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.
    • O
      oilop9000
      last edited by

      thanks jimp, sorry for the repeated post.

      regards

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • S
        SpankIt
        last edited by

        Got the image installed on my USB drive however the boot hangs at the following.

        GEOM: da0: geometry does not match the label (16h, 63s != 255h,63s)
        GEOM: da0: media size does not match the label.

        EDIT: Selected Option 3 to boot from usb device on startup and issue resolved.

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

          I've tried  gzip -d  then DD on the memstick 2.0.img, the 2.0 Nanobsd.img, as well as the usbinstall.img from farther up and I keep getting "no bootable partition on table." i've also tried multiple usb sticks with no luck… any suggestions?... I've never installed pfsense and trying to go with a usb drive to not have to buy a CDrom.... any help would be much appreciated.

          Here is the process I went through:

          **C:\MakeUSB>gzip pfSense-memstick-2.0-RC1-i386-20110226-1530.img -d

          C:\MakeUSB>dd if=pfSense-memstick-2.0-RC1-i386-20110226-1530.img of=\.\d: bs=1k

          rawwrite dd for windows version 0.5.
          Written by John Newbigin jn@it.swin.edu.auThis program is covered by the GPL.  See copying.txt for details
          253512+0 records in
          253512+0 records out/jn@it.swin.edu.au**

          -Tried it on machine and got the "no bootable partition on table"

          **C:\MakeUSB>gzip pfSense-1.2.3-RELEASE-2g-nanobsd.img -d

          C:\MakeUSB>gzip pfSense-2.0-RC1-512mb-i386-20110226-1633-nanobsd.img -d

          C:\MakeUSB>dd if=pfSense-2.0-RC1-512mb-i386-20110226-1633-nanobsd.img of=\.\d:
          bs=1k
          rawwrite dd for windows version 0.5.
          Written by John Newbigin jn@it.swin.edu.auThis program is covered by the GPL.  See copying.txt for details
          500472+0 records in
          500472+0 records out

          C:\MakeUSB>/jn@it.swin.edu.au**

          -Tried it on machine and got the "no bootable partition on table"

          same for usbinstall.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • J
            jdamnation
            last edited by

            I too have had some issues getting PF 2.x working from USB - with the dreaded 'GEOM: da0: geometry does not match the label' error after DD'ing the memstick image over.

            After trying many different types of USB stick / CF Card - nothing worked, even after selecting option '3' on the installer.

            However in the end I got it working, but there is still a small problem hopefully someone will know the answer to….

            To get this working, with the USB stick in the system, I booted using the LiveCD. Once booted, I then dropped to shell and did :

            dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/da0 bs=1M

            After a while, the USB was zero'd out. I then exited and selected the '99' option to install from hard disk.

            The install ran through, but after reboot (after removing the CD) I am again confronted by the install / setup screen. I manually select '3' and this time, PF boots up and works.

            So my question is - how do I basically bypass this setup screen and get the thing to boot up without having to press '3'?

            At the moment, the default option is to just boot up (default) from hard disk which ends horribly.

            I was also wondering if this installation would be in any way different from the memstick / nano images, was wondering about logging / writing to flash more as this would basically be the 'hard disk'  version?

            JD

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

              Read the note here about setting the boot_delay:

              http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Boot_Troubleshooting

              Remember: Upvote with the 👍 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
              • J
                jdamnation
                last edited by

                Brilliant - works like a charm now.

                Any ideas if installing to 'disk' from LiveCD is any different from the 'memstick' build?

                I'm mainly concerned about PF performing excessive writes to the Flash medium.

                I thought I read something somewhere that the nano / memstick builds were optimised for flash media - with most logging functions disabled as default because of this?

                JD

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

                  The nanobsd builds keep the file system read only, and even when they do switch to rw for various things, they keep the filesystem sync and noatime to minimize writes. The logs are kept in a RAM disk, they are not disabled.

                  The full install will frequently write to the disk, there is no way around that on the full install. If you are installing to any flash media, you really do want the NanoBSD variety.

                  Remember: Upvote with the 👍 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
                  • J
                    jdamnation
                    last edited by

                    Ugh - feared as much. I can't get any of the nano builds to work on this server - just get to the BTX loader version and then nothing….

                    The 'memstick' image does actually boot, however I get the disk geometry error - so no dice there either.

                    Any ideas why all nano builds refuse to boot, whereas memstick / liveCD disk installed ones do?

                    JD

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

                      NanoBSD builds output to serial console after the boot initializes. They're probably working fine, you're just not hooked up to a serial console with a null modem cable to see it. At the moment there aren't any NanoBSD builds with VGA happening on the snapshot builders.

                      Remember: Upvote with the 👍 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
                      • J
                        jdamnation
                        last edited by

                        Doh! Of course!

                        Might have twigged that as the USB activity light only flickered a few times and then did nothing - it had halted with the MOUNT FAILURE. Followed the instructions again to stick the boot delay in and now works great.

                        Thanks!

                        JD

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • R
                          robinr
                          last edited by

                          I have been struggling with pfsense for two days now… lol(?) anyways, how do i install it on the harddrive? I use this version pfSense-memstick-2.0-RC1-i386-20110226-1530.img.gz booting from usb.

                          When I choose 99 in the menu i get this message:
                          "An internal Lua error occurred while trying to run the script
                          /usr/local/share/dfuibe_lua/install/main.lua"

                          And a hell lot of other things.. how do i fix this? ;(

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

                            It should boot up and install just like the CD. Nothing special to it really.

                            Try a recent snapshot instead of the official RC1 image.

                            Remember: Upvote with the 👍 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
                              robinr
                              last edited by

                              @jimp:

                              It should boot up and install just like the CD. Nothing special to it really.

                              Try a recent snapshot instead of the official RC1 image.

                              Where do I find those?
                              Actually, i have tried EVERY single img and iso file… cant get pfsense to boot.. with the img versions. But i can boot up with the usbstick 1.2.3 version but then i get this LUA error when trying to install it on my harddrive.

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

                                Start a new thread with a lot more detail about what exactly isn't working and any error messages you get or behaviors you see. It's impossible to speculate about causes with so little detail.

                                Snapshots can be found at http://snapshots.pfsense.org/

                                Remember: Upvote with the 👍 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
                                • S
                                  SpooK
                                  last edited by

                                  Instead of using DD, on Windows, I've found Alexander Beug's USB Image Tool to be much quicker and intuitive.

                                  I've used it to install pfSense via a 2GB SanDisk Cruzer with no issues.

                                  USB Image Tool Download Page

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • L
                                    loziopigna
                                    last edited by

                                    Hi all.

                                    I have try to install pfSense-1.2.3-usbinstall.img.gz on usb key using dd and USB Image Tool but when start pc whith usb key recived error:

                                    Boot Error

                                    Any suggestions?

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • D
                                      DWAyotte
                                      last edited by

                                      @SpooK:

                                      Instead of using DD, on Windows, I've found Alexander Beug's USB Image Tool to be much quicker and intuitive.

                                      I've used it to install pfSense via a 2GB SanDisk Cruzer with no issues.

                                      USB Image Tool Download Page

                                      Wow! What a great share. This method blows burning ISO to CD or using DD right out of the water. It literally took me 2 minutes from start to finish and I was pushing I to install pfSense from USB.  ;D

                                      Thanks x1000 for your post.

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • J
                                        jmcentire
                                        last edited by

                                        FYI - the link in the first post isn't working anymore, however I was able to find the image here:
                                        http://files.pfsense.org/jimp/pfSense-1.2.3-usbinstall.img.gz

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • D
                                          dszp
                                          last edited by

                                          @w00t:

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

                                          I would recommend http://www.7-zip.org/ for decompressing, I've used it without any issues many times.

                                          David Szpunar

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • F
                                            fuziko
                                            last edited by

                                            Hi all !
                                            @loziopigna:

                                            Hi all.

                                            I have try to install pfSense-1.2.3-usbinstall.img.gz on usb key using dd and USB Image Tool but when start pc whith usb key recived error:

                                            Boot Error

                                            Any suggestions?

                                            Try to install PFsence from USB-disk, but got same as above error, can you give some advices ?

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