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Bootable Live USB Stick:
FreeBSD, DOS &
Encrypted Data Partitions.
Operating system + sources + 1000 packages pre-installed + encrypted
data partition.
A tiny USB stick for your key ring, partitioned with FreeBSD with 1,000+
packages, ready to live boot or optionally install, +
encrypted personal data space, + DOS slice for exchanging
data.
- FreeBSD offers a free down-loadable 700M image, to be
written raw to a small stick with no partitions.
- The berklix stick has partitions.
- The berklix stick has 1000 packages built.
- The berklix stick has the berklix patches compiled
in.
- All binaries on the berklix stick are built locally on
berklix machines.
- Only for amd64, not for i386 & other CPUs that FreeBSD supports.
Applications:
- Integrated backup of OS, packages, tools &
data on a tiny stick.
- Much cheaper to bundle with new PC hardware,
than MonopolySoft ;-)
- Compatability tests in shops of FreeBSD inc. packages eg X11
etc without needing to install.
- Live demonstrations (& end shippable
product) of integrated packages on an OS: your own
company's &/or FreeBSD's add on
packages.
- Military Rugged: Solid state resilience,
vibration, G force & pressure resistant, ready to run
with packages pre installed. (Packages on a PC
normally need to install from a DVD needing clean air, or a
high speed net, to a hard disk not subject to a sensitive
hard disk (or SSD using more power than a stick
)).
- Recovering PCs with scrambled file systems that
fail to boot.
-
Secrecy & Counter
Espionage:
- Security applications (standard or your own) can
run from stick. (Some companies &
governments don't want secret data on hard disc even if
encrypted (a laptop is too big & easy to impound).
Some don't want risk of transient files on hard disk.
Some ban civil servants & employees travelling to
certain foreign countries with data on active computer
devices, &/or scrub active devices on return.
)
- Your OS, tools & data should be safer on a
Micro SD card (15 x 11 mm), you
keep close, in your ear ring/ cuff links/ tie clip/
watch strap while foreign officials grab your notebook
PC & remove it from sight.
This mini combi. stick on a key ring can avoid massive
recovery delays, & aborted recoveries, in many
circumstances, eg:
- Business laptop dies or stolen while travelling, &
no spare BSD PC ; Or
- The PCs / laptops / notebooks in your house/ flat/
apartment/ office/ hotel room get stolen; Or
- Lightning surge on overhead power cable fries
PCs, tools & data etc.
- Your PCs, tools & data removed by floods,
fire, earthquake, sink hole, mud slide, tsunami or
explosion (gas, or un-exploded bomb during
excavation
- An emergency rush to airport, not via work/home
to collect PC & data, & arrival in another country
with no laptop, tools & data.; Or
- PCs, tools & data at home or work get
impounded/ restrained by some government agency/ court
order/ bailiffs/ government inspectors/ police. (Debt,
divorce proceedings, unlimited liability firms, scene of
unrelated crime or investigation etc. You may be innocent
but it may take time to access your PCs &
data.
- Return to Home/ Office PCs, tools & data
disrupted (eg by riots or disasters (eg Bhopal/
Chernobyl/ Fukushima etc) or outbreaks of
communicable disease.
Many scenarios could be a time consuming recovery
nightmare:
- Surrounded by alien untrusted unfamiliar mostly
Microsoft PCs, probably insecure, possibly virused, perhaps
belonging to trading partners you'r visiting in a foreign
country, with no tools to access your BSD personal data,
(& no way you'd want to allow access.)
-
Finding a less clueless MS user, asking their help on
their PC to
- Download via ftp Not http, 650 M to 2.5 G of
CD/DVD/USB FreeBSD
image.
- Check the checksum (with what resident MS tool ? In
what way ?!) Many MS people skip it.
- Write a CCD/DVD/USB image, (with what MS tool ? In
what way ?!)
Keeping it still bootable (often BSD media written by
MS people fails to remain bootable).
- Installing a generic FreeBSD (or using live generic
media without extras packages)
- Configuring ports &/or packages
- Restoring personal ~/.* options &
- Installing other media with your backup data (& was
that data safely encrypted ?
How long would it take - if you didn't give up till you flew
home ? How much business & time lost ?
Get a Berklix stick, ready to run ! Cheap insurance
against PC, OS & data loss! 
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Licences to manufacturers & wholesale vendors
available.
Retail sales to users we're not geared up for yet,
(but register your address now for a
promotional discount offer when we launch).
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Extra Features beyond just a simple FreeBSD image:
- The Berklix FreeBSD live stick was developed before the
FreeBSD.org live stick. The Berklix live stick offers more
functionality than the FreeBSD.Org downloadable image.
-
Versions
It's been tested for years, eg one /boot/kernel on a
test stick is dated: Dec 17 2013 with /etc/motd:
"FreeBSD 10.0-RC1 (GENERIC) #0: Tue Dec 17 15:50:21 CET
2013", (It's rescued & installed for author, &
also carries an encrypted data partition etc,
Public availability has been held up pending work to
automate quantity of image serial numbers (for
individual download rather than purchase pre-installed
on USB stick), & possibly individual encryption key
injection into generic images, this work may not be
done until demand volume indicates investing time is
worth while.
Newer versions available on request, it moves, eg at
12 Feb 2016, one build host machine had partitions for
all of 8.4-RELEASE, 9.3-RELEASE, 10.2-RELEASE,
11.0-CURRENT, though stick was not generated for all.
)
-
Allows a PC to choose which OS to boot, the same way
Fdisk specifies on a hard disk. MBR still the
simplest common denominator, most reliable way of
ensuring multi OS data access, avoiding all the
weirdness of MS secondary partitions, & Linux lilo,
& the new FreeBSD
GPT methods etc.
dmesg extract for da0:
14786MB (30283008 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T
1885C)
quirks=0x3<NO_SYNC_CACHE,NO_6_BYTE>
Device names in /dev/ : da0 da0s1 da0s2 da0s2a da0s3
da0s3.bde da0s4
fdisk da0 output
df extract :
Filesystem |
Size |
Used |
Avail |
Capacity |
Mounted on |
/devusb/platinum.bde |
2.5G |
2.3G |
28M |
99% |
/media/platinum.ufs |
/devusb/platinum.dos |
4.3G |
4.3G |
53M |
99% |
/media/platinum.dos |
/devusb/platinum.os |
8.3G |
7.8G |
516M |
94% |
/media/platinum.os |
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-
Master Partition
- To allow import/export of data with MS & Linux
etc associates.
- Partition #1 to increase the chance MS OS &/or
users do not have a crisis ;-)
-
Includes a deletable README.TXT offering a reward for
finders, our contact info, & your customer
number.
Useful if your tiny USB
stick is on your key ring: Finder will not see your
address for where to try the keys on your door, but
finder can contact us, & we will reply with the
contact info of your local friend you specified, so
finder can contact your friend for a reward, (&
you will tell your friend to pay a reward for you
but Not to divulge your address to finder in case
finder made a copy of our keys).
- Extra Data
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- Can boot & run from USB stick.
- Can also optionally install to hard disk.
- Release: Currently (@ 2013-12-23) 10.0-RC(Release
Candidate)2, that will progress to 10-0-RELEASE
etc
- CPU: Currently (@ 2013-12-23) AMD64, not currently
for i386 (ie *86 for 686 based on 586 default) maybe
later, Purchase Enquiries
Welcome if interested.
- Over 1,000 pre built packages pre installed,
including X windows, Firefox etc.
Here's a snapshot from 'pkg info',
(shipped product may vary slightly)
- Includes /usr/src & /usr/doc & /usr/ports/
framework to build Tens
Of Thousands of ported packages
- All Berklix
fixes & enhancements pre applied to
binaries.
- Generic FreeBSD sources too, so
you can revert from Berklix fixes with src/ make world
& /usr/ports/
makes.
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F3: A
FreeBSD GBDE encrypted Master Partition with a
UFS/FFS file system
- Should keep your data safe if you lose the
stick.
- Several gig for your personal data backup to keep
on your key ring
- Extra Data
- The password: We set a standard password, We detail
how you can easily change that to your own, The order
form allows you to specify your own
password
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F4: A tiny residual Master
Partition, Format May Vary
- Remnant sectors, Not cylinder aligned at end,
- May be a minute FS, or a small tar of encryption
keys etc.
-
A set of public & private encryption keys
generated by us for you, the public key we will
publish in a table for you, related to customer
number, rather like a free quasi certification
authority. Make sure:
- When you order your stick, give us all other
data you want related as we will not edit frozen
record later
- Delete your private key before you let anyone
copy your stick !
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- To avoid shipping 4.3 G of unused space in F1, + 2.5 G in F3 +
residual empty space in F2, we
usually pack in some anodine/ vanilla public data, such
as X11 /usr/ports//distfiles
etc or some ports/packages/ & berklix patch set
etc.
- Copy them to disk if you want, then delete them to
make space, data should also remain available on
internet later too if you need it.
- If we put up a generic image for download, we will
omit this optional data as it's easily available
elsewhere, & omitting it will reduce our compressed
images to speed your download.
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- Best not to do too many write cycles to sticks, as
this sort of media is more limited than hard disks.
Best if you install OS to disk, &/or applications
use ram or disk cache data.
- We provide scripts to reduce write wear on the USB
stick to mirror your encrypted partition to hard disk,
update it there using eg rdist6, then mirror it back to
usb stick in a single write with large blocking. Much
faster reduces stick write wear.
- Use of the script is optional, you can of course
also access the sticks direct, eg for minor write
updates.
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Optional Extras
-
TO MERGE:
- New media at cost price,
- purchased by us on Your behalf, no warranty with
us, no liability on us.
- We're Not in business of buying or selling media
for profit, only computer services &
consultancy.
- If you prefer to post us blank media, that is
acceptable, if you've tested it & we've agreed to
the job.
- Conrad is merely a local shop convenient to
author to buy media, author & Berklix have no
special relationship with Conrad.
- If you dont read German, for guide text to
similar media in English, type "USB Stick" to Conrad's
English subsidiary
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- We pass media on to you at same price we purchase, we
only charge for customising the data image for the
media.
-
Download For those people who
may have difficulties receiving media in the post, we
offer a keyed Internet download service. Of interest to
eg:
- Business who want to bulk licence our stick, but
who also don't want the hassle of themselves
distributing them to their colleagues & or
customers
- Purchasers in countries with awkward/ slow postal
service delivery, or where collection rather delivery
is needed eg outback of Australia & parts of
rural America etc,
- Those with [expensive] customs/import
authorities, that sometimes don't even declare
receipt to recipient, & wait for recipient to
visit them & pay to collect.
- Those on islands & eg polar research stations
rarely visited by ships, who have satellite
download,
We will split the download image into chunks, &
also provide chunk checksums, to avoid worry of aborted
ftp's restarting at the beginning (as eg while FreeBSD
ftp offers reget, some other ftp clients
do not). Neither our servers nor your clients will be
burdened by refetches of whole gigabyte images if your
FTP fails. SFTP: will not be provided to serve the
image. It would waste server & client CPU. HTTP:
will probably not be provided. Servers dont want to be
sucked dry by zombie mirror scripts (eg FreeBSD.ORG
host admins complained of bad experiences with load
from CTM images being mirrored prior to 2016).
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Our Media Is Standard From Shops,
but VERY SMALL good for a key ring !
- We also provide commercial consultancy
from our bases in Munich & Aachen Germany, &
Tunbridge Wells UK & FreeBSD consultants
world wide also offer consultancy.
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We can bundle in extra at cost price (ie price we buy at in
shop) (only if you tell us when ordering the stick), a nano
sized Wireless LAN Stick (protrudes about 5mm from
laptop/notebook). Why might you want that ? It's seriously
Small ! Author has done tests with it & the urtwn driver supports it,
(& FreeBSD doesn't
support every last wireless chip internally built into
every laptop ie perhaps not yours?.
Or skip it, (saves us buying it for you & adding to
price, so we're happy if you Don't want it  )
You can also order one yourself later direct from
shop where we buy, not from us. Technical & shop
details. If you order an image from us & not a
stick, we will not be posting anything, so if you want a
WLAN stuck, order it yourself direct from a shop.
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- We do Not provide a free help desk if you get stuck.
Our time costs money.
-
If you want free help:
- If you wish, You can bundle in some hours of pre paid
consultancy at discount, which expires automatically after
some time (a sort of insurance).
- Or later purchase full price consultancy only if you
need it.
- For consultancy purchasers, we offer a special phone
number for hot line support, plus email support.
- Our support staff in Europe tend to start & finish
late, as if working in an office aboard some ship in mid
Atlantic,
(No that doesn't mean that American place in an American
timezone, quaintly named "Mid Atlantic" (perhaps for a
coastal latitude?), it means longitudinally middle of the
North Atlantic, between London & New York. ;-)
- Picture Global
times now
- Purchase Enquiries Welcome
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LICENSING AVAILABLE FOR PC &
MEDIA MANUFACTURERS, DISTRIBUTORS, DEALERS
Our stick data is aggregate copyright Julian H. Stacey &
Vector Systems Ltd,
2013. Copying the aggregate images for commercial purposes is
forbidden & would be illegal.
Commercial Licensing Enquiries
Welcome
(This stick would also be good to embed your application on
to, enquire about that too if interested).
A 2nd slightly different image may be placed for free
download, policy hasn't been decided yet, bandwidth
considerations would apply, it would probably have to be
available from us only via torrent, or via master-ftp to
other mirrors/ distributors to spread load, & also
compressed segments, no raw image.
Some Free Copying Allowed!
Free  |
Purchasers are permitted to make 2 free copies to give
to friends (purchasers can also add multiple additional
sticks to order, for little more than media purchase
price).
After you've bought a stick, or tried a friend's
stick, Feel free to make a couple of image copies to
give to friends of the purchaser (ie you) if you
qualify, If :
- You are a FreeBSD commiter or
-
You have contributed more than 15 fixes to FreeBSD
send-pr
(not just to a mail list or forum that does Not
count).
(You can easily see bug reports &
fixes submitted & still outstanding by your
email name, Example:
jhs_ERASE_@berklix.com> but that example does
not show patches since accepted & committed,
& patches submitted under other email
names.)
- If your name is in the credits of any of the
sources used to build included binaries, (include
CSRG, BSD386, Patch-kit-[36?], src/contrib/ &
Google Summer Of Code projects, Or
- If your name is credited as a contributor to a
package included on the stick, Or
- If you have
contributed sufficient last year to the FreeBSD
Foundation that you have met the level they
should specify on their web, to authorise you to make
a free copy of our stick.
- Authorisations for a free limited bulk run may be
available to certain User Groups etc. Enquire
Why are we generous ?
We use & promote BSD & FreeBSD etc, both for
personal & business interests. We need to earn on
stick image sales &/or related BSD etc consultancy,
but the stick is deliberately Not copy protected: you'r
placed on your honour to either pay us our small fee
for the stick image creation, or to have previously
contributed substantially to FreeBSD that the stick is
based on.
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- We're not geared up for individual sales yet.
- Mail us your email address to
qualify free for a 30% promotional discount when we launch).
(Discount applies to the stick image labour fee, not cost
price media & postage.)
Purchase Enquiries Welcome
-
If we decide not to distribute ourselves, & instead to
license another company to distribute for us, we'll give
them your email address, so you can be supplied ASAP.
(Our computer consultancy company (Vector Systems Ltd) is
not currently geared up for bulk retail. We are used to
development projects with only occasional billing on
substantial amounts, & have not arranged bulk retail
issues: (sales, post & packaging staffing, order forms,
databases, international foreign currency small payment
acceptance mechanisms (inc. safeguarding against high
minimum bank fees on transfer charges of small payments of
foreign currency) international & local sales taxes,
customs duties & package declaration forms issues
etc.
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Our prices are normaly in Euros (EUR) (unless where stated in
British Pounds Sterling (GBP)), we do Not normally quote in
(USD) dollars, (if you want a dollar price, we up our prices
to cover your risk, so better you take the risk & you get
a cheaper price). Foreign Exchange
Rates
Choose & add what you want to purchase:
Description |
Prices. Tentative. Subject to change without
notice, Excluding sales tax, VAT MWST TVA etc if
applicable) |
Basic Fee for Data Aggregation etc. |
Not Yet Determined. Labour Charge To be advised by
email on enquiry. Depends hom much time needed to
document, configure, update to latest releases, answer
questions etc. |
Further Customisation Fee. |
Optional Dependent on individual extra
requirements if any. |
Media |
See Above At cost price we buy
in at. |
Media - Extra Duplicates
(Sticks wear out faster than hard disks) |
Optional See Above At
Cost |
Media - Extra Duplicates - Copy
Charge |
Optional 15 EUR |
WLAN Stick |
Optional See Above At
Cost |
Packing time (If not standard image download) &
Posting
OR
Standard Image Download - Time
to set your net download key |
10 EUR |
Customised Image - Fee |
Optional Dependent on individual extra
requirements if any. |
Customised Image - Upload
Fee |
Optional 20 EUR |
Postage |
At Cost Price, un-registered, un-insured etc.
Optional Possibility: Per carrier eg UPS/
DHL/ FedEx as they cost considerably more, & we
don't have time to read their German language web
sites re. their requirements. If you have a customer
account number you can quote us, & we can give
them, so you pay the bill & you deal with all
formalities, Yes, we can use them.
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Consultancy Fee For FreeBSD Support, At A
Discount If Purchased In Advance, |
Optional |
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- You must pay both the fee your bank charges you to remit
(send) internationally & the amount our bank charges us
to receive your remittance.
- Payment to be made in advance.
- A `simple' US dollar cheque would FAIL ! US dollar
cheques cost a tangible bank fee to clear outside USA, money
we will Not pay, so you must add that.
- Pay by bank transfer to our corporate British bank
account.
- You must tell your bank to deduct both their senders
& our recipients bank charges from your account.
If you just pay your banks fees & not our banks fees we
will not action your order.
- Our Account details are Not yet here for reasons above.
- If you send a US dollar cheque, assume you will need to
pay us over GBP 10 Sterling extra to cover what our bank will
charge us. to cover banks extortionate fees for handling
international cheque clearing. (A decade back with another
bank author recalls a fee of perhaps GBP 8+, know what
current fee is, explore our new bank here:
hsbc
- (If the banks surprise us with reasonable charges, we
will toss in an extra stick or service so you don't lose
out).
- We have plans for more efficient banking later.
- We do not accept any credit or debit cards, No Credit
Cards No MasterCard Visa AmericanExpress DinersClub, PayPal
etc. We are a professional services company, geared for high
value low frequency occasional payments for consultancy, we
have no credit card mechanisms for lower value higher
frequency payments. pas@ may later advise on electronic
payments handling.
- We do not offer Cash On Delivery (= German
Nachnahme)
- We do not action orders until funds are cleared (not just
received) in the company account.
- Discounts may be available for certain charities.
- Purchase Enquiries Welcome
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We don't bundle in a margin to be forwarded as donations to
FreeBSD We leave you to do that direct yourself if you
want:
- It reduces work for us, &
- It leaves you certain they receive, & how
much.
- It can mean you Only pay the
Foundation, & you pay us Nothing, ! (Thus we
may help the FreeBSD Foundation
while minimising administration
)
- As FreeBSD Foundation
is a USA tax exempt body, & we're European commercial
consultants, if you'r a USA donor, it's a Lot less hassle
for you to donate direct & get yourself a USA tax break
receipt too.
- There's also tons of other useful software on
the stick, & lots more
packages download-able to run with FreeBSD & lots of other
people & organisations would be grateful if you
happened to be happy enough with their software that you
wanted to donate something to support their continued work
etc, browse their documentation & READMEs in the source
code & packages etc.
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This is based on free source softwareIf you don't know about Free software start
here.
We do Not own this aggregated software. We do not sell it to
you. We merely compiled it & aggregated it in the hope it
was in accordance withe licence & patents if they exist,
& would hopefully run most seems to run We disclaim all liability for copyright,
patents, usage licensing etc. You must read & comply with
license conditions of the various software you want to use.
Read legal & copyright etc notices in their
sources.
With so much software it's nigh impossible to get
all the licensing right: occasionally one encounters software
that allows source distribution, but not binary distribution.
If we supply any such binary by mistake, please do not use
it, & inform us, & recompile your own binary.
Thanks.
Media pictured/linked to is just for interest,
& may change at any time, Prices are just snapshots, not
maintained, not an offer of sale, just to give a rough idea.
We have no relationship with media vendors currently, (except
we've bought from one).
Other Legal etc aspects are covered in www.berklix.com/cd/ & www.berklix.com/vsl/legal/
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Free Translator Server
Sites
FAQ Questions & Answers / To Merge:
Do you sell the equivalent on DVD for migration to a USB
stick?
- Not currently.
- No advantage to us unless you the reader/purchase are a
magazine publisher (if so please contact us)
a DVD is much more attractive than a stick as cheaper media
for a magazine. Years back author mastered a DVD that DrDobbs
mag was looking to licence, but after DrDobbs decided they
didnt want to ship it with every magazine of an issue, just
on their web site, Berklix did not pursue that further. Nice
idea but not cost effective, too much work for probably
insufficient sales.
- A DVD brings the disadvantage some people would mess up
converting to USB stick.
- A USB stick fits easily in a standard size envelope for
international postal services, A DVD needs a reinforced
package, more work & expense for Berklix to write &
to pack, & perhaps more likely detained by recipient's
national border customs authority for import tax ?
Do we know Knoppix ? Yes, a
nice live image for Linux. It also has a wikipedia page
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