Boot

• Rewriting the bootloader in the Master Boot Record:

  # fdisk -B -b /boot/boot0 device

   

• NT Bootloader: Copy /boot/boot1 to the root of C: and name it bootsect.bsd, then add this line to boot.ini:

  C:\bootsect.bsd="FreeBSD"

   

• Automatic kernel parameters in: /boot/kernel.conf

   

• Reducing boot delay: add autoboot_delay="2" in /boot/loader.conf

   

• Generic /etc/cvsupfile

  *default host=cvsup11.FreeBSD.org
  *default base=/usr
  *default prefix=/usr
  *default release=cvs
  #*default tag=RELENG_4
  *default delete use-rel-suffix
  src-all
  *default tag=.
  ports-all

• Ordinary users can be permitted to mount devices. Here is how:

  1. As root set the sysctl variable vfs.usermount to 1.

     # sysctl -w vfs.usermount=1
     

  2. As root assign the appropriate permissions to the block device associated with the removable media.

     For example, to allow users to mount the first floppy drive, use:

     # chmod 666 /dev/fd0
     

     To allow users in the group operator to mount the CDROM drive, use:

     # chgrp operator /dev/cd0c
     # chmod 640 /dev/cd0c
     

  3. Finally, add the line vfs.usermount=1 to the file /etc/sysctl.conf so that it is reset at system boot time.

  All users can now mount the floppy /dev/fd0 onto a directory that they own:

  % mkdir ~/my-mount-point
  % mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 ~/my-mount-point
  

  Users in group operator can now mount the CDROM /dev/cd0c onto a directory that they own:

  % mkdir ~/my-mount-point
  % mount -t msdos /dev/cd0c ~/my-mount-point
  

  Unmounting the device is simple:

  % umount ~/my-mount-point
  

  Enabling vfs.usermount, however, has negative security implications. A better way to access MSDOS formatted media is to use the mtools package in the ports collection.