Is a Boot Environment the same as an iso?

[Robin]

I finally got (almost) all of my little bugaboos fixed and got my GhostBSD OS functioning well enough to be my daily driver!

I'm not exactly how to use this "boot environment" thing though. I want to backup the entire OS including the config files and such. I can back up documents, pictures and stuff separately like I always do, but can I boot into a boot environment on a USB stick just like an iso?

[ericbsd]

Boot Environment is a ZFS snapshot of what makes your system boot. BE is created with bectl or beadm. At boot, you can boot any of them. You can probably replicate them on a USB with ZFS, but the boot is like an ISO, so I am unsure.

[Robin]

How exactly, would I boot from a BE?
Can I convert a BE to an iso?
HOW do I replicate a BE onto a USB stick that would be bootable?

How about cloning the hard drive and creating an iso from the resulting clone?

[ericbsd]

Booting from a Boot Environment in the GhostBSD Boot Menu

1. Access the Bootloader Menu

• Restart your system and wait for the GhostBSD boot menu to appear.
• Press the Space Bar to stop the timeout and access the menu without the system automatically booting into the default BE.
• Select the option to access the Boot Environments submenu.

2. Options in the Boot Environments Menu

• Once in the Boot Environments menu, you'll see three options:

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  1. Back to Main Menu [Backspace]
  2. Active: <BE to Boot>
  3. bootfs: <default boot BEt>
  

• Option 1: Returns you to the main boot menu without making changes.
• Option 2: Select the BE to boot
• Option 3: This changes the active BE to the default one. The default can be changed by bectl.

3. Change Active BE to Boot Temporarily

• To boot into a specific BE just for the current session:
  • Pressing 2 to utile you see the BE you want to boot.
  • Press Enter to start the boot process.

How to Store a Boot Environment (BE) on a USB Drive

You can store a Boot Environment (BE) on a USB drive in GhostBSD by following these steps:

1. Prepare the USB Drive

• Insert the USB drive and identify it (e.g., da0) using

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  gpart list

  or

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  dmesg

• Create a new partition table on the USB drive:

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   gpart create -s gpt /dev/da0 gpart add -t freebsd-zfs -l usb_be /dev/da0 

• Format the partition with ZFS:

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   zpool create usbpool /dev/gpt/usb_be 

2. Snapshot the Current BE

• Use bectl to create a snapshot of the BE you want to copy:

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   bectl snapshot -n my_snapshot my_be 

3. Clone the BE to the USB

• Mount the USB ZFS pool:

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   zfs set mountpoint=/mnt/usbpool usbpool 

• Copy the BE dataset to the USB:

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   zfs send zroot/ROOT/my_be@my_snapshot | zfs receive usbpool/my_be 

4. Make the USB Bootable (Optional)

• Install the FreeBSD bootloader to the USB drive:

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   gpart bootcode -b /boot/pmbr -p /boot/gptzfsboot -i 1 /dev/da0 

• Update the ZFS pool properties to make it bootable:

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   zpool set bootfs=usbpool/my_be usbpool 

6. Unmount and Export the USB Pool

• When finished, unmount and export the USB pool:

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  zpool export usbpool 

5. Test Booting from USB

• Reboot the system and choose the USB drive as the boot device.
• The system should boot into the environment stored on the USB.

I might be missing some steps, but I have never done that before.

[Robin]

Omygoodness! I'll give that a shot, thanks very much!