[gentoo-user] question about files as disks

[gentoo-user] question about files as disks

[Eric S. Johansson]

I'm helping some people using gentoo and one of the tasks is the 
production of flash memory updates for the firewall.  The script for 
producing flash images contains calculations determining sector offsets 
so that the disk image can be treated as a partitioned disk.

Is there anyway to treat a file as if it were a physical disk from the 
partitioning through mounting of each individual partition and its 
unmounting?  I can keep doing it the clumsy error-prone way if I need to 
him but I was just trying to find out if there was an option that 
reduced the opportunity for mistakes.

---eric
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Re: [gentoo-user] question about files as disks

[Richard Fish]

Eric S. Johansson wrote:

> I'm helping some people using gentoo and one of the tasks is the 
> production of flash memory updates for the firewall.  The script for 
> producing flash images contains calculations determining sector 
> offsets so that the disk image can be treated as a partitioned disk.
>
> Is there anyway to treat a file as if it were a physical disk from the 
> partitioning through mounting of each individual partition and its 
> unmounting?  I can keep doing it the clumsy error-prone way if I need 
> to him but I was just trying to find out if there was an option that 
> reduced the opportunity for mistakes.
>

Maybe user-mode linux or vmware could be useful for this...

-Richard


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Re: [gentoo-user] question about files as disks

[Eric S. Johansson]

Richard Fish wrote:
> 
> Maybe user-mode linux or vmware could be useful for this...
> 

I'm using qemu to run the firewall which in turn creates a self flash 
memory image of itself.  Maybe you are right though I should look into 
the virtual machine as the framework from which I generate the flash 
image.

I will say though it's all a royal pain in the butt.

;-)

---eric
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[gentoo-user] QEMU firewall (was: question about files as disks)

[Willie Wong]

On Thu, Jul 28, 2005 at 02:48:04PM -0400, Eric S. Johansson wrote:
> I'm using qemu to run the firewall which in turn creates a self flash 
> memory image of itself.  Maybe you are right though I should look into 
> the virtual machine as the framework from which I generate the flash 
> image.

I am actually quite interested in the details. What system do you run
on the guest system? OpenBSD? And can you give a brief description of
your network schematics? 

Thanks, 

W
-- 
It's one o them musics with little sticky prongs all over it
so it can cling to the inside of your head for days.
   ~S
Sortir en Pantoufles: up 3 days, 21:36
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Re: [gentoo-user] QEMU firewall

[Eric S. Johansson]

Willie Wong wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 28, 2005 at 02:48:04PM -0400, Eric S. Johansson wrote:
> 
>>I'm using qemu to run the firewall which in turn creates a self flash 
>>memory image of itself.  Maybe you are right though I should look into 
>>the virtual machine as the framework from which I generate the flash 
>>image.
> 
> 
> I am actually quite interested in the details. What system do you run
> on the guest system? OpenBSD? And can you give a brief description of
> your network schematics? 

it's not what you imagine.  That will need to wait for me to spend time 
with xen.

all I'm doing right now is running IPCop in qemu.  then using ssh, copy 
over configuration files, run the build flash image process, copy it 
back and then iterate to the next configuration.

I'm trying to eliminate the /boot partition and the process of building 
a bootable flash image is so fragile that I'm having trouble making all 
the pieces lined up.

This is why I was hoping there was some way to create a multi-partition 
"disk" out of a file and be able to read and write them in the same way 
we do multi-partition hard drives.

I am about 30 pico seconds away from finding out if I can mount up the 
disk image with qemu as a separate drive without spending the 60 
seconds+ it takes to start up or shut down qemu.hopefully I can make the 
build process work that way.  It might be less pain although making grub 
work..."oh bother," said Pooh bear.

---eric

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