GSoC Idea: per-process filesystem namespaces for FreeBSD

[Rodney W. Grimes]

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> > Alternatively making FreeBSD multiboot compliant would rock . This would
> > allow FreeBSD to natively boot from ipxe or syslinux derivates; thus
> > allowing you to boot a working FreeBSD install via a kernel and mfsroot
> > image off a web server .
> >
> 
> There appears to already be a multiboot.c in the bootloader. I've been told
> by others in the past it just works...

I run a test bed that PXE boots FreeBSD {10,11,12}{i386,amd64} using
FreeBSD 11.1 as the service provider.  I have a specially saved version
of /boot/pxeboot that gets broken and fixed several times over that
evolution that i have to place in each server image to get it working,
I do not know if ^head's /boot/pxeboot works for me or not, I'll try
it again soon.

This system uses stock FreeBSD + isc-dhcp + iPXE.  Everything else is pretty
much untouched.

This same environment via syslinux add ons to iPXE supports running
most .iso images as a netbooted payload, known working are ESXi 5.5,
and 6.5, as I use those frequently.

Michael Dexter is using similiar tooling to netboot via PXE bhyve
instances running as far back as the FreeBSD 5, though this requires
some modifications of things in those releases do to non working
code.

So in final summary, Warner is right "it just works", though there
are a few pointy sticks to get hung up on.

-- 
Rod Grimes                                                 rgrimes at freebsd.org