View Single Post
  #9   (View Single Post)  
Old 2nd May 2011
jggimi's Avatar
jggimi jggimi is offline
More noise than signal
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: USA
Posts: 7,977
Default -current is a non-starter

First, the workload would be significant. A release(8), a build of nearly 1500 ports, and then individually provisioning each of the images, testing them, and finally packaging them, takes a great deal of time, as well as effort. To quote myself, straight from my little FAQ:
Quote:
This is -release. Why not -stable or -current?

3. There are 12 different ISOs. I do not intend to spend the time to build these more than twice per year, with each new -release....
Secondly, it was never my intent to use this for -current feature testing. That I do, but I usually just use a virtual machine, or a suite of virtual machines if it is a networking feature. To be clear, my offering permits some OS familiarity for new users, and hardware testing for existing OpenBSD users, such as testing a computer for compatibility before buying it. That it can also be used for "rescue" administration is a nice-to-have, but not my intent.

Thirdly, it's easy enough to install any release(8) onto a USB stick, assuming your destination platform can boot USB mass storage. The entire effort it takes, if you have a running OpenBSD system: download the appropriate bsd.rd kernel, boot it, insert a stick, and run the install script. The time it takes depends upon your bandwidth to the nearest mirror. The process is described in OpenBSD FAQ 14.17.3. It is a simple portable disk drive installation, and not a read-only "live media" environment, such as I create.

Lastly, I'd be happy to share my build scripts that I use to create my live media. However, the process of creating CD9660 read only live media is far more involved, and complicated, and time consuming than installing a snapshot on a stick. To get a glimpse of the underlying process of setting up a read-only version of the OS with MFS partitions for writing, there are links to two "howto" documents for creating your own live media at the bottom of my FAQ.
Reply With Quote