On Tue, Oct 23, 2007 at 12:29:17PM +0200, Christian Baer wrote:
>On Sat, 20 Oct 2007 12:34:33 +0200 Zbigniew Baniewski wrote:
>
>> - to make it non-bootable
>> - to remove any signs, that it has been installed there (no boot messages at
>>   all, as it were quite "clean" HDD)
>> - ...and to keep the possibility to bring it back entirely, using Live-CD
>
>I'm new to NetBSD, but doing this with FreeBSD ist quite easy and I
>imagine that the same tools are there for NetBSD too:
>
>Put the kernel (or all of /) on a CD (or some other bootable media). Then
>encrypt everything else on the "hidden" machine. Although it sounds pretty
>compley, it's actually a pretty straight-forward procedure.

Hey this is a pretty cool idea.

Can you point to some doc, on making a bootable cd with only a
/netbsd file on it? eg, how do you specify a kernel on cdrom and
/etc/fstab on wd0a? and/or make a cdrom/kernel to use hd0 as root
fs after booting cd0:netbsd?

This reminds me of hoops I went through to update bios with a usb
drive that I used dd to put a bootable dos image onto. dd the usb
stick, boot the system, remove the usb, make a big dos partition
on it, copy the dos image data to it and also the bios updates.

the bios updates didn't fit in 1.44 MB with the bios, and the dos
files are still required after bootup to run the update.

I know the solution is to make a bigger bootable dos partition /
image; which bios updates are just copied to. but how to do that
is, well I don't know, possibly a good section or appendix for the
netbsd guide.

// George



= Updating System BIOS without Windows =

So you need to update your BIOS but don't have Windows installed? Easy enough. 

First you'll need the vendor's "DOS" based flash utility, this is typically a .exe file
which you are expected to run in a dos or an emulated dos window.

Second, since you don't have Windows installed, you need a DOS "boot floppy"

 * Non-Windows Based Image Files W/ImageApp (scroll down) http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
 * Special Disk For Bios Flashing (the actual image) http://1gighost.net/fishnet/drdflash.zip

When you unzip the archive, you'll find several files including the .img file.
This is a minimal DOS image; you should ''dd'' it to bootable media, typically
a floppy drive but might also be a cflash, a partition on your disk, or even
staging for boot cdrom creation. The image is small enough that the BIOS flash
exe file may also fit on the floppy.

When you've booted to DOS, make sure the the BIOS flash exe is in your current dirrectory
(type dir to check), then run it by typing the filename at the prompt.

Good Luck!

{{{
umass0 at uhub4 port 7 configuration 1 interface 0
umass0: SONY Storage Media, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 2
umass0: using SCSI over Bulk-Only
scsibus0 at umass0: 2 targets, 1 lun per target
sd0 at scsibus0 target 0 lun 0: <SONY, Storage Media, 1.00> disk removable
sd0: 120 MB, 481 cyl, 32 head, 16 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 246272 sectors
sd0(umass0:0:0:0): no door lock
}}}

{{{
# part 1
mkdir drd
cd drd 
unzip ../drdflash.zip 
ls -l 
total 2936
-rw-r--r--  1 501  501  1474560 Feb  1  2006 DRDFLASH.IMG
-rw-r--r--  1 501  501    14672 Aug  3  1999 FIRM.COM
-rw-r--r--  1 501  501      740 Aug  5  1999 LICENCE.TXT
-rw-r--r--  1 501  501     3386 Jul 11  2004 README.TXT
dd if=DRDFLASH.IMG of=/dev/rsd0d  
# boot host with new usb drive
}}}

{{{
# part 2, return usb drive to administrative host
vnconfig -rc vnd0 ./DRDFLASH.IMG 
mkdir /mnt2
mount -t msdos -o ro  /dev/vnd0d /mnt2
newfs_msdos /dev/rsd0d
mount -t msdos /dev/sd0d /mnt 
cd /mnt
cp ../mnt2/* ./
mkdir bios
cd bios
unzip /root/DM827137.zip                                                                               
Archive:  /root/drd/DM827137.zip
  inflating: afudos.exe              
  inflating: flash.bat               
  inflating: readme.txt              
  inflating: DM827137.ROM            
  inflating: m55a3sbi.bin            
  inflating: pmuseprm.exe            
cd
umount /mnt                                                                                                    
}}}

{{{
# part 3, restore usb stick to target host
# cd bios
# flash dm827137.rom
# on completion, remove usb drive, hit ctrl-alt-del to reboot
}}}

{{{
Part 4
enter bios settings
select load optimal defaults
save and exit
done.
}}}


-- 
George Georgalis, information system scientist <IXOYE><