These sorts of problems can be really difficult to solve. It could be fault with the power supply, perhaps dropping voltage when it heats up.

Many thanks.
It works.

matteo

Thanks to all your help I'm now an "expert" at installing pfSense 2.1.

In short, I can get a good basic working system.

I did get several hangs on reboot while trying to set up a WLAN. Now I've got about 10 config backups after taking wallabybob's advice and quite a few of them have been used. Had to reimage a few times I got so stuck. But now I'm on a good config and it all seems good.

I followed this method to set a WLAN on my Atheros AR9280. Config looks like this:

I could also "sort of" get it working in 802.11ng mode, except when I do it reverts to channel 1 (no matter what I set it to in the webGUI) and I run out of patience waiting for my Windows box to connect again. That is, pfSense boots fine and I can mess around on its shell and ifconfig tells me that the WLAN is in 802.11ng mode, but I can't connect via the LAN with my Windows box (and I didn't try with a wifi device). Rebooted pfSense, Windows, reconnected cables, after about 10 minutes of stuffing around I gave up. So I'll stick with 802.11g for now (good enough for my needs) and revisit the topic later on.

802.11n isn't an option on the drop-down box in the webGUI, just ng (amongst others).

I added these lines to loader.conf.local, not sure if I need them:

I'm happy to post any specifics if you want to know more about my config.

Thanks again.

Figured it out.

The output from both was identical.
Turns out the cable modedm needed to be power cycled.  Once i did that traffic started flowing. Thanks for pointing me in the proper direction.

Hi,

Thanks for the replies.

I'm using a Netgate FW-7535 with a hard drive instead of the compact flash. The serial terminal console port is ok. I can finish the configuration by connecting a monitor and keyboard but this is a big pain to do… Once I can access the GUI I can then enable the console port via the serial terminal config in the advanced config and access is returned. It looks like the serial terminal is being disabled during the install and after the reboot locks you out.

I haven't tried the embedded kernel. I have been using the SMP kernel. Would this make a difference since it looks as though the install is disabling the serial terminal?

Thanks,
Paul

@Ns7:

the driver does not find AR 8151.

Please post the pfSense build ID (from the Version field of the home page of your pfSense box) and the output of the pfSense shell commands:```
dmesg ; pciconf -l

Thanks for your answers
It's clear for me now)

One way (wich may/may not be acceptable) is to build a virtualization host with support for your nics and then put the Pfsense box as a VM on that server.

The problem is you can't have an alias name that's the same as an interface name. You had both an interface "DMZ" and an alias "DMZ" and can't have both. Input validation prevents that from happening on 2.x versions, but there was no such restriction on old versions.

Yes, it can run live just like the CD.

It is the CD. Just in a memstick format.

@ssm14293:

I have downloaded pfsense

Which pfSense build? (The name of the file you downloaded will provide that).

@ssm14293:

installed it and and set up my WAN interface, but it never asked me for LAN interface.

Perhaps you have only one interface recognised by pfSense. (A pfSense 2.1 build will support more interfaces than a 2.0.x build.)

@ssm14293:

The WAN interface is not getting any ip from DHCP.

What is the WAN interface connected to? Perhaps pfSense needs to talk PPPoE to that device! Perhaps the physical connection is broken. Perhaps …

Please post the output of pfSense shell commands```
/etc/rc.banner
ifconfig

Since you don't seem to have network access to the box you probably can't capture the output in a browser window or terminal window. If you can't, please post photos of the monitor showing the appropriate command and system response, one command per photo. JPEG files can be attached to a post by clicking on the Additional Options below the editing window for the post.

You really couldn't find any 2GB or 4GB cards? They are easily available here in the UK.

By not using one of the images you are not getting any of the benefits of nanobsd.

Steve

You don't want the ISO (LiveCD)

You want one of the embedded installs - an .img

Specifically, for a 4G card:

pfSense-2.0.2-RELEASE-4g-amd64-nanobsd.img.gz

<edit>or pfSense-2.0.2-RELEASE-4g-amd64-nanobsd_vga.img.gz if you prefer a screen to a serial port for 30 seconds worth of setup.

http://www.pfsense.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=43&Itemid=44</edit>

Did you burn the file pfSense-LiveCD-2.0.2-RELEASE-amd64.iso.gz to the CD (wrong) or did you gunzip that file first then burn it as a disk image (not a file) to the CD?

Well its unfortunate that I did not get any suggestions on this thread. I am posting this for closure of this threads purposes.
What I ended up doing is used another mini pc which was intel Atom based, pfsense 2.0.2 installation was fine as intended, setting up vlans was a bit of challenge(because of my lack of networking knowledge). At the end with a friends suggestion, I was able to create vlans and use them with singl NIC settings. I used netgear GS108e switch.

Thanks for you help pfSense 2.1 solved the problems :)

I have VLAN isolated VAP's working in Atheros DD-WRT. Never could get them working in Broadcom DD-WRT. I strongly recommend just buying an AP made for this. Right now, I'm recommending the EnGenius EAP-600.