FreeBSD From Scratch (ie. My Own Custom FreeBSD)

From: The Jetman (jetman516_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 11/07/03 

Date: 6 Nov 2003 16:37:42 -0800

Looking for a site for FreeBSD, which is the FreeBSD analogue to
the 'Linux From Scratch' site. Have already done searches on the
subj and essentially I only found the Small BSD Page
(freebsd.org/~picobsd), which is helpful, but way out of date.

Fortunately, I've already made some progress on my own, as I found a
site that provides instructions for making a CD-based firewall.
Moreover, I wrote some Python scripts which form a cmd-line
util that automates the entire process. One would think that's enuf,
but I came up short for the following reasons:

1) I get minor, (so far) non-fatal errors from the system, like
how I can't run PS from my CD-based system

2) I don't know how to customize the boot process, beyond startup
scripts in /usr/local/etc/rc.d and the variables in /etc/rc.conf.

The LFS manual does a nice job of explaning the construction process
and I *could* go w/ Linux, but I really prefer FBSD ! Needless to say,
I've covered the FreeBSD Handbook, which is nice, but no joy.

Essentially, I want something like ClosedBSD, which prompts for a
floppy w/ params, but I want a FBSD-based, system recovery disk for
Windows-based workstations. I also know about Mondo/Mindi, but that
too gave no joy *and* it was Linux-based.

Specifically, I want to be able to:

a) boot the OS into a ramdisk from a CD,
b) prompt for param files on an optional floppy,
c) unmount the CD,
d) then load a secondary CD, w/ the system image to be installed
on the hdrive.

I've got about 80 - 90% of the work completed. Essentially, it's a
matter of tweaking my CD generation scripts and customizing a few of the
boot-time scripts.

Just need a pointer to a website or two and I'll handle the rest. TIA....Jet

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