Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    Install from USB drive (working)

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Problems Installing or Upgrading pfSense Software
    47 Posts 19 Posters 140.0k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • F
      flashman
      last edited by

      That worked perfectly. You should sticky this post.

      Jason

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • N
        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 :)

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • jimpJ
          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. :-)

          Remember: Upvote with the ๐Ÿ‘ button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

          Need help fast? Netgate Global Support!

          Do not Chat/PM for help!

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • jimpJ
            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

            Remember: Upvote with the ๐Ÿ‘ button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

            Need help fast? Netgate Global Support!

            Do not Chat/PM for help!

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • R
              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 okโ€ฆ....

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • jimpJ
                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 okโ€ฆ....

                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.

                Remember: Upvote with the ๐Ÿ‘ button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

                Need help fast? Netgate Global Support!

                Do not Chat/PM for help!

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • E
                  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.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • Q
                    qmax
                    last edited by

                    @nemesisUK:

                    Run this command: ย "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

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • W
                      w00t
                      last edited by

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

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • jimpJ
                        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 ๐Ÿ‘ button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

                        Need help fast? Netgate Global Support!

                        Do not Chat/PM for help!

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • W
                          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.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • M
                            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 :(โ€ฆ..any tips? thx

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • jimpJ
                              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"?

                              Remember: Upvote with the ๐Ÿ‘ button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

                              Need help fast? Netgate Global Support!

                              Do not Chat/PM for help!

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • M
                                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 andย  i say that isnt formated,is that normal?

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • jimpJ
                                  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)

                                  Remember: Upvote with the ๐Ÿ‘ button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

                                  Need help fast? Netgate Global Support!

                                  Do not Chat/PM for help!

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • M
                                    mehov
                                    last edited by

                                    oh yeah,my bad,but i cant boot from the pen yet :(

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • jimpJ
                                      jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                                      last edited by

                                      It may be your BIOS. I have encountered many systems over the years that would either not boot from USB, or would only do so unreliably.

                                      Remember: Upvote with the ๐Ÿ‘ button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

                                      Need help fast? Netgate Global Support!

                                      Do not Chat/PM for help!

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • M
                                        mehov
                                        last edited by

                                        well i tried other SO and the boot from the USB worksโ€ฆ.

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • O
                                          oilop9000
                                          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.

                                          I have seen pfSense-memstick-2.0-BETA4-20101121-1828.img.gz from snapshot repo, please confirm how can be pfsense 2 installed from usb stick please.

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • jimpJ
                                            jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                                            last edited by

                                            decompress the file, and write it to a USB stick, same as any other.

                                            Remember: Upvote with the ๐Ÿ‘ button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

                                            Need help fast? Netgate Global Support!

                                            Do not Chat/PM for help!

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • First post
                                              Last post
                                            Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.