Firas Kraiem wrote:
quoted text
> Greetings everyone :)
> 
> So here's the deal, I have :
> 
> -> An i386 machine with no floppy or CDROM drive that I'm willing to 
> install OpenBSD on
> -> A nice and shiny 4.2 CD-set
> -> A 2 GB USB flash drive
> 
> Because I'm stingy and I don't want to spend fifty bucks on an USB CDROM 
> drive when installation is pretty much the only need I will have for 
> it, I was wondering how I could turn my USB flash drive into an OpenBSD 
> installation medium (it's of course very easy to copy the sets on it, 
> but I can't figure out how to make it bootable afterwards).
> 
> Any pointers about this will be much appreciated.
> 
> Firas

Easy way:
find another computer that DOES have a CDROM or floppy
(note: does not even have to be able to boot from USB! :)
Install OpenBSD to the USB device (basic install)
carry device to target machine
boot off USB device (the target machine DOES need to be able to do this!)
at the boot> prompt, boot bsd.rd
Install normally to target hard disk. ("normally" is either via FTPing
the files from another server, or having copied the install files to a
location on the USB device)


Another way, depending on resources:
Move the HD out of the target machine into another machine temporarily,
install there, move back.  Yes, this works very nicely.


Advanced way:
On another machine, boot OpenBSD install media
create an OpenBSD partition on your flash disk, disklabel it, and
install the boot loader to that partition, copy over bsd.rd.  Faster,
in that you copy over just the minimal amount needed to bootstrap the
new machine.  However, if this were the best choice for you, you
probably would not have been asking how to do it.  (hint: FAQ 14).


Personally, I'd move the hard disk.  Sure, that doesn't use your USB
drive to much advantage, but I suspect I'd win a race in doing that.
HOWEVER, having OpenBSD on a bootable USB flash disk is very handy at
times...assuming you hang around HW new enough to actually boot from
USB.

Nick.