PC-BSD

EDIT: Latest version available from here.

LivePCBSD 1.4a (alpha) is released today.

Major software included:

1. KDE 3.5.6 with additional packages.
2. PC-BSD tools- no firewall yet.
3. Kaffeine media player.
4. Konversation IRC client.
5. smb4k samba client (I personally can't use it because I can't connect with it to any samba share- if anyone got more information how to use it, please respond).
6. ISC-DHCPD server for netboot clients (look tftp-hpa).
7. tftp-hpa for netboot.
8. Nuvola as default icon theme.
9. Complete FreeBSD 6.2-STABLE system as base for livecd- you can use it as rescue cd for FreeBSD or PC-BSD installations. Also can install pure FreeBSD over FTP/NFS with sysinstall.
10. Fusefs is enabled by default. Fusefs-sshfs, fusefs-ntfs, fusefs-smbfs, etc. included.
11. More than 500 ports/packages installed.

ToDo:

1. Change graphics card detection to more human friendly.
2. Test included Nvidia binary driver.
3. Test netboot (you can mount livecd physical /boot directory as /tftpdboot and enable dhcpd to boot your computers remotely).
4. Store configuration files on external drive.

To make LivePCBSD cd you'll need cd-r or cd-rw disk size 650-700MB (can use DVD media also). Burn image to cd (dvd) and reboot your computer (set primary boot device as cdrom in BIOS). By default livecd boots into command line as user "livecd"- no password asked. You can become root user with command "su" or "su -"- no password asked. SSHd is enabled by default but noone can log in as user without password- so you can set it up with command "passwd"  and log in remotely.

In case Xorg won't start after issueing "startx" command, you can generate your own Xorg configuration by running: "X -configure" command and copying /root/xorg.conf.new file to /etc/X11/xorg.conf and edit accordingly to your system (Nvidia users may change nvidia driver to "vesa").

With HALd you can mount all internal fixed disks and external USB drives with NTFS, FAT16/FAT32 and UFS filesystems automatically.

NOTE: THIS IS OLD VERSION! DO NOT USE THIS ONE!
http://www.pcbsd.org/~antik/pcbsdlive240607.iso

MD5 (pcbsdlive240607.iso) = b2e5912c5231d75647f480694353019b

NOTE: This is fully working testing release- feel free to report any annoyance or bug you find evaluating it. Some features are not implemented yet.

I have a freebsd samba server linked with gigabit ethernet crossover cable. I'll test it today I hope and post some results, although I am getting really low (6-7MB/sec) throughput from any smb client.

One problem I encountered is that Pentium 4 processors with HyperThreading enabled may hang- solution is to disable HT from BIOS. I guess it is related to cpu frequency scaling that is enabled by default.

LivePCBSD kernel got SMP (Symmetric Multi Processing) support built in to enable power of modern dual-core cpus.

Cool, I hope I can log into kde on this one to copy the xorg.conf file to my 1.3 install. A Xorg.conf from a livecd linux with KDE will work right?

Not sure if Xorg 7.2 configuration file will work on Xorg 6.9. Usually Linux and BSD distributions got similar xorg.conf files.

HELL YEAH!

Good to see a LIVE CD of PCBSD

Warning : There is a known problem (repeated acd0 errors) with HAL if you run the livecd under vmware server 1.03. I have confirmed it live with antik.

On the other hand, it run solid on the following hardware without any tweeks:

-Eizo FlexScan S1701 (1280x1024@60Hz)
-Asus P5B Deluxe WiFi AP Edition
-Core2Duo E6300
-2x512MB Kingston DDR2@800MHz
-WD 120GB SATA2 on Intel based SATA controller
-NEC 3500A DVDRW IDE on JMicron based controller
-Ethernet through Marvel Yukon Gigabit lancard (got IP from DHCP server)

My NTFS partition was correctly recognised and mounted. Browsing and transferring files from a samba/freebsd server works easily with KNetAttach.

Only problem was that I plugged a couple of flash disks and a usb smart card reader and they were not mounted although they were detected.

Thank you for making this live cd. PC-BSD 1.4 is going to be a great release that should bring Linux and Windows users to this part of the world. And having a live cd of pcbsd will demonstrate without risk how how well it works on their computers. This live cd will have many other uses but that one is important for me. I am writing to you now from the live cd. Thanks again.

Just connected to the internet with it. The only thing I had to do for this was to enter my username/password for my DSL connection.

Nice work. I like it a lot.

One feature request perhaps (don't know if this is possible with PC-BSD/FreeBSD): It would be nice if I could save my configuration
to an external file (on hard disk or on an usb stick) so I don't have to config everything again after a reboot.

This feature is on my ToDo list already.

I know it's a live cd, but why is there no Install to Hard Drive option - or is there and I've missed it.

Ray

It's a test release focusing on the "live" aspect.
After all the "undocumented features" (bugs) have been seen to, perhaps Antik will include an install option.
Let him get the LiveCD part functional first.

BTW, great work Antik

Fabulous Antik. Thanks so much.

I love it!

LiveBSD works great on normal computers. I tested on HP Vectra VL420 (P4) mini-tower and it worked great.

I even tested it on an Compaq server. (Proliant ML370 dual P4 Server with HP 5i Smart Array controller operating six SCSI disks in a Raid 5 configuration). I thought an alpha version might choke on that monster, but LivePCBSD did not. In normal mode It booted to a command prompt & I used startx to get to the graphical desktop. No glitches. That is way cool.


I tested it on a portable Acer Travelmate 4001 (P4 Centrino-M @ 1.5Ghz, 2 Gb ram, Intel i855 video chipset, Intel 2200 wireless nic). I had a couple of glitches (see below) but got past them by starting in "safe" mode and then from the command prompt ran startx.

Here are the glitches: The Acer would hang when starting in the normal mode and in the ACPI disabled mode. In both instances, the hang occurred after loading the configuration files, i.e.:



In safe mode, it jumps right past that and was fully functional except for the wireless mouse and sound. The wireless mouse, however, was correctly identified in the startup sequence. Moving the mouse had no effect on the cursor. The touchpad worked great. LivePCBSD correctly identified my ethernet NIC and wireless adapter and connected to the internet.

In summary, the LivePCBSD is great.