Write to a USB drive from the URL of a compressed disc image

Use the output from the third command to determine which number – not 99 – must be set in the fourth command.

1. tcsh
2. su -
3. geom disk list
4. setenv dadevicenumber 99
5. setenv remotesumfile https://download.freebsd.org/releases/ISO-IMAGES/14.1/CHECKSUM.SHA512-FreeBSD-14.1-RELEASE-amd64
6. setenv localsumfile ./CHECKSUM.SHA512-FreeBSD-14.1-RELEASE-amd64
7. setenv remoteimage https://download.freebsd.org/releases/ISO-IMAGES/14.1/FreeBSD-14.1-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso.xz
8. setenv localimage ./FreeBSD-14.1-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso.xz
9. cd /tmp && fetch $remotesumfile && fetch -v $remoteimage -o $localimage && setenv image512 `openssl sha512 $localimage | cut -w -f2` ; grep $image512 $localsumfile && xzcat $localimage | dd bs=1m status=progress of=/dev/da$dadevicenumber
10. exit
11. exit

Hint:

• triple-click to select a paragraph.

The example above uses the ⋯dvd1.iso.xz file (compressed DVD image) for FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE on AMD64, which:

• does not require a DVD
• includes packages for popular software such as KDE Plasma, SDDM, and Mozilla Firefox.

More images at https://download.freebsd.org/, although please note that README.TXT files are outdated.

Manual pages:

• cut(1)
• dd(1)
• fetch(1)
• openssl(1)
• xz(1)

Note:

% strings /usr/bin/xzcat | grep terminal
Compressed data cannot be written to a terminal
Compressed data cannot be read from a terminal
%