On Sat, Feb 06, 2010 at 09:48:03PM +0100, Gergely Fazekas wrote: > Hello, > > I'm looking for help with setting up my laptop with OpenBSD. I'm pretty new > to *BSD, so please, bear with me, as I'm eager and capable to learn. :-) > > What I'd like to achieve: dual boot with Windows XP, with the following > settings: > * partitioning: 5GB (XP, ntfs), 35GB (xp data, fat32), 20GB (linux/whatever, > I'm planning on using it for testing out stuff, mostly linux distros, > booting from an usb stick) and the rest, some ~100GB is for OpenBSD. (This I > could manage to achieve so far :-P)
I may be reading wrong, but I assume you're this far then already? > * booting: I'd like the system to boot from an usb stick - if the stick is > not present, Windows boots, if it is present, I can choose but defaulting to > OpenBSD. I don't really have experience in this, but you may want to look at something like setting your USB as first boot device in your BIOS and then have the GAG bootloader or similar installed on your USB drive. You may even want (I don't know why though) your OpenBSD / partition on the USB drive, as you're not likely to attain full encryption of that partition with the rest. Not in a way that won't leave you bald and drunk. > * encryption: I'd like to encrypt the whole OpenBSD part as a security > measure if my laptop gets stolen; I'd like to have a passphrase asked at > boot and using keyfiles too so if someone could guess my passphrase they > still couldn't get my data without the usb stick and the keyfiles on it (and > vica versa, having the usb stick alone should not give access to my system). > Full install encryption can give many enjoyable hours of archive searching. It's easy enough to encrypt everything but / however. I use a variation on this: http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=125699789615490&w=2 The only things I'd maybe add to that is that I don't put my swap in softraid, and if you put your bioctl command in /etc/rc with the rest of the raid stuff (don't put at the top), it's a nice smooth boot. Be aware that you need to jump through a few more hoops, both on initial install and during the upgrade process. Also there be dragons this way if you're messing with having a USB stick present/not present in different situations. If you put your OpenBSD mount points on softraid0 and then into fstab, you need to decide a pretty strict regimine with your USB stick. > I'm not sure if this is at all possible, but I welcome any pointers, > suggestions and any help in general! > > Thank you, > Dinchamion
