Packages are installed from the Internet, they are not included in the CD image. Click on System -> Packages then click on the "+" to the right of the package description to install the package.

I burned off the lastest snapshot and it has the option to install it via a installer rather than the 99 option. The installer worked and problem is solved!

@mathias: But even though the baud rate isn't set properly you should see some sort of output. Not always.

/32 is ok. What exactly are you trying to achive? screenshots of VIPs, interfaces and NAT please.

Looks like something that might be helped by selecting or deselecting 'packet mode' during setup, or possibly using an alternate boot loader such as grub.

lol…... wood for trees comes to mind. my blinkers were on well and truly there and i failed to spot that. reduced the dhcp range to 62 and away it went. think i got caught out by the way pfsense displays the available range 0-63. may have been better if it said 1-62. but, many thanks for your help as it was starting to do my head in! cheers.

@hugo: I would like to be able to boot my pfSense off my USB key, read in the configuration file, and then copy everything to RAM so that I can remove the USB key. Why? (If I had a bit more context I might be able to make a helpful comment.) @hugo: Obviously, I am not concerned about logging anything. Why not? "No logging" severely limits your ability to find out what went wrong when something goes wrong! If you are anticipating having nothing ever go wrong good luck to you!

Ok thx alot for the answer!

Well.  I couldn't find any definitive information on the net, and none was forthcoming here, so I set up the standard 1.2.3-RC1 installation as described above.  /tmp and /var are on RAM disks, so it looks like writes to the CF card are minimized, at least.  And, it appears I still have VGA, should that be needed.  At any rate, it's working well (< 10% CPU @ 12Mb sustained download; < 20% with three active VPN sessions + streaming video), so I can live with it as is.  Still interested in the specific differences between the embedded image and standard install w/embedded kernel. RH

thanks chaps, i'm now using the net with the PFsense box inplace.. good stuff.. I can tick that off the list of things to do now..

damn i feel stupid right now  ;D i forgot to check the BIOS-settings. PCI-Slots where OFF … i changed it to ON and it works like a charm infact im typeing this through my pfsense-firewall thanks all! :)

yep…. back to basics. i'm gonna strip it back down tommorrow and see what happens.

You weren't being rude. I didn't take it that way. I was just being silly. It helps pass the time…

Okay I found this: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/network-wireless.html But as my head is doing the bobb up and down thing from falling asleep at the keyboard I think I better get some shut eye.

Thank you Wallabybob It's OK for 1.2.3  but captive portal have some pb ? CP is not active correctly I will test with 1.2.3 I'll give you the result Thanks