Where is the install option?
-
Hi,
I just downloaded the pfSense-LiveCD-2.0.2-RELEASE-i386.iso.gz. I burnt the iso to a DVD and have booted it up on the box I intend to install pfSense on. The "Welcome to pfSense!" prompt comes up. There are 8 options listed, the first 6 start with "Boot…", option 7 is to "Escape to the loader prompt", and option 8 is to "Reboot".
Where is the install option?
The Version page says that the LiveCD version also has a install option but I do not see it.
Did I download the wrong iso?
Thanks,
-Andres
-
Let it boot into LiveCD mode (it's default, you shouldn't need to choose anything at the prompt you describe) and watch the text that scrolls by. Not long after it starts booting you should see a line similar to "Press I now to invoke install mode" then you just hit the I key. Alternatively if you miss the "press I.." prompt, I believe on the console once the LiveCD is booted there is an "install to hard disk" option.
-
Thank you for your response.
I went ahead and booted the default, then went through the interface configuration as instructed. As you said, it finally gave me the option to install to the hard drive.
When I went into the install procedure, it errored out saying that it could not find a suitable boot drive (IDE or SCSI) to install to. This box I am installing to has an SSD.
Is there a different install procedure to install to a SSD drive?
-Andres
-
I remember reading something about concerns with SSDs relating to wear leveling and such but aside from those, an SSD should show up no differently than a standard drive. It's possible the SATA controller doesn't have a supported driver in the installer. You could try loading in that driver, but my suggestion would be looking in the BIOS and change the SATA controller's operation mode from RAID/AHCI to IDE. It'll slow things down but this isn't a desktop where drive performance is really critical.
-
JoelC707,
Thank you so much for your help. After I changed the BIOS setting as suggested, fpSense installed just fine and everything appears to be working great.
Now I just need to come up to speed on all of the various configuration options available. :-)
-Andres
-
I remember reading something about concerns with SSDs relating to wear leveling and such but aside from those, an SSD should show up no differently than a standard drive. It's possible the SATA controller doesn't have a supported driver in the installer. You could try loading in that driver, but my suggestion would be looking in the BIOS and change the SATA controller's operation mode from RAID/AHCI to IDE. It'll slow things down but this isn't a desktop where drive performance is really critical.
This may have been a problem with earlier drives not as capable of wear leveling and earlier smaller drives. Now, in the days where finding a commodity SSD smaller than 32GB, it's generally less of a problem unless you're filling the drive with something or another that makes the wear leveling less effective.
At the same time, I would select a drive (/manufacturer) with a good track record for drives and their firmware.
-
Yeah, I expect it had to do with TRIM support (not sure if TRIM is yet supported in the FreeBSD version being used), but with a large enough SSD to have spare/slack space this would likely be less of an issue. And the point about a reliable manufacturer/brand/model is very good. This isn't something that NEEDS the high speeds an SSD can provide but it does need the reliability potential.