Unetbootin extracts the OS and then the bootloader, not the other way around.



> You know, before continuing to fight with this...  Install VirtualBox, create a VM, and let it have the ISO image to boot.


At that right now.



> If that fails, we are dealing with deeper problems.


I didn't mean to imply any fault from FreeBSD, if that's what you are interpretating. My problem here is my own incompetency in the mater and a faulty cd tray keeping me from taking the easy option.
Well, that and my mojo atracting wierd computer errors. I still don't know why is that Morrowind's audio pitch shiftes at random even after five years and several OSes.



> FreeBSD does not overwrite anything anywhere, stop jumping to conclusions that make no sense.


Today my problem is being wording, rather than conclussions. And UNetbootin acting weird out of nowhere.


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## protocelt (Dec 19, 2015)

UNetbootin no longer works with current versions of FreeBSD. The last version of FreeBSD supported was the FreeBSD 8 branch which has been retired and is no longer supported.


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## Akel (Dec 19, 2015)

Okay, I did test Vb and unsurprisingly it worked. But my problem here is uncooperative hardware more than anything else.
Just to be sure, I recorded the mini-memstick version to the usb pen and it did the same again, freeze que computer at boot. I don't get that one.


protocelt said:


> UNetbootin no longer works with current versions of FreeBSD. The last version of FreeBSD supported was the FreeBSD 8 branch which has been retired and is no longer supported.


I noticed, at first I had assumed the mater was more of unetbootin not updating than *BSD not working but now I am glancing at how deep this rabbit hole is. Just by chance, would it be possible to install FreeBSD 8 and then updating it to 10.2? I do know that full OS upgrade in general isn't that recomendable no matter the OS, but maybe a vanilla system out of the box may work far better than a fully configurated and heavily used one.
What I do know is that FreeBSD had heavy changes from version eight to nine, which is what makes me ask rather than just go and try.


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## wblock@ (Dec 19, 2015)

Akel said:


> I do know that full OS upgrade in general isn't that recomendable no matter the OS


Says who?  Yes, you can upgrade FreeBSD from one version to another.  It is normal and expected.


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## kpa (Dec 19, 2015)

FreeBSD is not MS Windows which is patch on patch on patch. FreeBSD is designed to be upgraded from one version to the next one while keeping all settings and user data intact and the result of the upgrade is indistiguishable from a clean install if done properly.


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## Akel (Dec 19, 2015)

wblock@ said:


> Says who?  Yes, you can upgrade FreeBSD from one version to another.  It is normal and expected.


Ah, good. I've had quite a few bad experiences with OS updating in the past, both *nix and windows, and people I know who has done the same has had bad experiences as well. It generaly goes around "And then my OS kersploded".
Trying to go from Unebootin's version gave me a fatal trap 18, but I know there isn't support for old versions so I'll pip in if I have some idea of how to install FBSD and have any questions about it, as I ran out of them.


kpa said:


> FreeBSD is not MS Windows which is patch on patch on patch. FreeBSD is designed to be upgraded from one version to the next one while keeping all settings and user data intact and the result of the upgrade is indistiguishable from a clean install if done properly.


The whole thing where first the necesary archives are prepared in another folder, and then if it goes without errors /bin/* and the like is masively replaced? I read up on it, and seems like a pretty good idea.
I asked anyway to be sure, a question can't hurt.


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## tingo (Dec 20, 2015)

Akel said:


> Just by chance, would it be possible to install FreeBSD 8 and then updating it to 10.2?


Possible? Yes.
Easy and quick? No.
The recommended way to upgrade across multiple major version is to include all major versions. So FreeBSD  8.4 -> 9.0 -> 9.1 -> 9.2 -> 9.3 -> 10.0 -> 10.1 -> 10.2
You could always gamble on a shorter one: FreeBSD 8.4 -> 9.3 -> 10.2
but it is not guaranteed to work.


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