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NANOBSD(8)		  BSD System Manager's Manual		    NANOBSD(8)

NAME
     nanobsd.sh — utility used to create a FreeBSD system image suitable for
     embedded applications

SYNOPSIS
     nanobsd.sh [-bhknw] [-c config-file]

DESCRIPTION
     The nanobsd.sh utility is a script which produces a minimal implementa‐
     tion of FreeBSD (called NanoBSD), which typically fits on a small media
     such as a Compact Flash card, or other mass storage medium.  It can be
     used to build specialized install images, designed for easy installation
     and maintenance.

     The following options are available:

	   -b		   Skip the build stages (both for kernel and world).

	   -c config-file  Specify the configuration file to use.

	   -h		   Display usage information.

	   -k		   Skip the buildkernel stage of the build.

	   -n		   Do not cleanup before each build stage.  This sup‐
			   presses the normal cleanup work done before the
			   buildworld stage and adds -DNO_CLEAN to the make
			   command line used for each build stage (world and
			   kernel).

	   -w		   Skip the buildworld stage of the build.

     The features of NanoBSD include:

	   ·   Ports and packages work as in FreeBSD.  Every single applica‐
	       tion can be installed and used in a NanoBSD image, the same way
	       as in FreeBSD.
	   ·   No missing functionality.  If it is possible to do something
	       with FreeBSD, it is possible to do the same thing with NanoBSD,
	       unless the specific feature or features were explicitly removed
	       from the NanoBSD image when it was created.
	   ·   Everything is read-only at run-time.  It is safe to pull the
	       power-plug.  There is no necessity to run fsck(8) after a non-
	       graceful shutdown of the system.
	   ·   Easy to build and customize.  Making use of just one shell
	       script and one configuration file it is possible to build
	       reduced and customized images satisfying any arbitrary set of
	       requirements.

   NanoBSD Media Layout
     The mass storage medium is divided into three parts by default (which are
     normally mounted read-only):

	   ·   Two image partitions: code#1 and code#2.
	   ·   The configuration file partition, which can be mounted under
	       the /cfg directory at run time.

     The /etc and /var directories are md(4) (malloc backed) disks.

     The configuration file partition persists under the /cfg directory.  It
     contains files for /etc directory and is briefly mounted read-only right
     after the system boot, therefore it is required to copy modified files
     from /etc back to the /cfg directory if changes are expected to persist
     after the system restarts.

BUILDING NanoBSD
     A NanoBSD image is built using a simple nanobsd.sh shell script, which
     can be found in the src/tools/tools/nanobsd directory.  This script cre‐
     ates a bootable image, which can be copied on the storage medium using
     the dd(1) utility.

     The necessary commands to build and install a NanoBSD image are:

	   cd /usr/src/tools/tools/nanobsd
	   sh nanobsd.sh
	   cd /usr/obj/nanobsd.full
	   dd if=_.disk.full of=/dev/da0 bs=64k

CUSTOMIZING NanoBSD
     This is probably the most important and most interesting feature of
     NanoBSD.  This is also where you will be spending most of the time when
     developing with NanoBSD.

     Customization is done in two ways:

	   ·   Configuration options.
	   ·   Custom functions.

     With configuration settings, it is possible to configure options passed
     to both the buildworld and installworld stages of the NanoBSD build
     process, as well as internal options passed to the main build process of
     NanoBSD.  Through these options it is possible to cut the system down, so
     it will fit on as little as 64MB.	You can use the configuration options
     to trim down the system even more, until it will consist of just the ker‐
     nel and two or three files in the userland.

     The configuration file consists of configuration options, which override
     the default values.  The most important directives are:

	   NANO_NAME	 Build name (used to construct the working directory
			 names).

	   NANO_SRC	 Path to the source tree used to build the image.

	   NANO_KERNEL	 Name of the kernel configuration file used to build
			 the kernel.

	   NANO_BOOT0CFG
			 Controls the options passed to boot0cfg(8); these
			 dictate boot0's behaviour.

	   NANO_BOOTLOADER
			 The boot0 loader to use relative to the NANO_WORLDDIR
			 variable.  This defaults to boot/boot0sio and should
			 be overridden to boot/boot0 to provide a VGA console.

	   CONF_BUILD	 Options passed to the buildworld stage of the build.

	   CONF_INSTALL	 Options passed to the installworld stage of the
			 build.

	   CONF_WORLD	 Options passed to both the buildworld and
			 installworld stages of the build.

	   FlashDevice	 Defines the type of media to use.  Check the
			 FlashDevice.sub file for more details.

     For more configuration options, please check the nanobsd.sh script.

     To build NanoBSD image using the nanobsd.conf configuration file, use the
     following command:

	   sh nanobsd.sh -c nanobsd.conf

     It is possible to fine-tune NanoBSD using shell functions in the configu‐
     ration file.  The following example illustrates the basic model of custom
     functions:

	   cust_foo () (
		   echo "bar=topless" > \
			${NANO_WORLDDIR}/etc/foo
	   )
	   customize_cmd cust_foo

     There are a few pre-defined customization functions ready for use:

	   cust_comconsole	Disables getty(8) on the virtual syscons(4)
				terminals (/dev/ttyv*) and enables the use of
				the first serial port as the system console.

	   cust_allow_ssh_root	Allow root to log in via sshd(8).

	   cust_install_files	Installs files from the nanobsd/Files direc‐
				tory, which contains some useful scripts for
				system administration.

FILES
     src/tools/tools/nanobsd  Base directory of the NanoBSD build script.

EXAMPLES
     Making persistent changes to /etc/resolv.conf:

	   vi /etc/resolv.conf
	   ...
	   mount /cfg
	   cp /etc/resolv.conf /cfg
	   umount /cfg

     A more useful example of a customization function is the following, which
     changes the default size of the /etc directory from 5MB to 30MB:

	   cust_etc_size () (
		   cd ${NANO_WORLDDIR}/conf
		   echo 30000 > default/etc/md_size
	   )
	   customize_cmd cust_etc_size

SEE ALSO
     make.conf(5), boot(8), boot0cfg(8), picobsd(8)

HISTORY
     The nanobsd.sh utility first appeared in FreeBSD 6.0.

AUTHORS
     NanoBSD was developed by Poul-Henning Kamp ⟨phk@FreeBSD.org⟩.  This man‐
     ual page was written by Daniel Gerzo ⟨danger@FreeBSD.org⟩.

BSD				March 16, 2009				   BSD
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