How to create a FreeNAS USB Installer?

[donniezazen]

Hello,

I have done a fair amount of searching but I am unable to fine a decisive answer. Please help.

I want to install FULL VERSION of FreeNAS 8 on hard drive of a system with no CD Drive. I do not have freeBSD to dd and I have tried dd on Ubuntu but dd won't write FreeNAS image. On Windows, I am not sure if I should use this tutorial http://forums.freenas.org/showthread.php?251-How-to-write-the-embedded-FreeNAS-8-image-under-Windows to install FULL VERSION. Nonetheless, I tried it. But I have a 16 GB USB drive to write FreeNAS-8.0.3-RELEASE-p1-x86.Full_Install.xz to and it keeps returning error that the drive is bigger than 2 GB.

Thanks,
Donnie.

[HAL 9000]

FreeNAS is designed to run from USB flash.
Write image do USb stick and boot from it.


xzcat FreeNAS-8.0.3-RELEASE-x64-Full_Install.xz | dd of=/dev/sd? bs=64k

[ProtoSD]

Donnie,

@Hal_9000 is correct, FreeNAS 8 is not like FreeNAS 7, it is not intended to be installed on a hard drive. The partition sizes are fixed and it can't be setup for dual boot or have it's partitions changed.

[donniezazen]

FreeNAS is a little confusing for me at the moment. Sorry for that.

Will I be able to install Subsonic Music Server which requires a full version of FreeNAS on FreeNAS 8 USB stick?

Thanks.

[ProtoSD]

Not right now. The FreeNAS 8 filesystem is read-only and the partition size limited. There are "workarounds" but those are not encouraged. FreeNAS 8.2 is just about to be released in another few weeks if everything goes well. It will have a plugin system that will let you add other apps that have been converted to plugins. There's a thread in the Forums here for making requests, you might want to go there and put in a request.

It seems like you might want to do some more research about FreeNAS 8 before you go much further. There are some links in my signature below for Official documentation, videos, and FAQ that will help you understand a little better.


EDIT: Here is a link to the Plugin Request thread:

http://forums.freenas.org/showthread.php?137-Do-You-Have-a-Plugin-Request

[donniezazen]

Thank you Protosd.