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    Install from USB drive (working)

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Problems Installing or Upgrading pfSense Software
    47 Posts 19 Posters 140.3k Views
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    • N Offline
      nemesisUK
      last edited by

      Hi all,

      Just wanted to let you know that it is possible to install with usb drive.

      What i did is used the image jim-p made
      (http://cvs.pfsense.org/~jimp/pfSense-1.2.3-usbinstall.img.gz)
      downloaded DD (http://www.chrysocome.net/dd)

      Extract the dd.exe file from the zip and put the usbinstall image in the same folder as where you extracted DD.
      Open up a command window and CD to the directory your dd.exe file and pfSense-1.2.3-usbinstall.img file are sitting.  Run this command:  "dd if=pfSense-1.2.3-usbinstall.img of=\.\g: bs=1k"

      Let it run (will take about 5 minutes before it returns to the command prompt.)

      This worked on 4 different usb drives i tested it on

      I thought i let you know how i got it to work as i spend 2 days searching for a solution and seen many poeple looking for a solution.

      Hope this helps
      NemesisUK

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      • F Offline
        flashman
        last edited by

        Thanks for the info. Do you have a link to the pfSense-1.2.3-usbinstall.img.gz file? I've searched for it, but I can't seem to find it.

        Thanks,
        Jason

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        • jimpJ Offline
          jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
          last edited by

          Give it a try:

          http://cvs.pfsense.org/~jimp/pfSense-1.2.3-usbinstall.img.gz

          Let me know if there are any issues.

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          • N Offline
            nemesisUK
            last edited by

            Your welcome Flashman hope it will work for you just as good as it did for me.

            Jimp I didnt put a link to your file as i wasnt sure if you wanted this.

            Thanks

            Nem

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            • jimpJ Offline
              jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
              last edited by

              @nemesisUK:

              Jimp I didnt put a link to your file as i wasnt sure if you wanted this.

              I moved it to a more public location :)

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              • F Offline
                flashman
                last edited by

                That worked perfectly. You should sticky this post.

                Jason

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                • N Offline
                  nemesisUK
                  last edited by

                  Great it worked for you as well Flashman.

                  Big thanks to Jimp though as he made the usb version i only added the howto to write to the usb stick :)

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                  • jimpJ Offline
                    jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                    last edited by

                    @nemesisUK:

                    Big thanks to Jimp though as he made the usb version i only added the howto to write to the usb stick :)

                    Edit your first post to include the url and a shout-out to me, and I'll sticky the thread. :-)

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                    • jimpJ Offline
                      jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                      last edited by

                      Another note: Instead of DD, you could also have used physdiskwrite/physgui, or Image Writer for Windows.

                      Jim

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                      • R Offline
                        rolmn
                        last edited by

                        I'm not able to decompress the .gz file. Is there anyting wrong with it ?

                        edit :
                        When using wget it was ok…....

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                        • jimpJ Offline
                          jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                          last edited by

                          @rolmn:

                          I'm not able to decompress the .gz file. Is there anyting wrong with it ?

                          edit :
                          When using wget it was ok…....

                          Some browsers (like Opera, and I think Safari on a Mac) will decompress the file as it downloads, but not rename it. Using wget/fetch is usually safer.

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                          • E Offline
                            Efonnes
                            last edited by

                            In many cases you can get around that by right-clicking the link and selecting "save link as" or "save target as" (whatever the browser has) instead of just opening the link normally.

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                            • Q Offline
                              qmax
                              last edited by

                              @nemesisUK:

                              Run this command:  "dd if=pfSense-1.2.3-usbinstall.img of=\.*g:* bs=1k"

                              where g: is the drive of the usb stick.

                              Exelent post is working

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                              • W Offline
                                w00t
                                last edited by

                                Im also havin some problem with decompressing this. Could anyone decompress and reupload as .rar please?

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                                • jimpJ Offline
                                  jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                                  last edited by

                                  Every other file distributed by pfSense is gzip compressed. It shouldn't be any harder to decompress than any other image.

                                  Remember: Upvote with the 👍 button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

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                                  • W Offline
                                    w00t
                                    last edited by

                                    @jimp:

                                    Every other file distributed by pfSense is gzip compressed. It shouldn't be any harder to decompress than any other image.

                                    @Efonne:

                                    In many cases you can get around that by right-clicking the link and selecting "save link as" or "save target as" (whatever the browser has) instead of just opening the link normally.

                                    Solved by doin this. :) totally missed that comment.

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                                    • M Offline
                                      mehov
                                      last edited by

                                      hey guys i tried both dd and windiskimager, they write the image to the pendrive but at the moment to boot from it doesnt work :(…..any tips? thx

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                                      • jimpJ Offline
                                        jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                                        last edited by

                                        Did you try downloading the link in a different browser? Or right clicking the link and choosing "Save Link As"?

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                                        • M Offline
                                          mehov
                                          last edited by

                                          yes i did that way too,i tried another pen too,no luck,when dd or diskimager finish i try to access to the pendrive and  i say that isnt formated,is that normal?

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                                          • jimpJ Offline
                                            jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                                            last edited by

                                            That is normal. Windows won't see the partition, because Windows doesn't understand FreeBSD's file system (ufs2)

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