Contents:
Get the full PicoBSD Development Kit as well as full CVS repository of the project.
If you ever dreamed about having really small, tiny, minimal system that would offer you benefits of Unix, while still fitting in reasonable space - here it is!
PicoBSD is a one floppy version of FreeBSD 3.0-current, which in its different variations allows you to have secure dialup access, small diskless router or even a dial-in server. And all this on only one standard 1.44MB floppy - no need to sacrifice over 100MB of your precious HDD space.
PicoBSD is... well, pico-sized :-) , and the minimal hardware that is required to run it is 386SX CPU with 8MB of RAM (no HDD!).
Here you can find detailed list of supported hardware and features.
Current version of PicoBSD is @VER@, and this means that I consider it still immature, while on the other hand being somewhat tested and improved over previous versions. Does it tell you something? Well, at least you can try it - I cannot guarantee that it doesn't burn your house or blow up your machine, though the former is unlikely... :-)
There are two language editions of PicoBSD - English and Polish one. You'll be probably more interested in the former :-) The only difference is in the set of fonts included, C locale, and the language of messages.
You can download them from www.freebsd.org or one of its mirrors:
(See the feature list for more details)
The above floppies were built from 3.0-current sources. Though they provide more features, they tend to be less stable than the latest RELEASE of FreeBSD. Dinesh Nair back-ported these scripts to the latest release (2.2.5), and continues development of PicoBSD using sources from that branch. You can find floppies built from 2.2.5 sources here or at his server.
Previous versions were packed with PKZIP(tm) compatible program - now they are simply the raw binary floppy images, so you just need to grab the appropriate version of the file.
I assume you will use 1.44MB floppy to boot the system - other sizes (bigger) are not tested.
The file 'pb_xx-X.bin' must be written onto a blank floppy. It does NOT mean that it can be copied using e.g. DOS 'copy' command. You must use a program like rawrite.exe or fdimage.exe to write this file directly on the raw floppy.
Under DOS you would do something like this:
C:\> fdimage.exe pb_xx-X.bin a:
while under Unix you would use something like:
dd if=pb_xx-X.bin of=/dev/rfd0
Then boot off this floppy and enjoy!
If you feel lost, try the 'help' command (it's available only on "dialup" floppies)
I made available also the set of tools (a.k.a the PicoBSD Development Kit) I used to create the floppies (see also the detailed instructions)
You can also access the full CVS repository of PicoBSD - beginning with
version 0.4 it's a part of official FreeBSD CVS and lives in
src/release/picobsd. I also create the snapshots of this source
tree - keep in mind that they are not so up-to-date as the tree
in FreeBSD CVS. You can get the snapshot I made on
Sun Nov 1 11:48:32 PST 1998
here.
Now, if you don't like the setup of PicoBSD, or you miss some program, or (better yet) you want to improve PicoBSD - you can grab the copy of exactly the same tools I used and build your own, customized version!
Think of it: if your're an ISP, you can build the dialup version for your customers, including some scripts to automatically connect them to your site. You can also create a demo disk for your friend (or your boss! :-)). You can also build a firewall/router for your office, etc, etc... possibilities are really endless and limited only by your imagination.
You will need at least 10MB of free disk space for building, and of course the full system sources installed. I also assume that the sources are quite -current. There is also a back-ported version of the scripts prepared by Dinesh Nair which builds ok on 2.2.6-R systems.
Version 0.31 was packed with pax(1) - newer versions are packed again with tar and gzip to avoid confusion... :-)
I'm very interested in hearing from you about your experiences - if you come up with a setup you think is interesting, please let me know!
Almost all of the programs included on the floppies are exactly the same versions as in normal FreeBSD installation, so that the normal manual pages apply. However, I didn't include the manpages themselves - they would take over 200kB!
For the total newbies, which would use (I assume) the 'dialup' version, there is a short README on the floppy which gives step by step instructions on how to get a dialup connection. There is also a script called 'dialup' which attempts to configure PPP to allow for automatic log in to your provider, and for background operation. There is also a small help system ('help' command)
There are some system utilities which are unique to PicoBSD, and at this moment they are documented in detail only in source and READMEs :-(.
As for the new releases which will (hopefully) be prepared in the future: just keep an eye on this page. I'll also send announcements to FreeBSD mailing lists.
Well, I hope that thanks to your comments I'll be able to continuously improve the setup and contents of PicoBSD. I also have specific dreams (if dreams can be specific..) - here they are, as an incentive to your imagination and coding skills:
Well, currently you can read very preliminary draft of proposed architecture, called the Unified Configuration Interface.
The following people are either responsible for the very existence of this project, or significantly eased my pains in gaining necessary knowledge:
PicoBSD is distributed under BSD copyright, which allows you to use it in various ways, including commercial applications. So grab it and enjoy! And if you feel that you want to help with this project, either by donating some time to write code, or by some other donation, just contact me.