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    New computer with PFSense?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
    26 Posts 7 Posters 5.3k Views
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    • stephenw10S
      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
      last edited by

      That is a new question!  ;)

      It may be setup to dual boot pfSense and some other OS (like Windows, Ubuntu etc) but that is not normally the case. By default pfSense removes everything else when it's installed. Do you see a boot loader menu before pfSense starts booting? It will be plain white text on a black background.

      Steve

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      • K
        kejianshi
        last edited by

        I'm getting this feeling like someone grabbed something in the dark of night in a strange house not understanding what they had.

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        • stephenw10S
          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
          last edited by

          A bit harsh perhaps?  ;)

          Steve

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          • K
            kejianshi
            last edited by

            Perhaps I should have added:

            …and sold it on ebay to an unsuspecting customer.

            Anyway - I'd put Mint on it with a simple MATE interface.  Its free and works beautifully on older hardware.
            OR - Perhaps even better...  Use it for pfsense.

            Pfsense is a very nice firewall/router.  Its a good chance to get acquainted with it.

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            • N
              N00b
              last edited by

              @bones123:

              You bought a used computer that boots to pfsense and don't know how to load an OS cause you want it to be used as a PC correct?  :P

              You going to need an OS install disc of your choice which will be Windows XP, 7.. Or even Ubuntu. Boot to the CD and follow the instructions.  You will definitely need an installation disc,  look around on the computer does it have a Microsoft sticker on it with the product keys?  Cause you'll need that too if you going to run windows or you could buy a fresh copy.

              Why would someone sell a PC that still has a firewall installation on it?  Seems silly to me,  they could have at least told you what you were buying.

              So all I need to do is Have another OS install disk (With the product key) and stick it in the disk tray during start-up? Or do I have to press a certain key at start-up to keep it from going into the PFSense menu? Thank you all for the help.

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              • K
                kejianshi
                last edited by

                Often, just need to get an OS disk, drop in the DVD tray and reboot.

                IF it doesn't boot from CD, might need to go into bios, usually either delete or f2 during boot, and change and save bios setting to boot from cd.

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                • N
                  N00b
                  last edited by

                  Verifying DMI Pool Data…...........
                  Boot from CD:

                  F1 FreeBDG

                  F1
                  /

                  Then alijndvciajncajnfdjdf And i bunch of other stuff I cant understand. Then:

                  Welcome to PFSense!  >:(

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                  • T
                    timthetortoise
                    last edited by

                    The boot menu is usually between F9-F12. Press each one individually over and over at startup to see if you can get a boot menu to show up. Put in your preferred OS disk, and boot from CD.

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                    • K
                      kejianshi
                      last edited by

                      The funny thing is for most people on this forum that would be a good thing.  :P

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                      • K
                        kathampy
                        last edited by

                        He probably doesn't have email notifications enabled either.

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                        • K
                          kejianshi
                          last edited by

                          You think?

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                          • B
                            bones123
                            last edited by

                            @kejianshi:

                            The funny thing is for most people on this forum that would be a good thing.  :P

                            Lol that is funny

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                            • K
                              kejianshi
                              last edited by

                              What kind of disk did you have in the CD tray when you booted up?

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                              • B
                                bones123
                                last edited by

                                @N00b:

                                Verifying DMI Pool Data…...........
                                Boot from CD:
                                Uo
                                F1 FreeBDG

                                F1
                                /

                                Then alijndvciajncajnfdjdf And i bunch of other stuff I cant understand. Then:

                                Welcome to PFSense!  >:(

                                I wouldn't even bother with that computer if I was you,  one of pfsense's major advantages is that it can run on old outdated hardware.  I'm not going to waste any more time till you post exactly what you got.  I want manufacture, model, and if its a dell the service tag number so we can see what hardware is installed in it.

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                                • K
                                  kejianshi
                                  last edited by

                                  It would be cool if we could get that angry face added to the end of the boot sequence of pfsense.  Its cute.

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                                  • N
                                    N00b
                                    last edited by

                                    @bones123:

                                    @N00b:

                                    Verifying DMI Pool Data…...........
                                    Boot from CD:
                                    Uo
                                    F1 FreeBDG

                                    F1
                                    /

                                    Then alijndvciajncajnfdjdf And i bunch of other stuff I cant understand. Then:

                                    Welcome to PFSense!  >:(

                                    I wouldn't even bother with that computer if I was you,  one of pfsense's major advantages is that it can run on old outdated hardware.  I'm not going to waste any more time till you post exactly what you got.  I want manufacture, model, and if its a dell the service tag number so we can see what hardware is installed in it.

                                    emachines- Model No.ET1161-03
                                    Origanally had Windows Vista Home Premium with SP1
                                    AMD Athlon X2 4400 Processor
                                    Nividia GeForce 6150 SE
                                    Some High end disk tray thing
                                    320 GB Hard Drive
                                    3GB DDR2
                                    15-in-1 Memory Card Reader? (If that's even remotely relevent)

                                    Also burned a Windows Vista Home Premium Disk 32 bit and slapped that into the disk drive. Then went into the advanced Bios and set it so it read the disk first, then pressed some F-whatever key and also had the boot-up start with the disk in the disk tray. Here is the message I received: DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

                                    Anyone have a clue what I did wrong here?

                                    Thanks thus far.

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                                    • N
                                      N00b
                                      last edited by

                                      ALSO burned on a DVD+R Memorex disk holding 4.7 GB total memory. If that's any help as well.

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                                      • K
                                        kejianshi
                                        last edited by

                                        If you are very new to this kind of stuff, and you want a cheap and fast computer that is very secure, try linux MINT with MATE desktop.  It will make good use of that computer and will run very well on its limited resources compared to windows.  And its free.

                                        I suspect you didn't set up the correct boot order in bios.

                                        I'd suspect that pressing the del key on boot gets you into bios.

                                        I'd bet that advanced bios is where you can select boot order (Which you should set to CD 1st and HDD 2nd)

                                        Then press the F10 key and save and reboot.

                                        (BTW - How to blow away pfsense and replace it with a Desktop OS isn't strictly speaking what people do here)

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                                        • N
                                          N00b
                                          last edited by

                                          @stephenw10:

                                          That is a new question!  ;)

                                          It may be setup to dual boot pfSense and some other OS (like Windows, Ubuntu etc) but that is not normally the case. By default pfSense removes everything else when it's installed. Do you see a boot loader menu before pfSense starts booting? It will be plain white text on a black background.

                                          Steve

                                          I do! But it automatically shifts to PFSense after 5 seconds I think and it doesn't look like anything OS related.

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                                          • N
                                            N00b
                                            last edited by

                                            @bones123:

                                            You bought a used computer that boots to pfsense and don't know how to load an OS cause you want it to be used as a PC correct?  :P

                                            You going to need an OS install disc of your choice which will be Windows XP, 7.. Or even Ubuntu. Boot to the CD and follow the instructions.  You will definitely need an installation disc,  look around on the computer does it have a Microsoft sticker on it with the product keys?  Cause you'll need that too if you going to run windows or you could buy a fresh copy.

                                            Why would someone sell a PC that still has a firewall installation on it?  Seems silly to me,  they could have at least told you what you were buying.

                                            I've also tried an Ubuntu Installation Disk, however, it was a CD+R and putting that in the disk drive yielded no results whereas putting the Windows

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