README

This is a set of scripts and configuration files that
can build a bootable FreeBSD image for some popular ARM-based
development boards.

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How to Build a Disk Image
-------------------------

The beaglebsd.sh script can build a complete bootable FreeBSD image
ready to be copied to a MicroSDHC card.  The script runs on
FreeBSD-CURRENT (March 2012 or later).

Using the script to build an image consists of a few steps:

1. READ board/<board-name>/README

   The board-specific directories each have a README
   with various details about running FreeBSD on a particular
   system.

2. EDIT config.sh

   Start by copying config.sh.sample.

   The first line specifies the board configuration you
   want to use.  The name here should exactly match a
   directory under "board/".

3. RUN beaglebsd.sh as root

   $ sudo /bin/sh beaglebsd.sh

   The script will first check that you have any needed sources.
   If you don't, the script will tell you exactly how to obtain the
   missing pieces.  Follow the instructions and re-run the script
   until you have everything.

   As soon as it finds all the required pieces, the script will then
   compile everything and build the disk image.  This part of the
   process can take several hours.

4. COPY the image to a MicroSDHC card.

   The script will suggest a 'dd' command to do this.

5. BOOT the image on your board.

   Again, read board/<board-name>/README for details.

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PROJECTS
------------

There are still plenty of ways this script could
be improved:

 * More boards.  Currently, it supports Beaglebone,
   RaspberryPi, and PandaBoard.  There are a lot of
   other boards with similar concerns that could easily
   be supported.

 * Package Installation.  I would like to be able to
   put a bunch of packages into board/NAME/packages and
   have them installed onto the image.  The chroot technique
   used by nanobsd won't work when cross-compiling, so we
   need a different approach.  Maybe the new pkgng tool will
   help?

 * Swap.  The script should allow you to specify a swap size
   and automatically adjust the disk layout accordingly.