Booting pfSense from USB flash on a fit-PC - near success (detailed)

CliftonR

This evening, I downloaded one of the 1.2.3 snapshots, as the developers have been recommending to others, ran the ISO to image script I posted above, copied the image to flash, and had immediate success.

pfSense is now up and running on the fit-PC; no need to pull the box apart, no need for an actual CD-ROM anywhere in the process. At present, I'm running off the flash drive and having fun playing with the set-up; later I'll wipe out the Linux install and move the image onto the hard drive.

Creating a pfSense 1.2.3 Bootable USB Flash Drive Installer Image

The exact command line used to create the flash image on a FreeBSD system, using the shell script listed above, was:

sudo bin/fbsd-install-iso2img -p -L pfSense /data/isos/pfSense-1.2.3-20090307-1245.iso fSense-1.2.3-LiveFlash-Installer.img

Copy it to your flash drive with dd, according to the instructions the script gives you.

Then configure your fit-PC to boot off USB as described above, hook up video and keyboard (temporarily) and it should boot right into the 1.2.3 installer with no problems.

I'm incredibly impressed with the web interface and the capabilities. I've set it up for a bridging firewall on my statically allocated network, which took mere minutes, and I'm transposing all the ipf rules I had written on my old firewall into the pfSense web interface, and finding it easy going. It looks like I should be able to recreate all the old functionality I used to have running, with about 1/100th the effort.

GoldServe

Can someone with a freebsd machine make an image file so I can DD to a microdrive? I'm having an extremely difficult time using the ISO trying to install to the microdrive.

Thanks!

matrix200 · Current network "hardware" : Running 2.2RC in Virtualbox 4.2.16.

I join the petition :)
Also having issues installing full version on a microdrive for alix.
Would be great if one of the lucky ones who have the setup working could share their image.

timurx

Follow our guidelines on SecMachine.com to create a pfsense insteller on usb flash drive.
There are two guides:
The generic one: https://secmachine.com/wp/how-tos/construct-usb-installer-freebsd/
And the particular pfsense guideline: https://secmachine.com/wp/how-tos/pfsense-installation/construct-usb-installer/

the latter is part in the chain of our guide to install hardened pfSense

Booting your fit-pc off this installer on usb key you will be able to install pfSense on the final usb flash drive.

You do not need a freebsd box for the exercise, since the pfSense LiveCD will make any pc a freebsd box for that short time you need it (you are supposed to have an other pc box besides the fit one ;)). Though using a normal freebsd installation will be more comfortable as you can copy-paste the commands from the guide and avoid vi and csh.

Your comments are welcome.

djzort

this worked perfectly for me, i would really like to see this added to the wiki.

also an 'official' usb install image would be great.

i personally struggle to find a cd-r / cd-rw but i have otherwise useless <1gig usb's lying around which are great for the purpose of installing OS's

clyss

I join also the petition …
I wasn't able yet to create the img
Would be great if one of the lucky ones who have the setup working could share their image...
I can find space to put it if needed...
THANKS:)

dreamslacker

@GoldServe:

Can someone with a freebsd machine make an image file so I can DD to a microdrive? I'm having an extremely difficult time using the ISO trying to install to the microdrive.

Thanks!

If you're running Windows, try downloading and using Unetbootin.

clyss

Hello,
Dan just put on rapidshare a version made with this script…
you can download it on :
http://rapidshare.com/files/295724278/pfSense-1.2.3-RC1-LiveFlash-Installer.img.bz2
THANKS DAN :)

clyss

To reply to a private msg, the previous image WORK very well, including if you write it from WINDOWS (including Vista X64)
Just use PhysDiskWrite and not DD…
Thanks again DAN :)

mevans336

@dreamslacker:

@GoldServe:

Can someone with a freebsd machine make an image file so I can DD to a microdrive? I'm having an extremely difficult time using the ISO trying to install to the microdrive.

Thanks!

If you're running Windows, try downloading and using Unetbootin.

UNetbootin doesn't write the pfSense image properly, although it writes a generic FreeBSD 7 ISO just fine.

Cbyrne

Hey,

Im not trying to revive an old thread but I thought I would share on my success.

After spending about 12-14 hours trying to get my old toshiba 3505 laptop to boot to the pfsense image I finally had some luck. The laptop doesn't have a cd-rom drive or support usb cdrom drives or boot from usb. but it does support usb floppy drives. So if any of you find your self in this situation here is what I did. Keep in mind this was all done in Windows 7.

Use the PLoP bootmanager found here
http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html#runflp
create the floopy image.

This allows your computer to boot to a mini bootmanager that has usb drivers and supports usb booting if your computer doesn't.

Then use flashnul to write the image that Dan made and clyss linked http://rapidshare.com/files/295724278/pfSense-1.2.3-RC1-LiveFlash-Installer.img.bz2
The flashnul program worked while UNetbootin and PhysDiskWrite did not. flashnul found here http://shounen.ru/soft/flashnul/ or the English translated version here http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fshounen.ru%2Fsoft%2Fflashnul%2F&hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=ru&tl=en

Start the command prompt as an administrator (type cmd in the start menu search then when the icon appears right click and run as administrator)
Go to the directory where you extracted flashnul
flashnul -p this allows you to see your drives
example

D:\flashnuldir>flashnul -p

Avaible physical drives:
0       size = 1000204886016 (931 Gb)
1       size = 293462867968 (273 Gb)
2       size = -1 ( -not avaible- )
3       size = -1 ( -not avaible- )
4       size = 2031091712 (1937 Mb)

Avaible logical disks:
A:\
C:\
D:\
E:\
F:\
G:\
H:\
I:\
J:\

Press ENTER to exit.

Next enter the the parameters of the drive letter and where the image is at
flashnul [drive letter] -L [path to .img]
Ex. flashnul I: -L d:\flashnuldir\pfsense.img

my Example

D:\flashnuldir>flashnul I: -L d:\flashnuldir\pfSense-1.2.3-RC1-LiveFlash-Installer.img
GetFreeDiskSpaceEx() failed: Access is denied.

Disk I: (UNC name: \\.\I:)
------------------------------------------------------------[Drive geometry]--
Cylinders/heads/sectors  = 246/255/63
Bytes per sector         = 512
CHS size                 = 2023418880 (1929 Mb)
---------------------------------------------------------------[Device size]--
Device size              = 2031091712 (1937 Mb)
delta to near power of 2 = 116391936 (111 Mb), 5%
-----------------------------------------------[Adapter & Device properties]--
Bus type                 = (7) USB
Removable device         = Yes
Command Queue            = Unsupported
Device vendor            = Kingston
Device name              = DataTraveler 2.0
Revision                 = PMAP
Device serial            = ▼
--------------------------------------------------------------[Hotplug info]--
Device hotplug           = Yes
Media hotplug            = No

        Selected operation:      load file content
        Selected drive:          I:, 2031091712b (1937 Mb)

        THIS OPERATION IS DESTRUCTIVE!!!
        Type 'yes' to confirm operation. All other text will stop it.

        Really destroy data on drive I:?  :

make sure that's your flash drive you want! and enter "yes" then there will be some progress stats and then it will say if there were any errors if not than it should be good to go!

Hopefully this is useful to anyone in the future. I'm just hoping that my netgear gigabit PCMCIA nic is supported now.

Thanks again for the useful information above my post and Dan for the image.