flashrd

flashrd creates OpenBSD images tailored for embedded hardware devices and for executing from a virtualized environment.

flashrd installs a complete OpenBSD system with "one-touch" upgrade capability. It boots from a ramdisk to make in-place upgrades easy and complete. flashrd partitions default to read-only operation, to minimize flash wear.

Do you like using OpenBSD? Do you want to continue to get high-quality releases? Buy official CDs or donate directly to the project. Users like you provide primary funding to the project.

• Frequently Asked Questions (and then some)
• Installation instruction [English] [Italiano] and image installation instruction [English] [Italiano]
• GitHub source repository, wiki, issue tracker
• Mailing list for flashrd (List archive)
• Disk images (latest OpenBSD 5.9 pre-release 2015/02/09) generated by flashrd (these are fully ready binary images)
• Audio: BSDTalk 229 and PLUG 3/19/13 Slides: PLUG 3/19/13
• flashrd-2.0.tar.gz (for OpenBSD 5.8/5.9)
  • 2.0 release notes
  • Use dd to create sparse file instead of relying on vnd quirks to create sparse vnd file (clue from Kenneth Westerback)
  • Create /var/tmp at boot for newer OpenBSD (Fred Cirera)
  • Various bugfixes (Fred Cirera)
  • Use mtree to setup /var (Fred Cirera)
  • Support for /etc as a tardir (Brian Conway)
  • Undo changes from flashrd 1.9, the real bug was fixed in OpenBSD (Brian Conway)
  • Use 4MB offset for first flash partition, to potentially help with cheap flash alignment (Brian Conway)
  • Don't obliterate rc.local and rc.shutdown (Brian Conway)
  • Build bootstrap binaries without PIE (necessary on i386) (Brian Conway)
  • 1.9 release notes
  • Fix boot failures on certain amd64 kernels
  • 1.8 release notes
  • Flense kernel config to control text size (avoid memory corruption for current amd64 layout)
  • Make /etc more friendly when read-only (regarding random.seed and resolv.conf)
  • Use proper 64K size for host.random
  • Make it easy to use clang to build kernel (requires source tree patches for clang flags)
  • More error checking and small bug fixes
  • Import Paul Suh's builder update (including better documentation for the builder feature)
• Release notes for all versions of flashrd
• flashrd-1.3.tar.gz package contents description
• nsh: command line interface for OpenBSD routers