How to make a bootable USB stick for booting a geli encryptet hard disk?

[Terje Elde]

Frank J. Beckmann wrote:
>> You might try using a CD-R, then. For this, you'll need access to
>> another (FreeBSD) system that has sysutils/cdrtools installed on it
>> (mkisofs is part of sysutils/cdrtools).
>>     
>
> A CD or DVD is not an option. It has to be an USB device. The big question is 
> why does booting the USB device not work?
>   


This is a classic problem, both with PenDrives and CF cards.  I remember 
I had some issues with this, and finally adopted a method which seemed 
to work reliably.  I stopped working on that stuff, and promptly forgot 
exactly what I did.  I am however fairly certain it involved plugging it 
into a machine supporting it, going to it's BIOS, seeing what geometry 
it used, then using that on FreeBSD.  I am however less sure which of 
the possible modes I used.  Shouldn't be more than a couple of trial and 
error operations before you're up and running.

Two things to keep in mind:  a) You might need to set your BIOS to the 
geometry mode you're using, and b) Some BIOSes differentiate between USB 
"floppies", and USB "harddrives".

Terje (which is tired, and might be thinking all wrong here)